General  Dix  was  in  his  seventy-fifth  year,  but  was  fresh  and  vigorous
both  in  body  and  mind.  In  Indiana  the  leading  Democrat,  Thomas
A.  Hendricks,  accepted  the  gubernatorial  nomination  and  the  leader
ship  of  his  party,  against  General  Thomas  M.  Browne,  a  popular  Re
publican  and  a  strong  man  on  the  stump.  Pennsylvania  was  the
scene  of  a  peculiarly  bitter  and  angry  conflict.  General  Hartranft,
the  Republican  candidate  for  Governor,  had  been  Auditor-General
of  the  State,  and  his  administration  of  the  office  was  bitterly  assailed.
The  old  factional  differences  in  the  State  now  entered  into  the
antagonism,  and  he  was  strenuously  fought  by  an  element  of  his
own  party  under  the  inspiration  of  Colonel  Forney,  who,  while  pro
fessedly  supporting  Grant,  threw  all  the  force  of  the  Philadelphia
Press  into  the  warfare  against  Hartranft.  This  violent  opposition
encouraged  the  partisans  of  Mr.  Greeley  with  the  hope  that  they
might  secure  the  prestige  of  victory  over  the  Republicans  in  Penn
sylvania,  whose  October  verdicts  had  always  proved  an  unerring
index  to  Presidential  elections.  But  they  were  doomed  to  disap
pointment.  The  people  saw  that  the  charges  against  General  Har
tranft  were  not  only  unfounded  but  malicious,  and  he  was  chosen
Governor  by  more  than  35,000  majority.  Ohio  gave  a  Republican
majority  on  the  same  day  of  more  than  14,000 ;  and  though  Mr.
Hendricks  carried  Indiana  by  1,148,  this  narrow  margin  for  the
strongest  Democrat  in  the  State  was  accepted  as  confirming  the  sure
indications  in  the  other  States.
