The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-09-01
The Republican National Committee and
its Chairman.


The Republican National Committee and
its Chairman.
The Republican National Convention, which
nominated Mr.. Lincoln for President and Mr..
johnson for Vice-President, appointed as is
customary with such bodies, an Executive Com
mittee. The only duties with which such
Committee is charged are, first, to organize
itself by appointing proper officers; and,
secondly, to meet under the call of It's Chair.
man, to fix the time and place of holding, and
issue the call for assembling, the next National
Convention. In the usual course of things the
Republican Executive Committee would not
meet until the year 1868.
But Mr.. Raymond, its duly elected Chairman,
having attended the Philadelphia Convention,
the radical members of the Executive Com
mitteeS.ell into great rage and determined
to depOse him from mis- Craftsmanship, and
eject him from the Committee. They would
thereby formally excommunicate him, and by
implication all other Republicans who favor
the Philadelphia movement. But the scheme
encounters this difliculty-that Mr.. Raymond is
the only person who has authority to call
meeting OF the Committee, and he Is not very
likely to lend himself to the radicals to be his
own eXecutioner. Some members OF the Com
miItee, therefore, issued call, in disregard of
his authority, for a meeting of the Executive
Committee IN Philadelphia on the Sd of Septem-
Der, that is, next Monday. They, of course,
supposed that MIR. Raymond and his trienas in
the Committee would not obey the irregular
and unauthorized call, and that the radicals
VINO did could go smoothly through the form OF
deposing him and appointing a new Chairman
without opposition. 1t would then be pro-
! claimed all over the country, in all the radical
newspapers, that Mr.. RAYMOND, and with him
all the Republicans favoring the new move
mept, had been declared, by the highest known
authority, to be outside the pale Of the Repub-
l1can party,
MIR. Raymond, with admirable GOODNESS and
tact, thereupon issued regular call for meet
ing of the Executive Committee, to be held on
the same day. but at the Astor House in this
city. His radical adversarles were quick to sec
| the effect OF this new call. Being ouly autho-
riZed and having the prestige OF regularity, it
| puts the holders of the Philadelphia meeting in
the attitude of boilers ana seceders, Who at the
very time a regular meeting of the Executive
Committee is in session, hold an outside meet
ing in opposition to it; thus putting themselves
In precisely the position where they were trying
Mr.. Raymond's call created a great futter
| among the radicals, who saw themselves in a
! fair way to be foiled. Nothing remained for
them but to boldly deny Mr.. Raymond's au-
| thority TO call meeting of the Executive Com
| mittee. But this denial, to be of any avail,
| required to be made In some sort of public
manifesto; and Governor Ward, of New Jersey,
presuming on his prominence, addressed a
| public letter to MIR. Raymond, declining to
| attend the meeting he had called, announcing
| his intention to take part in the Philadelphia
| meeting, accusing MIR. Raymond of political
| apostacy, and telling him that by his apostacy
he had forfeited the title under which
| the Astor House meeting had been
called. Governor Wards logic is suicidal
tor If, as he asserts, Mr.. Raymond is
| already divested of his chairmanship, so
that other members of the Committee cannot
| acknowledge it, it is superhuous to call a
| meeting to depose him. 1t may be said, indeed,
| that the Committee needs new chairman. But
| this would be said to no purpose, since the COM
| mittpe will he inst pOmDetpQt TO aDDOlnt
| new chairman IN 1868, as it is in 1866: and if a
meeting can be called without a chairman now,
| it could equally be called without a chairman
| then. In truth, the Philadelphia meeting is
! called merely to put Mr.. Raymond outside the
party, and his call has driven the radicals to
| stultity themselves by declaring the work
| already done which they are going to Philadel-
| phia to undertake. IF Mr.. Raymond is chairman,
| they are seceders in holding an outside meeting
| while the regular one is in session. If he is
| not, there is no need of their meeting to put
| him out
| MIR. RAYMOND has published a ciyilly con.
temptuous reply to Governor Ward, in which
the impertinence of the latter Is neatly rebuked.
| Mr.. Raymond says he has no desire to hold the
| position of Chairman of the Committee against
| the wishes of its members; that he has called
| the Astor House meeting in order to give them
| an opportunity to act; aud that an irregular
| meeting will not be recognized as having any
binding authority. This puts the radicals
| ''between the Devil and the deep sea-" The
| fittest thing they could do would be to attend
| the Astor House meeting, and If they found
| themselves in majority, put Mr.. Raymond out
in regular form. But they have precluded them
| selves from this course by denying his authority
to call a meeting. Mr.. Raymond has, therefore,
| succeeded in putting them in a position where
| if they hold their Philadelphia meeting they
| publish themselves as boilers and seceders from
the regular Republican organization, thus
| making them fall into the selt-same pit they
were digging for him.