Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-09-15
THEORY OF POLITICAL CLASSIFICATION.

II may be remembered by some Of our readers
that we stated few days ago that the Boston
Daily Advertiser had given us " to understand
that it is hereafter to be known the adherent Of
all the most radical doctrines propounded by any
Of Mr. Lincoln's supporters-such, for instance,
as the extinction of the insurgent States, the in
definite perpetuation of the war for the destruction
of slavery, the abrogation Of the Constitution SO
far as relates to the Seeded States, change in
the tenure by which the Judges Of the Supreme
Court hold their Office limiting that tenure to
twelve years, with all and singular the other pc
culiar dogma, advocated by Mr. Greeley in the
New York Tribune and by Mr.. Garrison in the
Liberator 1t also wishes to be known as concur
ring with the New York Independent in its desire
for the expulsion Of Mr.. Seward and Mr.. Blair
from the Cabinet, which, with the Washington
basis of a more emphatic recognition of the
radical anti-slavery sentiment" We added that
this implies, as our readers would perceive, "a
great change in our once staid and judicious con-
temporary, which has generally held itself aloof
from extreme opinions change so great, indeed,
that we should hsye refused to believe in the
actuaity of it on any authority less express than
the announcement to this effect made in it own
columns"
The Advertiser, in its number of Saturday last,
after quoting the language above recited, takes
occasion to say:
Perhaps the Intellgencer will not think curiosity
quite objectionable if ask it to state its grounds for
the above assertions and especially to explain what it
means by the announcement to this effect made in its
-FOUR columns We do not ask it to perform the
imposs bty of producing such announcement AZ it
describes but perhaps it will favor by explaining what
it is driving at We that journals, old
own, and heretofore consistently opposed to the
that the Daily Advertiser has undergone any
classification and still less that it has announced any
| such event."
| If the Daily Advertiser does not know what we
are driving at" certainly think its curiosity"
in the premises quite pardonabe, though we may,
perhaps, take the liberty of intimating that if its
editor would read his paper as carefully as we do he
could not possibly be in any doubt as to what we
were I" driving att when we informed our readers
that the Advertiser had "given US to understand
| that it was hereafter to be " known" in the new
political character we indicated, and that the
announcement to this effect" had been made in
its own columns. Unless our copy Of the Boston
Daily Advertiser of the 9Th instant was forged
fac-simile of that journal our contemporary BY
turning to its fe will be able to read in editorial
Typography the following explicit language:
THAT man may be knopn By the company he keeps has
passed into properb ,oheh cenmends itself to
When, therefore, the Chicago Convention under
took to construct platform which might snn people Of
entirely different opinions and placed upon two cand
dates who differ each other their sntecedens, and
of whom least cannot stand there with the least
sisency ,as a eheqt and detusion far there
Democrats to support them. When it pretended that
the candidates will prosecute the and apply all
force ss Rsr sss in 5
Doied dollar for the and iood, and Val
tandigham, ,0ho has been sTpeued the country
traitor. and Fernando Wood pho irfamons poti
ean expressed themselves satisfied ,oih the result :"
iii is true of political organizations that man
may be "known" by the company he keeps, and
if this truth is SO automatic and universal in its
application that it has passed into proverb, we
cannot doubt that the Advertiser meant us to un-
derstand that, as a supporter of Mr.. Lincoln, it
wishes to be tried by the same law which it ap-
plies to Gen. Mcclellan and his supporters; and
q, our contemporary, in supporting Mr.. Lincoln,
"keeps company" with men of the most radios,
notions, it necessarily follows that it is to be
"known" by the company it keeps.
Mr.. Whiting, for instance, the learned Solicitor
Of the War Department, believes in the extinc-
ton Of the insurgent States" The Advertiser
"keeps company" with MIR. Whiting in the sup
port of Mr.. Lincoln Ergo, it is to be "known"
by the company it keeps, unless the one or the
other of them is practising . "cheat and a de-
lusion." Mr.. Senator Sumner, endorsing the
express pledge Of the President, demands /" the
abandonment of slavery" as the condition of de-
sisting from the war. The Advertiser "keeps
company" with Mr.. Sumner in the support Of Mr..
Lincoln. Ergo, the Advertiser is to be "known"
favoring the indefinite perpetuation Of the war
for the destruction Of slavery" unless somebody is
practising "cheat and a delusion." Mr.. Thad-
deus Stevens believes that the Constitution is abro
gated so far as relates to the Seeded States. The
Advertiser 81 keeps company" with Mr. Thaddeus
Stevens in the support Of Mr.. Lincoln krgo, it
is to be "known" by the company it keeps, as
holding the same doctrine, unless the one or the
other is practising "a cheat and dcusion" The
Hon. Andrew johnson, Of Tennessee, has again
and again introduced into Congress and advocated
the proposition so to amend the Constitution of the
United States as to change the official tenure Of