The New York herald., 1866-09-02

crats, undo thoroughly the destructive work Of
the last session, get control of the fortieth
Congress, and taking up General Grant as
their candidate for the Presidency. they may
yet be able to save their party, and at the same
time save the country.
Rev. II. w. Beecher-The Great Champion
of the Church Militant with the Administra-
tiOn.
The letter which we publish this morning
from the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher on the all :
absorbing question of Southern restoration is
an eloquent, strong and convincing argument
In support Of President Johnson's policy. Con-
sidering, too, that Mr.. Beecher was the great
champion and apostle Of the Northern church
militant during the late rebellion-when it is
remembered that he was the advocate of the
rifle In behalf of squatters' rights and human
freedom, in that dark and bloody overture to
the rebellion, the territorial border-rufian war
in Kansas-when we recall the important mis-
sfonary labors of Mr.. Beecher in England in
behalf of the Union cause, as the cause Of
universal liberty and Of popular rights the
world over, we can hardly exaggerate the
value of his example and his influence In
behalf of the restoration policy of President
johnson.
The religious Union elements of the North,
IN . compact body, formed the Macedonian
phalanx Of the government in the prosecution
Of the war. The pioneer church corps, under
Beecher and Cheever, marched side by side
Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips. With
the abolition Of slavery officially proclaimed
us constitutionally accomplished, Garrison,
triumphant from his long and fearful con-
6ict, took of his armor, sounded the recall
from the battlefield and gracefully retired with
the honors Of the war. Phillips, on the other
hand, proclaimed new Northern political
crusade against the vanquished South-the new
radical crusade Of Southern exclusion from
the government until negro suffrage and negro
equality, political and social, shall be estab-
lished North and South. Cheever, in support
Of this crusade, joins in the new war-cry Of
Phillips; but Bcecher, wiser in his day and
abolition Holy Alliance-wiser and more
practical than most Of his puritan brother
hood, brayely, manfully, and with the ring Of
the true metal of Christian faith, hope and
charity, comes forward, pleading for the i'm
mediate restoration to Congress of the ex-
cluded Southern States.
His voice, in vindicaton Of the Presiden is
policy. will ring among the religious Union
war circles OF the North like clarion. They
cannot fail to hear it, and, hearing, they
cannot fail to respect it. He speaks like
statesman who thoroughly comprehends the
crisis and sees his way clearly before him.
He speaks like patriot thoroughly convinced
and thoroughly in earnest He says that " our
theory Of government has no place for State
except in the Union; !" and who can gainsay
this broad and comprehensive assertion? He
says that had Congress moved faster In admit
ting loyal Southern members into both houses,
"the public mind of the South would have
been far more healthy than 1t is, and those
States which fingered on probation to the last
would have been under more salutary in
Huence to good conduct than If dozen armies
watched over them !" that every months
delay in this matter still more and more com.
plcates the case-that ." the army becomes"
by this policy Of exclusion, indispensable to
local government, and supersedes II; and
that as things 60 on in this way "the govern
ment at Washington Is called to interfere in
one and another diniculty," often inaptly and
sometimes with great injustice.
Is not all this as true as the Gospels And Is
II not likewise true, as Mr.. Bsecher contends,
that "the federal government is unfit to excr-
else minor police and local affairs OF govern
menl. and will inevitably blunder when Il
attempts itsr And with single brush or two
of his constitutional broom, mark how be
sweeps away these cobwebs and raw
heads and bloody bones, so fearful
to the radicals-these fancied dangers to the
country-in the event Of new party coming
into power, made up Of Southern men and
the hitherto misled and dishonorcd democracy
OF the North" Admitting that such transfer
OF power will follow the overthrow Of the radi-
Gals, Mr.. Beecber. like statesman whose phi
losophy keeps pace with the progress OF ideas,
contends that there will be nothing to fear
that the war has changed not alone institu-
tons, but IDEAS that "the whole country has
advanced" that "public sentiment has adj
vanced far beyond what II has been at any
former period" and that, In short, demagogues,
fac,ionists, and dcstructivcs, North and South,
have lost the power for mischief which they
heretofore have possessed. In this view he
verv naturally hears with wonder aud