The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1866-12-14

ncnce, or Of any participation in fact, i'll public
affairs, that they should represent the mass
that lay behind them, and that urged them on;
that while it was possible for them to rcfuseto
represent that mass, and SO decline position and
office, it was practically Of no advantage to US,
IN the fact that others moro Objectionable would
take their places
In this view of the subject we find little
ground to hope that the movement will be less
DISASTROUS but it is satisfactory at least in this:
that it furnishes a clue to the course of coming
events. In consistcnce with this assumption,
it is not to be supposed that the movement is
destined to die out--at leastin the way that
some OF the most sanguine among us had sup
posed. If Mr.. RAYMOND, with whatever of
popular feeling he had been able to inspire by
his acts in support Of the war, and his promi-
nent position in connection with the movement
OF the Republican party, could not sustain him
self in one single deviation from its policy; if
Mr.. SEWARD, for time regarded as the en-
bodiment of the extreme principles of that
party, must now knuckle down, as it is reported
he has done, to its still more ruthless leaders
1t were simple to suppose that others, not so IA
vored and sustained by unexceptionable re-
cord, can stand against them. All who havs
yet stood apart must pass away into political
oblivion, or they must take humble Office in the
ranks of that powerful and victorious party
The hopes Of a reconsideration Of its purposes
and policy, By the people Of the North, may
now be abandoned They will come to the
arbitrament Of tho great question affecting the
further fortunes Of our country with all the
physical and political power Of the whole re-
gion Of the Northern States.
The party, as party, is destined, doubtless,
yet to fall. It would seem to be impossible
that mere party cohesion can combine them
longer than viii be necessary to sweep away
the few remaining impediments to their abso-
Lutte and imperial power; but though they fall,
it will not be by disintegration or by pressure
from without. The tendencies to disintegration
are checked and broken; the spirit Of opposi-
tion is completely crushed; the Government
may yet have, perhaps, the physical power to
block the track against them but it is not now
to be supposed that it will incur the tumults
and perils necessary to exert it. But though
free Of such dangers, the party, we believe, is
yet destined to fall from some creation Of its
own. From the Roundheads Of England came
CROMWELL; from the revolutionary leaders OF
France came NAPOLEON. In every revolution
ary movement upon the order and structure Of
state, there are tendencies to anarchy and
outrage which society can stand only while the
movement is in progress. The time always
comes when there must be order and an author
ity sufficient to enforce it. That cannot be
found in g. tumultuarv mass of ravo1,,+ionor, ~,
leaders. One must take dominion over the
rest; and in the very violence of this political
efervescence at the North we find assurance 81
it's more speedy composure under the dominion
of single man.