An adverse result in Pennsylvania in October would certainly have involved the loss of Indiana in November, besides California and Oregon and the four votes in New Jersey.

The crisis of the national campaign was therefore reached in the triumph of Governor Curtin in the State election which preceded by four weeks the direct choice of President.
It would be difficult to compute the possible demoralization in the Republican ranks if Pennsylvania had been lost in October.
The division among the Democrats was a fruitful source of encouragement and strength to the Republicans, but would probably have disappeared with the positive assurance of success in the national struggle.
Whether in the end Douglas or Breckinridge would have been chosen President is matter of speculation, but it is certain that Mr.
Lincoln would have been defeated.

The October election of Pennsylvania was for so long a period an unerring index to the result of the contest for the Presidency, that a feeling almost akin to superstition was connected with it.

Whichever party carried it was sure, in the popular judgment, to elect the President.

It foretold the crushing defeat of John Quincy Adams in 1828; it heralded the disaster to Mr.Clay in 1844; it foredoomed General Cass in 1848.
The Republicans, having elected their candidate for governor in 1854 by a large majority, confidently expected to carry the State against Mr.Buchanan in 1856.