Baltimore daily commercial. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1865-1867, 1866-05-07
SHALL WE SURRENDER TO THE Ex.
TREMIS'TGp

victims to the disloyal spirit and tendencies of
the old Buchanan Democracy.
Now, if such were indeed the case, the re-
sult-it must be confessed-would be really
deplorable, disastrous, something to be keenly
deprecated. But when such an alternative is
presented to patriotic, sensible men, citizens
of the United States, who have been and are
devoted to the preservation of the Union in
its strictest integrity, men who having seen the
Constitution to be an instrument stronger than
any known power on earth to holds nation to-
gether, stronger than the divine right kings
to keep governmental equilibrium, have they
not the right to inquire-whether we are now to
be victimized to our ruin by mere faction, with
this instrument preserved in all its living
strength and integrity? Tried by four years
of bloody civil war, by every experience be-
sides that ever comes to test the strength of
forms for the preservation OF human rights,
are we, now that the struggle is ended, and
peace blesses the nation once more,-are we
driven to the sad alternative of falling back
upon the rule of extremists of any sort, upon
either of the two factions which did SO much,
years ago, to provoke war and all its calami-
ties?
We insist not. Summers follies are no more
acceptable to moderate and sensible men now,
than they were when his furious utterances
provoked a breach Of the peace and the ma
TONS disgrace on the floor of the Senate, from
his extreme opposite; and the TRADES of his
fellow disturber of thepeace in the House, are
quite as offensive and mischievous to public
quiet, as the pestiferous performances of Pol
lard or Ben, Wood. And yet in view of all
this, it would seem that moderate men, patri-
otto men, have made no better progress than to
be driven to political alliance with one of the
other of these, and are not to be permitted to
enjoy any respite from the fierce and bitter
contests which have keptthe nation in turmoil
for thirty years past.
We say it is a sad alternative; and we pur-
pose for one, to test this matter and to see
whether, under the lead of the President, the
nation cannot achieve the true fruits of the late
terrible conflict, in reign of peace. And we
are not to be deferred from this by an appeal
to our fears of consequences, in trusting the
President. We must trust somebody and
something. And we had a thousand times
rather trust Andrew Johnson and the Consti-
tuition, than Sumner and Stevens and their
plans, which look to three years more of VIC
lations of constitutions and the spirit of the
laws in disruption of the Union.
Could this plan be carried out, based upon
old enmities, exploded theories, and cowardly
fears of a beaten and ruined section, could
three years more elapse of disruption and
consequent increasing alienation, and this,
because the people, aided by their Executive,
cannot be relied upon to preserve the nations
unity, and we should see such q degree of
Encouragement and disappointment, such
distrust of a permanent peace from both sides,
that faith IN popular government itself acould
be shaken or destroyed, and the nation be so
weakened that it would very likely fall prey,
in the end, to anarchy and its consequences.
The Government went to war to prevent
dissolution of the Union; to put down dis
unionists. 1t is expected now in the interests
of party rule-because every appeal almost
turns upon that at present-to abet this I'M
natural ruling out of eleven States from any
fair participation in the benefits of the Union.
That is disunion, to the extent that it goes
only that that the disunionists this time hail
from the opposite section, and insist that it is
needful as guaranty for the future
We say again, that these fears seem to us
unmanly, cowardly, or weak pretext upon
which to concede rule to men who have shown
themselves utterly untitled for it; and we must
express the earnest conviction that these very
men-if they are indeed patriotic and regard
the forms of republican government as pro-
lection for the rights of the masses, would by
no means-if the alternative was given them,
trust with the Executive Office either Sumner
or Stevens as against the present Chief Magis-
trate. They know too well the ferceness of
their antipathies, their weak fanaticism, their
indiscreet zeal, their inability to hold a steady
hand on the helm of State; and the people feel
this SO sensibly that they never will consent to
exchange the one for the others as leaders
never.
Again, the essential issues are getting mar
rowed so rapidly of late, that there is not much
longer room to deceive any one-to make it
appear that the President is disposed to usurp
the rights Of the people, when every act of his
as Of an exactly opposite tendencV. Whilst
the radical leaders are disposed to stretch the
powers of the Constitution to the point Of
rending it, in order to concentrate and con-
tinue power in the hands of Congress, aiming
blow after blow at the President, and giving to
the tyranny of congressional caucuses the
decision of principles settled forever by
the war, the people are told to hold still; to
do nothing, lest traitors who have been beaten
on a thousand fields, thrashed in battle and
overwhelmed at the polls, should again get the
ascendancy; perhaps take up arms, and once
more conslgn us to divisions and bloodshed,
A tried and true Chief Magstrate-tried as
neither Of the radical leaders erer acre tried,
must be rode over; deposed; reft of the nations
confidence, in favor of chronic gabblers whose
whole business is to stuff their pockets with
impossible Constitutional amendments, and to
stun the nations ear again and again with
clamors for their adoption. Itappears incredi-
Bile that longand bitter experience should have
taught them nothing better than this.
And for the President himself-who that
reflects for a moment, supposes that he is going
to surrender himself to men whose projects
for the destruction of the Union he did more
to thwart, than any other in the long list of
public men in the revolted section? Stronger
in the popular support an hundred fold than
when he assumed the direction of affairs. no
one need suppose that he is going to betrav
the people, when he knows as well as any man
alive, that upon the people devolves the power
of pronouncing upon his policy, whether for
good or evil to himself and the country. He
may defy the politicians-the trading dema-
gogues who would fix up the succession to
suit themselves but he will as he has done,
so shape his action as to let the people be
heard in the adoption of all measures bearing
upon the public destinies.
Then we say, in conclusion-inasmuch as
we cannot trust the extremes, we must-as du-
ring the war-trust the moderate men who
represent the great body of the people, and
who stand between. And to do this, we insist
again that ace are not driren to the miserable