The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1866-10-09

The Real Issue Before the Americas People
The Rssure GeverniuG Party Of the Ceun-
. try. At8 41NktL az
In the excitement and confusion Of ideas pro-
duced by the political and party contests car
ried on all over the country, the great under |
lying question is hardly realized or recognized.
Men are apt to think that the point on which
the elections turn is whether the President or
Congress is to be sustained, whether the
restoration Of the seeded States is to be &C
complished by Executive will or in accordance
with the directions of the national Legislature,
and whether the democratic party is to resume
the power which it abused and lost or the gov
eminent 10 to remain in the hands Of that party
which represents the ideas and policy that pre-
vailed In the terrible contest out Of which the
nation has SO recently emerged. To certain
extent these questions are involved in the cleo
tons that are at hand, but only as collateral
or subsidiary questions. The real issue, which
lies deeper than those of the present contest,
and which is to take shape and prominency in
the next session Of Congress and in the cleo
tions of two years hence, Is, "What party shall
have the governing power In this country for
the next half century or moreW The un-
seemly and undignided personal squabbles be-
tween President Johnson and the members Of
the present Congress are but disgraceful Incl
dents in the politics Of the times, and cannot
affect, one way or the other, the solution Of
the great question which we have here indi-
Gated.
What then, is to be the future governing
party of the United States? We know what
party has governed it, with but few intermis-
sions, for eighty years and more, up to the
commencement of the rebellion; but that party
can govern it no more. We know that the
ideas of the leading politicians of Eastern vir-
ginia and South Carolina controlled the gov
eminent from the days when the constitution
was formed down to those gloomy days when
Buchanan, inspired by them, declared to Con-
grcss that there was no power under the con-
stitution to coerce rebellious States into sub
mission. With the election Of Mr.. Lincoln to
the Presidency in 1860 the death knell of that
power was tolled. The Southern politicians
heard it with prophetic ear and knew
too well what it foreboded They recognized
in il the doom of their old prO-slavery,
State rights ideas, and the growth of a
better and stronger and truer system of
republican government Pro-slavery, State
rights democracy fell in 1860, never to rise
again Driven to desperation, the leaders
and adherents Of the decayed political faith
took up arms, and, with resolve to govern
either in or out of the Union, made tremen-
dous effort to destroy the life of the nation.
Fooled in that attempt, and doubly defeated on
the political field and on the battle field, they
gave up the struggle, and have abandoned,
completely and forever we believe, those
dognas Of government which they have been
forced to recognize as untitled for the present
age. The democratic party, therefore, as the
representative of those political dogmas, has
ceased to exist; and the organization which
now assumes that name has hardly anything in
common with that party which SO long ruled
the country.
con,esay, therefore, that there is political
asuoorst;nng on between the republican and the
aemocra'icl ,.ies--as these were known nm to
q m,sarn,;cat;or os he rebellion-would be
fight with the dead. But ny nV"s oanno'
test going on between the rep. s'yas 0ou,
opposing IDEAS " Congress and speps "a oso
pie. One side represents the principle Il yn
victis-wo TO the vanquished-in Its extremes,
and most ruthless form, and advocates general
confiscaion throughout the late rebel States,
the distribution Of their lands amoag the
colored population, the Acknowledgement Of the
| blacks, and the Acknowledgement Of an who
took part In the rebellion, meaning all thewhite
citizens of the South. Its champions are the re-
morseless Stevens, the conceited Sumner and
the loud-mouthcd, believing Butler, the mock
hero Of Bethel and Fort Fisher ani pro-
jector Of the famous Dutch Gap canal. The
other side, supported by the moderate men of
all political parties, and finding adherens even
in the Southern States, insists on nothing more
than those guarantees for the future Which the
acts OF the past seem to render necessary.
| Those guarantees are embodied in the ,mend-
ments to the constitution proposed by Ccngress
| at its last session and submitted TO the States
for ratification. When those amendments are
engrafted on the constitution, as they uadoubt-
edly win be, then will commence the rule OF
that party which will be the governing party
of the future, and under which the strides Of
this country to greatness and power will out
strip In the last third Of this century its Wonder
full progress in the first two-thirds Of il.
We have seen how the political part, which
embodied the views of the extreme mer Of the
South has been extinguished. We are low TO
see how the embodiment of the views,f the
opposite extreme Is TO share lik. fate.
New England ideas Of government are 10 more
to prevail in this reconstructed republic than
are the ideas Of Eastern Virginia ant South |
Carolina. The practical common sense Of the |
American people realizes the truth ofthe old
Latin maxim. IN medi0s res tuiissinus Ds--that |