The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-12 00:00:00

(From the Times' Correspondent.)
PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 29.
The various political parties in the North are at
length drawn up in array for the Fall campaign,
have adopted their platforms and chosen their can-
didates, and the contest is beginning. It is almost
the first time in the history of the country that the
Administration has not been interested in the result,
and thrown its weight for one side or the other. It
matters little which party wins—President Johnson
will neither gain nor lose by a victory either way.
Both parties support him in some things and oppose
him in others, and it will be the last Americanpoli-
tical battle in which parties will be divided as they
have been during the war. In Maine, New York,
New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, the Democrats go
into the contest with the advantage on their side,
and have an excellent chance of carrying all the
elections, excepting that in Maine, where, however,
they will greatly reduce the Republican majority.
In Ohio the Republicans have the best of it, and
will certainly elect their Governor. In the nomi-
nations for office all over the country both sides
have shown their preference for the soldiers,
taking them for candidates in nearly all cases.
The principles upon which the parties are divided
are somewhat singular. Both support Johnson's
reconstruction policy, with exceptions. The
Democrats endorse it, but qualify their endorse-
ment with the announcement that they still
oppose with bitter hatred the suspension of the
habeas corpus, the extensive use of paper money,
unequal taxes, and the subordination of the civil to
the
.military power. Everywhere but in Ohio the
Republicans take exception to Johnson because he
has not established negro suffrage, and proclaimed
a wholesale confiscation of Southern property for
the purpose of paying the national debt and pension
list. In Ohio the platform adopted by them was
one in which the issues of the day were rather
avoided than mentioned, but General Cox, the can-
didate for Governor, has settled the matter by
boldly announcing his support of all Johnson's
Policy, and his opposition to negro suffrage.
There are local causes that will influence the elec-
tions in every State. In Maine the present Repub-
lican Governor is a candidate for re-election, and
will use the entire machinery of the State Govern-
ment to secure it. The Republicans oppose John-
son's negro suffrage policy, while the Democrats sup-
port it. There will be large Democratic gains, but not
enough to overcome the Republican majority, which
has been as high as 25,000. In. New York the Radical
and Conservative Republicans threaten to part com-
pany before the election, and a fierce intestine con-
flict is raging between Greeley and Weed, the
champions of the two sections. The managers hope,
by judicious no-policy resolutions at the coming
Convention, to keep the party together until Christ-
mas, but can do it no longer. The quarrel is now
so serious that the Republicans will be very much
hampered in the campaign, and there may be an
open defection to the Democrats ; for Thurlow Weed
is now thought by all to be labouring for Democratic
The Democrats are jubilant and har-
monious, excepting a small faction i' New York
city, whose ultra-Copperheadism may not permit
them to bend the least to achieve a victory. The
probabilities are strong that the meagre Republican
majority of 11,000 in 1864 may be overcome. In
Pennsylvania the Democrats have the advantage,
and are confident of success. They have but 5,000
majority to overcome, are perfectly harmonious, and
have great spirit and enthusiasm. General Davis,
who is at the head of their State ticket, is considered
the strongest man in the State, while his opponent,
General Hartranft, is regarded as a Radical, and,
being the officer who hanged Mrs. Surratt, is un-
popular among the Catholics. The Republicans will
split after the election into two factions, led by
Cameron and Curtin, and the factions even now are
engaged in fierce newspaper conflict. In Phila-
delphia, for the first time in ten years, the Demo-
crats have a good chance of securing the city go-
vernment. The Republicans have nominated a city
ticket, the majority of whom have been in office for
the past three years. Some, if not all, of the Demo-
cratic city ticket will be successful.
In Ohio the Republicans, although threatening a
division on the negro suffrage question, will hang
together until after the election. Their candidate
will be chosen by at least 40,000 majority ; for the
Democrats are hopelessly divided, and have two can-
didates in the field—Alexander Long, of the ultra-
Copperheads, and General George W.,Morgan, who
supports Johnson's policy. There is no hope of
uniting the factions, and the election, hard to gain
at any time by the Democrats, will be lost most
decidedly. The division in the Democrats extends
throughout the West. They agree on but one thing
—Free Trade—and differ on everything else. In
lowa the Conservative Democrats call themselves
the "Anti-Negro-Suffrage party," and in Minnesota
they are so hopelessly divided that their late Con-
vention determined to run no State ticket and lay
down no policy, but let the election go by default.
President Johnson is contributing by his conduct
to add to the great party that is gradually closing
around him in support of his measures. lle has

success.

given the Associated Press authority to announce
that the restoration of the writ of habeas corpus will
be ordered at an early day ; has telegraphed to the
Mississippi Reconstruction Convention that the

military will be removed from the State as soon as

the new Government is in successful operation ;
has turned several Radicals out of office, closed

up the Provost-Marshals' offices in Wisconsin
and North Missouri, and turned the Marshals

adrift ; and is gradually reducing the mili-
tary force all over the country. Much of the
clamour against him for keeping idle Generals in
office at an enormous expense has been stopped
by an order discharging 85 Generals of various
grades, among whom are Banks, Butterfield, Casey,
Heintzehnan, Doubleday, Hartsuff, Peck, Ferrero,
Griffin, S. A. Meredith (of Paducah, Kentucky,
fame), Allmann, and Slemmer (who held Fort
Pickens). All these actions, done in obedience to
popular sentiment, are gradually thinning the ranks
of the Radicals. They can only succeed by con-
tinued excitements, while the Conservatives need
quietness and a resumption of peaceful pursuits to
swell their ranks. The Radicals hope to keep up
the excitement by manufacturing stories of outrages
upon negroes ; giving horrible pictures of the bar-
barities at Andersonville, by securing witnesses with
glibe tongues for the Wirz trial ; and by attempting
to deprive the Southern States of their representa-
tives in Congress. Gen. Schenck, of Ohio, already
announces that at the next Congress he will pro-
pose an amendment to the Constitution, making the
number of voters in each State, and not the total
population of the State, the basis of its Congressional
representation. By this operation such Southern
States as do not enact negro suffrage will have their
congressional delegations cut down at least one-half
by counting out the negroes, and as everything
that clips the wings of the South pleases the
people of the
anti-slavery North, Schenck's amend-
ment meets with great favour. lie can scarcely
secure the votes of enough States, however, to carry
it. Another attack on the South is contemplated by
excluding their members of Congress already elected.
It is announced that the Republican majority in

Congress will exclude every Southern, no matter
how large a vote he may have received, who during
the war did not take sides with the North. On this

ground the five Democrats just chosen in Tennessee

will be refused their seats. Such a course, while it

may for the titne maintain the(-heal supremacy at
Washington, is so notoriously unjust that it will
weaken the party everywhere. Of course the test of

"loyalty" applied to a, Southern member presenting
himself for admission is the sheerest nonsense, for
the most notorious rebel would be welcomed with

open arms if he promised to vote for Radical mea-

sures.

In Missouri the religions troubles continue with-
out abatement. It appears that Archbishop Kenrick
has not only forbidden the Roman Catholic clergy to
take the oath prescribed in the new State Constitu-
tion, but has notified them that any one taking it
will be suspended from his functions. Every other
religious denomination in the State has taken the
cue from the Roman Catholics ; the Presbyterians
and Methodists have resolved not to take the oath ;
and the Episcopal clergymen of St. Louis have