Delaware State journal and statesman., 1866-08-31
THE REACTION.

When the war ended n reaction was inevitable
The only questions were, when it would begin,
how far it would extend, nnd whOther it would
have any peculiar and unexpected impetus Of
the two great parties in the country, the Demo-
Gratis only could be the gniners in votes while
the tendency toward reaction would necessarily
serve to moderate the action of the Union party.
The hope of the Democrats was that, when the
war was over, the accession of the solid vote of
the late rebel States, upon which they counted,
together with their own regular party force and
the disaifected Union men in the rest of the
country, combined with dextrous aoquescence
in the results achieved, would bring the Demo-
cratic party again into power. For this purpose
year ago, in the State of New York, where
the party is most prudently managed because of
its perpetual hope of absorbing what is face.
tiously called the "COnservAtive" element of the
other party, q ticket was cunningy prepared
upon which the leading names were those of
men who had acted with the Union party, while
the resolutions protested fidelity to the Union
and to the President. This was a sklful move
ment. II tempted the reaction to begin with
vehemeDoe. 1t would in any event certainly
provo whether it were ready to begin. And tho
result did prove beyond dispute that it WAS NOT.
The Union party carried the State in 1864 by
barely six thousand majority. 1t carried it in
1866 by more than thirty thousand And in
every other State down to the latest election the
Union line has been unbroken.
The reaction did not begin because the policy
of reconstruction was not evident. Meanwhile,
however, Congress has met. The President and
Congress have differed. Each has appealed TO
the country, and the reaction il now apparent,
with the unexpected impetus of the support of
the Administration. The power of that support
is undeniable The Executive patronage, the
extent of which We have more than once indi-
Gated as grave national peril, is strained to
the utmost to sustain tho reaction The Presi-
dent, indeed, in his message vetoing the Freed
mems Bureau bill expressed dislike Of increasing
the patronage. Perhaps it did not occur to him
that while the bill itself might give him the con-
troll Ct few thousand agents, the veto gave him
the hearty support of the whole population whom
he had allowed to vote. And however he may
have deprecated nn increase of patronage, that
which no already possesses he has not hesitatcd
to use in manner which proves that the fear
of its possible prostitution to personal ends was
not one of his reasons for declining more of it.
The present tenure of Office is not fidelity to the
party, bnt adherence to the person. "My Poll
cy" we are quite suro would be found as efiec-
tual muzzle among the great body of national
oilioe-hOlders to-day as Slavery was in the good
old days of Pierce and buchanan
The Philadelphia Convention was fair mea-
sure of the character and extent of the reaction
| III htnuJluH lhc ul lHt utltHulest WIN
that of the State Conventions which sent them
we can estimate how serious the detection from
the Union party is likely to be. For New
Yorker key to the problem is the simple fac
that the chairman Of what calls itself "Union'
delegation from that State was MIR, Samuel
Tilden, one Of the most conspicuous old Demo
, Gratis who steadily opposed the war, and th
secretary was Mr.. Il. o. Perrin, to whom we d
) no injustice in saying that he is known merel.
= taTn n1A Knaru
+ Nothing Copperheads. Both Of these gentle
men, we beieve--certainy Mr.. Tlden-wer
, delegates to the Chicago Surrender Convention
Q of 1864. Massachusetts, again, had Conven
: ton of which Mr. Salsonstall, the Bell Everett
/ Manager of 1860, and Mr.. Wyzeman Marshal
:. the Boston Theatre Manager at the present time
| were the directors and Mr.. Isaac ii. Wright, a
l. old Democratic custom-houso officer of the goo
10 old days when the cue Of the custOm-house wa
d abuse of the Abolitionists, and Mr.. John
ls Swift, Republican stump.speaker Of '5G an
IS go, but not gentleman who can be fairly sal
le to represent anything or anybody in Massachl
ne setts, were the orators. This was the reaction
10 ary demonstration in Faneuil Hall. The NEE
ie ing sent to Philadelphia three or four of Il
of most noted Democrats n the State, several Dem
cratic politicians, several Johnsonian office -ho
It. ders, and we are sorry to say it, the heir of
no honorable nhme-hlr. John Quincy Adams
ne The actOn IN lnebe TWO olhtes IL hu lllusiT
lS tion of the character and extent Of the reactiO
ed It has taken from the Union ranks some oific
nd holders, but the preliminary Conventions and Il
be composition of the Philadelphia assembly she
m. that the great bulk Of the great Union par
en- still clings steadily together. The list Of del
al gates to Philadelphia comprised both tho mo
40 respectable aud the most notorious Copperhea
in every State. 1t ranged from such names
en- Robert c. Winthrop, Reverdy johnson and Jo
lie A. Dix, to Vallandgham, Henry Clay Dean a
,re John B. Ridge, of Arkansas, who nominal
cir General Lee for the Presidency. Whether
in who we're elected sat in the Convention or n,
lot the fact remains that they and those who sc
a them instnctively sympnthized with its spir
es. But the same list does not contain one name
ter an original distinctive leader Of the Union par
The opponents whom We are to encounter in
ere autumn elections, therefore, are the old Den
es Gratis to whom Gen. Dix and his friends-Wl
nd, as their fervent orator, Mr.. CoddingtOn, said,
lis. 1864, "hudded under the Lincoln shed III
ute Democracy finds better roof to shield us fr
ut- the tempesl"-will return, and with them, p
and badly, what are known in New York az "W'