The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-01-18
COLUMBIA.
Thursday Morning, January 1s, 1866.
The Irrcprcssiblc Conflict.

y
pressible conflict between the radicals
and the President. The New York
World justly observes that the leaders
of the radical party find themselves
''between the devil and the deep
sea-" If they break with the Presi-
dent, they incur the risk of so weak
ening their party that they can no
longer command majority in the
Northern States; if they acquiesce in
his policy, the admission of the South
into Congress and its participation
in the next presidential election,
threaten them with more certain
ruin from another quarter.
In the difference which has arisen
between Congress and the President,
Mr.. Seward has availed himself of
convenient pretext for absence from
the scene of conflict. He might have
derived equal advantage to his health
from voyage in the month of Feb
ruary; but he could not have re-
NAMED in Washington during the
crisis of the conflict, without actively
exerting his influence one side or the
other. He is statesman of too
much standing in his party, he has
personal relations with too many
members of both Houses, his social
and political influence is too great, to
permit him to stand aloof as q neutral
spectator. He could not continue to
hold his Office and oppose the Presi-
dent; he could not retain his stand
ing IN the Republican party and
actively support him; and so he flies
from the field of battle to return
when the smoke of the conflict begins
to Lift, and enable him to see on
which of the opposing standards
victory is likely to perch.
Meanwhile, his faithful organ in
New York is attempting to demon
strate that there is really 10 conflict,
nor any ground for conflict, between
the President and Congress. Con-
gress, it says, cannot undo the work
of the President in the Southern
States; the President, on the other
hand, cannot admit members of
either House to their disputed seats;
and so long as each confines itself to
It's own sphere, there is no possibility
OF collision. There is, in all this, an
artful air of innocence, which wells a
stroke of consummate political c-u1
ming. The most desirable tihi thing for
Mr.. Seward, as q presidential as
,pl lis to the existing diff
ference kept open. If it were closed,
by the admission of the South with
white suffrage, Mr.. johnson or
General Grant would be the next
President; if by admission with black
suffrage, Mr.. Chase would be the
inevitable candidate of the Republi-
canparty; but by keeping the ques-
ton unsettled, Mr.. Seward hopes to
slip in as the compromiser of an
otherwise irreccncilable difference.
The Times reasoning on this
subject is technically plausible, but
practically absurd. 1t is true that
the President has no rightful voice
in the admission of members of the
two Houses; and that Congress has
no authority to oust the new State
Governments; and that if neither in
trudes into the province of the other,
no conflict can arise at these particu-
lar points. But who can be blind to
the enormous incongruity of the
executive department of the Govern
ment acting on the theory that eleven
States are in the Union and entitled
to all Federal rights, while the legis-
lative department is treating them on
the opposite theory? If they are in
the Union, they are entitled to fair
share of the Cabinet Offices and
foreign missions; but if the Presi-
dent bestows on them such appoint
ments, how can Senate which re-