Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-07-12
a nErrNrrron or RADIcAI.IsaI.

N
A writer in the Washington Chronicle UNI
der the signature Of Cox AaIoRE," is dis
secting the intellectual and moral qualities
of WIN. II. SEWARD. He comedies to the
Secretary of State ability and accomplish
ments, but pIonounees him a timid trimmer
one who looks at great questions through
the "scurvy politicians glass eye" and seeks
to scheme the country through its troubles,
and attempts to maintain his personal for
tunes at the sacrifice Of the principles which
have most distinguished his political ca
Teer.
Mr.. SEwARDis far from being in every
respect an admirable statesman, and is not
suililess of responsibility for the calamities
Of the nation; but even those who have no
reason to praise him viii not hesitate to say
that he is a wiser, juster, and truer man than
his critic of the Chronicle, and the men who
are now denouncing his late moderate and
conservative course. We do not propose an
apology or defense for Mr.. SEWARD, how
ever, sat only to notice another feature of
the paper in which this writer assails him,
expressed as follows
There is as yet no homgeneity between
the sections, and Mr.. SEWARD knows it, if
he knows anything. There cannot be con-
geniality and concord where there is no
common feeling or common object; and if
they shall be reached by the present genera
ton it will be by force of law-stern, unbend-
ing law.
Weextract this sentence because it contains
the very gist and essence of Radicalism
That party assumes that between the people
Of the States, North and South, there is no
"homogeneity," 'congeniality" or "con-
cord'-that there is no feeling common"
between then, and that the different sections Of
| the country have no common object" 1t
proposes to fuse these uncongenial and I'M
! homogeneous elements in the crucible of
"stern, unbending law" supported by mill
| tary force-to melt them down in lbe fires
of exaction and persecution to be kept up
until the process is completed, and have as
= residuum republic of homogeneous ma
terials-a natien of freemen whose views Of
their rights, responsibilities, interests and
! duties sail be squared to a standard form
which there shall be no appeal. In other
words it seeks to perpetuate in the Northern
section, the tyranny which latitudinarian
constitution of the powers of government
during a state of war PERMITTED to grow up
there, and to hold the Southern people alb
solutely subject to the tribunal of this tyran-
ny, bat having no rights which it is bound
to respect. This is the political philosophy
of Radicalism. Il has not an idea or
principle beyond it. Some of its honest
adherents have deluded themselves into the
belief that such fern of government is
preferable to that established by the Con-
stitution of 1889. Sincerely holding certain
opinions, they think it is their duty to form
a scheme of government which shall embody
them, and endue it with force to make them
obligatory and they expect thus to ensure
stability, and take bond of fate against
revolutions. 1t need not be said that this
would be an actual conversion of republican
government into one essentially despotic
Bat a large majority of those who range
themselves in the Radical roll know that this
is unrepublican. and desire it because it is
so. They are utterly without principle and
having joined themselves to party tempo
rarily in power they counsel it to seize all
power, and make it perpetual by laws which
shall secure enough "homogeneity and
congeniality" for the purpose. The first
class described are fools to suppose that any
portion of the American people would
long permit such a state of things.
The last are knaves who are starry
ing to so fasten and bind them that they
cannot resist without revolution. This is
Radicalism in its spirit, its purpose and its
personnel. Whether honestly supported by
the fools, or selfshly upheld by the knaves,
who are in the organization as nine to one,
il deserves no countenance. 1t is the most
guileful monster which has ever reared its
head in American politics. Philanthrophy,
liberty, humanity, patriotism, are the phra-
ses it constantly repeats. The South has
none of the first three, because they held
slaves, and none of the last, because they
dared as freemen to protest, even to the ex-
IRENE of war, against what they considered
injustice. The people Of that section are not
Homogeneous" with the North because of
these things and this Radical party assumes
the duty Of making them so by force of law.
If such an experiment succeeds it will be
a reversal of all previous experience, and
though Radicalism is now boastful in its
short-lived power, it has not the stamina for
a contest of such magnitude with the sterl-
ing conservative sense Of the American peo-
pie.