Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-10-18

The Radicals have resoired to aspecie Of
tactics ag.ins the President perfectly in
keeping With their character. A few days
since they put in circulation a sensational
dispatch containing several questions said to
have been proposed by the President to At
torney General STASBERRY, putting in is
sue the legality Of the present Congress.
It's fraudulent character was promptly ex-
posed nevertheless they proceed to discuss,
with assumed gravity, the enormity Of the
ofense, If the report had been true, and
what It would have cost the President; for
"no man, says The Philadelphia Press,
"would have been permitted to remain in the
Presidential chair who thus announced his
purpose to defy and destroy the very au-
thority under which he was elected, and I'M
der which he held"
About a day after this clustering effort at
Intimidation was put forth, another para
graph appeared in FoRNEY's paper at Wash
ington, to the effect that it had been given
out in confidential circles that the President
was about TO change his policy and conform
To- the demands Of Congress. By our dispatches
of yesterday weare further informed through
the Washington correspondent Of another
mercenary sheet, 1.-THE New York Herald, }
that the President has written to Southern
Governors, urging them to convene the
Legislatures of their respective States, and
recommend the adoption Of the proposed
constitutional amendment"
These various dispatches are all Of char
acter, and were intended simply to impose
upon the credulity of the public and keep
the President in an attitude Of defense. 1t
is the Machiavellian system of tactics, based
upon fraud and fllsehood, TO which no other
party in this country has ever been base
enough to subscribe before.
It argues, not only degree of depravity,
but an insensibility to shame, which if eoun-
tenaneed by the American people, will end
in placing the high vocation of government
in the hands of men who with the same ex-
hibition Of dishonesty, could not, in the bet
ter days Of the Republic, have received favor
in the humblest relations of society.
The prominence and success of such men
are certainly discouraging; but to believe
that there is not enough of intelligence and
self-respect left in American character to
react and right itself eventually, would lead
to the conclusion that society was resolving
itself into a state of anarchy unparalleled in
the history of civilized nations.
As bad as the condition of the country is
we do not feel warranted in coming to such
a conclusion, but believe it to be a religious
snd patriotic duty to think and speak diff
ferently. Error may run its course-passion
may have It's hour-fraud, falsehood and
crime may prevail for aseason-society may
mourn and our institutions may be shaken to
their very base-but right will eventually
triumph over wrong, truth over falsehood,
and good men over bad men. This is our
faith. Without it life would be burden
and all the nobler impulses of our nature
would become as dross. 1t is the incentive
to all good actions and virtuous aspirations.
As we permit il to die out in our hearts, we
lower ourselves in the scale of being, and
become, to that extent, assimilated to that
deformity of the times, which affiicts the
country and which we so much deplore.