Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-08-11
CONSERVATISM AND RADIChLTs1--
THE TRUE DIFFERENCE.

NJ the sdluc tilueJ hdu uOuDl5 ~ ualig stOiiS
Of the right Of the Federal Government to
coerce a Stale 20 remain member Of the
Union, and foresaW in Unsuccessful assertion
Of the latter right by the Federal Govern
ment danger 10 the preservation Of the just
ard proper relations between the States and
the Federal head as ordained by the Consti
tuition, and evils as great as those to be APP
pretended from an entire severance Of all
relations by secession successfully accom-
plished. To maintain the right to coerce
it was evident that it would be necessary to
employ every implied power, and to assume
much that did not exist by grant in the
Constitution; and arguing from experience
and knowledge Of human nature, it was a
sound inference that power assumed in this
way and for this purpose would not willingly
be laid down, but that in all probability it
would be made the basis for a claim to
greater power, and that the Federal Govern
ment, if successful in the coercion of States,
would come to absorb the mass of authority
granted by the people, and our whole struc-
ture Of Republican Government with federal
features, be made to undergo radical altera-
ton. Who, that calmly looks at the presen
position Of affairs, fails to perceive that many
of these apprehensions we're well grounded?
WHO'S there capable Of takinga comprehen-
siye view Of the situation, that cannotsee that
the Government in the hands Of the party
that engineered in its behalf the late civil
war, is being subjected to a revolution in its
entire character?-a revolution which, il
carried to completion, will leave it in no
respect different from that form Of govern
ment which treated States as colonies, pre-
scribed their fundamental laws in charters
conferred by royal patent, aud assumed to
revoke them at will, and govern whole com.
munities by military law.
We have no purpose to reopen Che ques-
ton as to the abstract right of the Federal
Government to use its power in reducing
one Of its members to allegiance, or to dis
cuss the expediency of its exercise in 1861.
The result Of the contest has removed both
questions from the sphere of legitimate or
useful discussion. 1t is proper, however, for
men who have to deal with the practical
condition in which successful application
Of the doctrine of coercion has left the coun-
try, to note carefully its consequences aud
10 make its lesson instructive; and to en-
deavor to arrest them before it makes :
mischief as calamitous as that which it pro-
posed to cure.
We believe that this is tho real
issue now before the people of this
nation. The party termed Radical
is attempting 20 revolutionize the Govern
ment, and convert it from one Of limited
powers under federativo system to one of
unlimited authority, recognizing no impor-
tant rights of the States, and acknowledging
no restraint upon its action over any sub
ject which it may choose to administer on.
Taking the extra-constitutional precedents
set during the war as its guide, and claim
ing in addition every power which the OBJ
iects it proposes require, it is pro-
pounding and endeavoring to put in prac-
tice doctrines which would have shocked
the arch federalists Of '9S, and which every
intelligent Republican must see will prove
destructive TO popular liberty. These ex-
travagant assumptions Of power are put for
ward in various plausible forms, and justified
by every Pretex that 1.-THE bad and able men
Of this Radical party can devise, but they
all proceed on the ground that the diversi-
fed interests Of this great people should be
in the control of central government at
Washington, and that the only use in the
system fer States is that of an intermediate
agency TO assist in the enforcement of
laws which it may adopt. The Conser-
vative party adhering to the CoGstitu-
ton, demands that the government
shall be administered in accordance
Herewith, and denies the right, for any
object good or bad, to the use of power not
specifically granted or clearly implied
This is the essential difference between
Radicalism and those who oppose it. The
latter prefer the old government-thc for
mer, as their name implies, would thorough
ly alter it. root and branch, to conform it to
their views of freedom, humanity, liberty,
loyalty, etc, etc.
If one will take a retrospect OF the action of
the Government for the past four or five years,
and cast his eye over the statute book as it
now reads, or listen to the utterances Of
prominent men, delivered during that time,
and observe the tendency of the chief me-
on the floor Of both Houses Of Congress, he
will be amazed 10 witness the wide depart
ure from the views which prevailed in the
daysof WAsHNGroN, JEFFERSON, MADISON
and MONROE; and will be struck with the fact
that the shock of the civil war loosened our
constitutional moorings, and that under the
pilotage Of the men who seized the legisla-
tive helm in that period Of agitation, we are
drifting far ont in the ocean Of absolutism.