Delaware State journal and statesman., 1866-09-25


a war thus naugurated would end without
any change in the aspect of affairs, or by the
supposltion that such arguments would have
any influence upon hard headed European
states. Mr.. Seward ostentatiously proclaim
ed that this was a war without cause, object
or effect; he distinctly asserted that every
soul in the reyolted States would be just as
well off If the rebellion succeeded as if II
failed; he stated in a cloud OF words the pre-
else proposition which Earl Russell put in u
brief and offensive sentence, 1.-The North is
lighting for empire; the south for lndepen-
dence.'
Mr.. Seward carried this style of diplomacy
not only into his dispatches, hut into his
personal intercourse with foreign amhassa-
dors, and contrivcd to gain for himself and
his country something very like the con
tempt of almost the entire diplomatic body
at Washington. Mr. Russel's diary con.
tanned numerous illustrations of this tact,
which is indeed too notorious to need eyi.
deuoc But mortiiying as Gre many of Mr..
Russells revelations, none of them were
quite so humiliating to every true American
as the odious scene described by Lord Lyons,
in which Mr.. Seward boosted of the power
OF his little bell to cast citizens of Il Republic
into dungeons without the bell ringer being
called to account Such power might he
necessary, and its exercise might have been
ludiclous, though we grayely doubt it; but to
boast OF 1t! II was as though a man should
boast of putting his father into lunatic
asylum, or of having gained a divorce from
his wife. 1t was like the hateful mirth of
Ham, while Shem and Japhot walked back
ward to avoid seeing their fathers shame
We pass over long period, though full of
material for criticism, to come TO Mr.. Sew.
ards course in The present conflict between
Congress and the President. Who listened
without pain to the solemn trifing, the mel
ancholy trivolity, of the Cooper Institute
speech last February? Who could read
without shame the unspeakaby silly tclc-
gram in which the gentleman and the states
man expressed his raptur1s over the mon
srous buiioonery OF the White House on the
same day?
The speeches of Mr.. Seward upon hs
present tour are even more deplorable than
any oil his former escapades We do not
comment upon the questions of policy in.
yoved. 1t is quite possible to advocate the
power of the President to override Congress
without making one blush to read the argu.
ment Mr. Beecher has strung chain of
shining iallacies in support of the Presden-
lial policy which at least serve to demon.
strate this. But Mr. Seward has given us
nothlng Dul childish nonsense, mingled with
doctrines utterly subversve of free govern
ment In his speech at Niagara Falls he
frankly ayowed his determination TO follow
the leader of his party wherever he might
go, and announced the new doctrine that
though heaven and earth should pass away,
the word of a President of the United States
must not remain unlulfled Perhaps the
most extraordinary part of the speech, how
ever, is that in which he taunts the Repuh.
lican party with its want of n leader and
predicts that IT will die next March for lnck
faf To- L.
parties in Republic, and vastly overcast
mates the importance of men like himself
lie has been so accustomed to consider him
sell a leader of his party that he has come
to think il dependent upon him. or some one
like him, for existence. But we would re-
mind him that the Republican party was
formed without him, and won its first victo.
rics while he yet called himself Wing. II
had no leader when it carried Ohio hy s0. OOU
majority, lndiena by 1900, and all the other
western States by corresponding maioriieS
securing tho control OF the House of Repre-
sentatiyes. 1t had but the shadow of leader
when ii swept fourteen States in 1856 II is
made up of men who know their own minds
and who can find their way without holding
to the skirts of any ono else. ii drove it,
leaders before il through the war, not wait.
lnE to be led by any man. Possibly il can
live without leader now.
The real grief of Mr. Stewards heart Is
that his party found out his hollowness during
the war, and would have no more OF his
leadership. His nature and habits make
him aspire to Tie position. He has no other
vocation in life than to be party leader, and
now no party will have him. Dstrusted by
his old friends, he will never be taken TO tie
bosom of his old enemies Histroube is not
that the party to which he once belonged
is withou. II leader, but that lie wandcrs
about, like restless ghost--a leader without
party.