The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-26 00:00:00

7LIE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

Horatio Seymour's letter, accepting the nomina-
tion for the Presidency, is dated Utica, August 4.
He says he delayed it to see the light the action of
Congress would throw upon the interests of the
country. Alarm, is what he sees in Congress lest a
change of political power will give to the people a
clear statement of what has been done with the
money drawn from them during the past eight
years. We would be sorry to think that that was
all the good likely to accrue from such a change,
for however curious as history, it would be
more to the point if Mr. Seymour busied himself
with the best means of meeting the liabilities in-
curred by the country, a subject he nowhere touches
on in his letter, although the strongest plank of the
Democratic platform.
"The Congressional pewer," he states, "has not only
allied itself with military power, which is to be brought
to bear directly upon the elections in many States, but it
also holds itself iu perpetual session, with the avowed pur-
pose of making such laws as it shall see fit in view of the
elections which will take place within a few weeks. It
did not, therefore, adjourn, but took a recess to meet again
if its partisan interests shall demand its reassembling.
"Never before in the history of our country has Con-
gress thus taken a menacing attitude towards the electors.
Under its influence some of the States organized by its
agents are proposing to deprive the people of the right to
vote for Presidential electors, and the first bold steps are
taken to destroy the rights of suffrage."
He repeats that it is the dread of some exposure
that drives the Republican party to acts so despe-
rate and impolitic, which many of their ablest
leaders and journals have openly deplored. While
the people are harassed by taxation, while the
hours of the labourers' toil are lengthened through
the cost of living, and people of all parties desire
the restoration of order, confidence, and peace.
"Yet at this moment those in power have thrown into
the Senate Chamber and Congressional Hall new elements
of discord and violence. Men have been admitted as re-
presentatives of some of the Southern States with the de-
claration upon their lips that they cannot live in the States
they claim to represent without military protection. These
men are to make laws for the North as well as the South.
These men, who a few days since were seeking as
suppliants that Congress would give them power
within their respective States, are to-day the mas-
ters and controllers of the actions of those bodies.
Entering there with minds filled with passions, their first
demands have been that Congress shall look upon the
States from which they come as in conditions of civil war ;
that a majority of their populations, embracing their in-
telligence, shall be treated as public enemies; that mili-
tary forces shall be kept up at the cost of the people of the
North, and that there shall be no peace and order at the
South save that which is made by arbitrary power. Every
intelligent man knows that these men owe their seats in
Congress to the disorder in the South."

They are prompted to keep the South in anarchy,
for while confusion reigns they dispense the profits
and honours growing out of a Government by mere
force, and they hold positions enabling them not
only to urge their views of policy, but enforce them.
Without constituents they have more power in the
Senate than a majority of the people of the Union
in nine of the great States. These people clamour
ously insist that they are the only friends of the
Union, though without ability or influence, and the
mere creatures of civil convulsion, while the chiefs of
the rebellion are quietly engaged in the support of
their families and by force of example trying to
lead back the Southerners to order and to industry.
The last acts cf. Congress must make it clear to
many Republicans—who, though clinging to their
party, have regretted its extremes of violence, and
cherished the faith that the motives were good,
though mistaken—that the party is in such a con-
dition that, whatever its motives, it cannot carry out
a wise and peaceful policy. lie shows it to be a
misfortune even to the governing party when its
action is unchecked, for the result is to carry out
the views of the most unwise and violent of the
Radicals. The ablest leaders have ceased to control ;
its best members who have warned it against excesses
have either been forced to give up their convictions
or been driven from its ranks, and with such addi-
tions as the adventurers from the South what can
be expected ? And it is evident that a division of
political power is necessary to check the violence
of party action.
"The election of a Democratic Executive and a majo-
rity of Democratic members to the -House of Representa-
tives would not give to that party organization the power
to make sudden or violent changes, but it would servo to
eheck those extreme measures which have been deplored
by the best men of both political organizations. The re-
sult would most certainly lead to that peaceful restoration
of the Union and re-establishment of fraternal relation-
ship which the country desires. I am sure the boat men
of the Republican party deplore as deeply as I do the
spirit of violence shown by those recently admitted to seats
in Congress from the South. he condition of civil war
which they contemplate must bo abhorrent to every right-
thinking man. I have no mere personal wishes which mislead
my judgment in regard to the pending :election. No man
who has weighed and measured the duties of the office of

