New-York daily tribune., 1862-11-12
THE OPPOSITION.

to pubish-vhile it offers to .demolsh,
it does not pretend to reconstruct, and
if asks TO be trusted without tender
ing the least proof that it is at
all trustworthy. 1t does not, therefore,
deserve the name of party at all. 1t is
merely faction. Its capacity is not for finish
ing the war, but for grumbing sorely because
it ia not finished. 1t will find the RESPONSE
biity of power different thing from the liberty
of attack; and unless it shaIl be prepared to
barter for peace our honor, our national pride,
and the indiyisibility of the Republic, it will
encounter, as the fruits of its fidelity to law,
the identical embarrassments for which it has
had so little charity. Outside the lines of
public duty, it may occupy field ample enough
for the exercise of boundless license; but while
it remains, though by profession merely, within
the barriers of the Constitution, it will find it
impossible to tamper with the behestS of 10y
atty, or to reduce to a political concrete the
| love for shareholders which in the abstract il
has found both palatable and profitable.
contested election charters great deal Of gusty
| but ~ pO "HOH tHSy t"nN
the serious business of enactng laws, that gen.
tlemen of the Opposition will learn how much
harder il is to do than 10 differ.
In every misfortune, public or private, phi
losophy will find compensation. For the sake
of ntelligenent and open-eyed action, it will be
better, perhaps, TO have such men as Brooks
and the Woods in Congress, and within eye
shot of the whole Republic, than that they
should remain mischieyously mousing in private
life. Now, at least, they are unearthed. Their
ayocatiOn of secretly mining the foundations
Of the State is gone. They may stab at pub
lie liberty, but they must do it in the Capitol.
They may contend but they can no longer con-
spire. Their constituencles have been exceed
iugly enlarged by their dearly-bought success, and
il is no lvnyvI Only 10 ward-cWnmlttees, 10 the
wutch-dogs Of Tammany, and the ballot-brokers
of the goggeres, that they are amenable.
Fernando Wood cannot ignore bis Re-
publican constituents. He is as much the
Representative Of those who opposed as Of
those who sustained him. and although, upon
certain points, he may act as he thinks, or as
he pretends to think, there are, in this terri.
ble peril Of the country, sundry principles
which admit OF no question: and in respect
Of which, tolerance will be only the synonyme
Of treason. 1t is just here, we assert, that the
election, agreeable to them as it is, and arro-
CANT as il now makes them, has not 10 the
least disarranged that chevaux de frise OF sharp
facts upon which they may soon be writing. Re-
beion is still rebellion, and treason, though high
in Jefferson Davis, and petty perhaps in Fernando
Wood, is treason still. biajorities are well enough
in their way, but they cannot make conspiracy
constitutional, nor transmute crime into virtue.
In ordinary times, it s the trimmer, per-
haps, who is oftenest prosperous, ard Wlo
walks most safely, because he walks in
tie middle. But these are not ordinary
times. Sharply and distinctly, and so well
defined that even the politically purblind can
invent 10 decent apology for alteration the
line is now drawn between fidelity and felony,
and those who disrelish one side of it must.
perfOrce stand upon the other. There are
public questions which demogogues can darken
and beiog; but in respect of simple loyalty there
is no question at all. Those who are not fox law
and order, are for chine aud insurrecton. That
the Woodites viii try experiments upon the pat /
riotic temper Of the loyal States we do not doubt
Every dobsuched woman makes little trembling
excursions into the domain OF sa, and more than
once runs back to the semblance of virtue, before
she quite surrenders herself to professional de-
prayity; and the dem-rebels Of the North, Ike
the demireps OF the town, may DO prudent while
it is possible. What il to be feared is that grow
ing weary Of restraint, aud in love with az.
archy which always promises wealth and
power 10 the unscupulcus and the au-
dacious, these enemies of the people may aid
and. comfort the South, by plotting against the
peace and stability Of the North. Every sue
cess gives to such men an access of bad cour.
age, and new stimulus to unbridled daring.
Are we asked to point out precisely the dam
ger We admit that we cannot do 50 with
precision. Schemes against public Liberty al
ways begin with an oVer-acted anxiety for its
preservation; while far beyond, still in faint outline
and hardly bigger than the hand, watchful and
intelligent eyes discesa that cloud which is des- {
tined to lower over the wreck OF freedom, a.l of
ocal happiness II is because the danger Z. in I
lelnite that il is terrible. 1t is because Civil
Var 80 unsettles the foundations of society that
&c Kew not what to apprehend that the good
md the true arc left in dilemma which slbs.an. i
iapy disarms them. But the taia.sst iadica.i0a