The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-11 00:00:00

THE REPUBLICAN "PLATFORM.',

The platform laid down by the Chicago Conven-
tion is in a high degree satisfactory. Three ques-
tions required skilful handling, and met it from
those who framed the declarations. The first re-
lated to Negro Suffrage ; the second to Impeach-
ment ; the third to the Tariff ; on all others the
Convention being able to speak out. The resolu-
tion which stands second on the list refers to the
Suffrage, and steers through the shoal by maintain-
ing the right of all loyal men in the South to vote,
while leaving it to the loyal States to adjust the-
suffrage for themselves. Therefore, what the Con-
vention says is simply this :—That in the ten States
now being re-admitted the negroes shall have the
right to vote, whether the majority in those States
like it or not. But in all the other States, if the
majority so decree, the negroes shall not
have the right to vote ; so that the party
throws overboard the principle while holding
fast to expediency, using the strength of the negro
down South, but not supporting his weakness up
North. This is not a bad shuffle, and will, doubt-
less, in the first instance, give strength. It may,.
too, in the long run, prove a wise course, as time
only is required to educate the people up to the
necessary point, while any attempt to enforce prin-
ciple against prejudice will assuredly be fatal to
the party trying it. It is, however, a position on
every side open to attack ; indeed, logically, abso-
lutely defenceless, for the effect is to condemn negro
suffrage where the negroes are best fitted to
exercise it, and where, if not, they can do
least harm, and to bestow it where they are
least fitted, and where, if unfitted, they can
do most harm. The Convention was, however, on
the horns of a dilemma, and has taken the only sens-
ible means of escape. It was known that, as an-
expression of Republican opinion, the policy of the
PRESIDENT would be condemned,and the Impeach-
ment approved. No one is therefore surprised that-
the resolutions heartily endorsed this feeling, but
the question was, whether the Republican Senators
who voted against conviction would by resolution
be denounced, an I a dethand made on the Senate
for conviction in the coming vote. Although
orators were allowed full latitude in ventilating
their feelings against the " recreants," and al-
though the Union League made a strong effort
to get the Convention to class them " with those
traitors to their party and country, COWAN, DIXON,
DOOLITTLE, and AZ,IDREW JOHNSON, with the as-
surance that the traitors' doom awaits them," which
the Managers depict as " suspension on the gibbet
of everlasting obloquy ;" yet the Convention wisely
resisted, holding fast in this instance to principles,
and looking rather to good in the future than to
vengeance in the past. Thus a dangerous split,
which would surely have followed had the Conven-
tion read out of the party so many of its best men,
may yet be avoided. Touching the subject of Protec-
tion, the Convention declares it to be due to the
labour of the nation that taxation should be equalized,
and reduced as rapidly as the maintenance of the
national faith will permit. This may be inter-
preted in any way, and really means nothing. To
equalize taxation the first step is to abandon pro-
tection, for taxation cannot be equal so long as one
portion of the community is mulcted for the benefit of
another portion. These are vague words, over which-
Free-traders and Protectionists may puzzle thei
brains in vain, but if any meaning can be extracted t
rather tends to favour the doctrine of the Free
traders. The agriculturist of the West can scarcely
hold his labour to be placed on equal terms with
that of the maunfacturers in the East so long as his
produce is free, while theirs is artificially upheld.
A feeling inimical to protection can, we think, be
seen in the proceedings, and perhaps in the resolu-
tions. It is well known that if BEN. WADE was
strong on any principle, it is that of Protection
to native industry. When the delegates discovered
the candidate most favoured they selected him, al-
though at the moment BEN. WADE stood first, and
with all but unanimity threw the Protectionist over-
board. Tue taxation ia other respects is on capital
more than labour ; the income tax being a direct levy
from realized wealth rather than from earnings.
Nothing could be more emphatic than the planks
laid down regarding the honest payment of the
National Debt. Here there is no prevarication;
there is no desire to obscure their meaning ; broadly
and distinctly they take them up, and paint on
them the determination of the party to redeem the
debt, not according to the letter only, but to the
spirit of the loans under which it was contracted,
preserving the utmost good faith to all creditors,
both at home and abroad. It should be borne in
mind that the West was said to favour repudia-
tion, but, if ever with any truth, it is now mani-
fest that the discussion of the subject has changed
the opinions which formerly prevailed. If this
be so, it is a very happy sign; for it shows
how easily the people can be made to appreciate
the arguments by which the false theory was de-
molished, amid this leads to the belief that any ques-
tion if time be given has a good chance of being
settledon its merits. ANDREW JOHNSON, of course,
is reproached for the corruptions which he is said so
shamefully to have nursed and fostered, but we have
some recollections that before ANDREW JOHNSON'S
stump speeches and indiscreet words hal been
"fen n essee a small degree of corruption
heard beyond
prevailed, which has been nursed and fostered not by
him, but by the system. Where ANDREW JOHNSON is
to blame, is in the care lie bestowed on nursing and
fostering the brat which nearly destroyed him,
44 my policy," which brought him into direct colli-
sion with Congress, and wasted the time that might
usefully have been employed in reforming the Civil
Service. It was not that he fostered, but that he
did not strangle the monster, that calls for blame;
and it is because we look for so different a course
from GRANT on this very point, that we so sincerely
rejoice at his nomination. An English paper,
astonished at the eighth Resolution, says, " it is
late in the day to deplore the death of ABIWIA3I
LINCOLN and the accession of ANDREW JOHN-
SON," —a natural blunder to make. The journal
in question overlooks the fact that this Convention
assembles but once in four years—that it last as-
sembled to nominate ABRAHAM LINCOLN, who,
within a year afterwards, was assassinated, and now
that a Republican Convention assembles to nomi-
nate another candidate for the Presidency, it natu-
rally expressed regret at the sad fate of that candi-
date so endeared to the party. As the Convention
considered it to be its duty to denounce the course
of ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S successor, it prefaced the
resolution with the words to which we allude. The
9th is the usual bait to catch the Irish vote, so also
is the 12th, and are of no importance, except as a
handle for stump orators in c mvas4ing the States.
Foreign immigration should, the 11th resolution de-
clares, be fostered by a liberal and just policy. The
more populous portion of the Eastern States have no
fancy for this immigration, which demoralizes the
masses, lowers the scale of intelligence an I culture,
increases vice, crime, and poverty, an I gives a
hamlle to polLical corruption. If the employing
class gains, the working class loses by competition
in the labour market. But in this Convention a
Western influence was dominant„ and whether the
East likes it or not, immigration benefits the West,
and is benefited by the noble prairies to which the
hungry of Europe are invited. IVe discuss the first
principle declared, in a separate article, and there-
fore need not allude to it here.—Angio-Anzerican
Times.

The State Department, it is announced, has re-
quest?d the Prussian Minister to ask his Government for
the recall of Baron Kussorow, one of the principals, and
Count Lottum, a snow], who wore engaged in the recent
duel near Washington, their conduct having been con-
trary to the laws of the United States against duelling.
Both gentlemen are attached to the Prussian Legation.