President of the United St•.►tes can fat to be impressed
with the cares and tails of him who is to meet its de-
mands. It is not merely to float with popular currants
without a policy or a purpose. On the contrary, while
our Constitution gives just weight t ) the public will, its
distinguishing feature is that it seeks to protect the rights
of minorities. Its greatest glory is that it puts restraints
upon power. It gives force and form to those maxims
and principles of civil liberty for which the martyrs of
freedom have struggled through :ages. It declares
the right of the people to be secure in their
persons, houses, and papers against unwarrantable
searches and seizure ; that Congress shall make
no law respecting an establishment of religion, or the free
exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of
the press, or the right of the people to p3tition for redress
of grievances. It secures the right of a speedy and public
trial by an impartial jury. No man can rightfully enter
upon the duties of the Presidential office unless he is not
only willing to carry out the wishes of the people, ex-
pressed in a constitutional way, but is also prepared to
stand up for the rights of minorities. He must be ready
to uphold the free exercise of religion. He must denounce
measures which would wrong personal or home rights or.
the religious conscience of the humblest citizen of the
land. He must maintain, without distinction of creed or
nationality, all the privileges of American citizenship."
The President must be ready not only to undergo
the falsehoods and abuses of the bad, but the censure
of the good, misled by prejudices and misrepresenta-
tions. A great change, in Seymour's judgment, is
going on in the public mind. The mass of the Re-
publicans are more thoughtful, temperate, and just.
The energy of the Democrats springs from devotion
to their cause, and not to their candidates, and
never in their political history has a position been
hailed with such universal and widespread en-
thusiasm as that of the National Democratic Con-
vention. This arises from the desire of the Con-
servatives to change their political policy, and from
confidence that they can carry out their purpose
In this they are strengthened by the great body of
those who fought for the Union, and having given
nearly 16,000 commissions to officers Governor
Seymour knows their views.
"The Military Convention called on the Government
to stop its policy of hate, discord, and disunion, and in
terms of fervid eloquence demanded a restoration of the
rights and liberties of the American people. When there
is such accord between those who proved themselves
brave and self-sacrificing in war, and those who are
thoughtful and patriotic in council, I cannot doubt we
shall gain a political triumph which will restore our
Union, bring back peace and prosperity to our land, and
will give us once more the blessings of a wise, economical,
and honest Government."

Frank Blair made a speech to a great meeting at
Leavenworth, Kansas, on the Ra€lical Reconstruction
of the South and Gen. Grant's record. He said the
Republicans, having lost the confidence of the white
people, had resorted to the blacks for support, not
film love of the race, but to maintain themselves in
power. He had nothing to say against General
Grant personally, hiS military services would ever
be remembered with pride, but since he had en-
tered the arena of politics, his acts politically were
proper matters for public criticism. Grant
had changed his views on the subject of recon-
struction inconsistently, having at the close of the
war urged the immediate admission of Senators
and Representatives of the Southern States chosen
by the people of the States. The secret of the ad-
herence of Grant, Sheridan, and other regular offi-
cers to the Radicals, is that that party, ground-
ing their policy on a military de;potism, must
give prominence to officers of the army. He
denied that his New York speech was revo-
lutionary. The people had repudiated Negro
Suffrage upon which Reconstruction stood, and a
Constitutional overthrow of Reconstruction is but
carrying out the express will of the people. The
Radical party is the only revolutionary one, and,
answering a remark from the crowd, he said it had
made Copperheadism respectable.