Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1866-11-24

~ Under the head of how to kill the
Radical party, that brave newspaper, the St.
Louis Democrat, replies to the Chicago Times
in the following language:
The object of the Times is plainly avowed.
II wants to kill the Radical party. This it
proposes to do by granting everything that
the Radical party seeks. We demand equal
rights and impartial suffrage. "Grant both"
fays the Times, "and so get this Radical
party under ground" Very good, gentle.
menl We will consent that the Radical party
shall cease to exist when you have granted
all that it asks 1t fights not for the spoils,
but for the triumph of ideas. Let its ideas
rule, and we do not care what becomes of
the party. The plan of the Times may seem
somewhat odd, but it is really the only feast
ole way Of getting rid of Radical rule. just
40 long as the questions raised by the war
remain unsettled, the country will smash
Conservatism, Democracy, Johnsonism, OF
whatever else you may call the party opposed
81 radical ideas, in every election. Just so
long as the negro question remains open,
just so long as the laws do no. grant to
black man the same rights and the same
protection that they gran. to whites, just so
long the Radical party will rule this country
Just so long as blind and stupid prejudices
raise their feeble protest against the Declara-
tion of Independence, just so long there will
be a struggle to make the spirit and letter of
that Rubime document the supreme law of
the land, and in that struggle Radicalsm
will inevitably win. There is Just one way,
and only one, to get these disturbing ques-
tions out of politics, and that is to settle
them on the eternal basis of Justice.
The Times says that impartial suffrage Is
inevitable. 1t was inevitable from the in
slant that slavery was abolished. The only
question then, and the only question now, is
whether it shall come speedily, and with the
consent of the people in every part of the
land, or whether long discussion, years of
agitation and political contest, and the
steady education Of public opinion shall be
necessary to accomplish it. ANDREW JOHN
SON might have ended the matter by his
single word. The South would have &C.
ouiesced; the North would have sustained
him, and before this time there would have
been peace and complete restoration Of all
the States. But he thought lfe could use the
prejudice against the negro to secure bis
election. For that purpose he threw him
self into the arms of Copperheads, and gave
traitors the conrRole at the South. And now
il may take time to undo the mischief caus-
cd by his treachery. 1t may take years to
secure to loyal men at the South that full
protection in all their rights that the Con.
stitution grants. II may take years to secure
ut the South and at the North absolute
equality before the law--equality Of civil
rights and impartial suffrage. Or, if the
South and the Democratic party OF the North
are wise they may stop all this agitation
take the negro question forever out of poll
tics, aud restore every Southern State to the
Union within one year. The advice of the
Times is good. True, its motives is not the
best--se SECURE party ascendancy. But iti
reasoning is sound. So lcng as these ques
.ions remain unsettled, the Radical party viii
grow stronger with every election. 1t car
be got out OF the way only by yielding ir
good faith to the supremacy of its ideas.