The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1866-10-04

Issue Before the Country.
From Massachusetts, TO Kansas political
mass meetings, stump orators and stump
speeches are the order OF the day. The fight
is between the republican party and the
Chicago rump of the old democratic party, the
radical Jacobins making the most noise on the
one side, and the old dyed-in-the-wool peace
copperheads ruling the roost on the other.
Here and there we find a solitary stumper
known as Johnson republican, whose efforts
to enlighten the people only serve to make
confusion worse COMPOUNDED. We have, for
instance, in the HERALD of yesterday specimen
radical brick from Mr.. Sumner, and specimen
from Senator Cowan, Of Pennsylvania, Of the
johnson republican school, and in other
papers lying before us we have . touch Of the
radicalism Of "Old Thad Stevens and an
overdose of copperhead twaddle in speech Of
Baron Won Hoffman.
Turning first to the radical Boston speech Of
Senator Sumner, we find it mainly devoted to
. vigorous and msrciless scolding Of President
johnson, including the disclosure OF Mr.. Sum-
ner's confidential conversations with him |;
how the man of Tennessee pulled the wool
over the eyes Of the man of Massachusetts !;
how JEFF Davis and Johnson are now in
the same boat; how and why universal or
impartial suffrage must be enforced; how
"the President must be taught that usurpation
and apostacy cannot prevail" and how che
who promised to be Moses and has become
Pharaoh must be overthrown," even as .the
Lord overthrow the Egyptians in the midst Of
the sea-" OF the constitutional amendment
Mr.. Sumner says :-"As far as it goes it is
well but it does not 60 far enough. More
must be DONE" This was his cry in the Senate
all the last long session; butt availed nothing.
The amendment was passed by the republican
conservatives in spite of the radicals, and with
its ratification by Tennessee her members elect
were admitted into the House and the Senate
as q rule and Q precedent for all the other
States concerned.
So much, then, for this radical speech
Of the radical Sumner. 1t amounts to
nothing. His extreme counsels, like those
of his fellow marplot, Stevens of the
House, have been and will be rejected by the
great body Of the republican party in Congress.
II was Sumner, with his charge of withdrawing
against the President at the beginning Of the
last session, and it was Stevens, with his warn
ing of the fate of Charles l., who fomented
all this trouble between the President and
Congress; but still both houses, in spite Of all
the efforts of these men, have been controlled
by wiser counsels than theirs. Hence, when
Sumner from Massachusetts cries out that this
constitutional amendment will not do, and
when Stevens from Pennsylvania echoes the
cry, they do not ffighten anybody, because we
have seen that they have no power over the
prevailing sentiment Of CONGRESS, which is the
prevailing sentiment Of the North, as embodied
in this great amendment.
Coming next to the speech of Senator Cowan
at Harrisburg, we find that, as johnson repub-
lican, he fails to state thessue before the coun-
try. He presents It as the issde between
Johnson and Stevens; but it Is no such thing.
Stevens was defeated upon al his propositions
Of Southern negro suffrage, Southern confisca-
ton and Southern Acknowledgement, and the
plan adopted by Congress is substantially
President Johnson's plan ofrestoration, chapter
and verse; Mr.. Cowan must know, and in COM
mon fairness ought to admit, that II is not
Thaddeus Stevens, but the constitutional
amendment Of Congress that is before the
States for their ratification. Mr.. Cowan. few
days hence ct all events, will discover that the
people of Pennsylvania understand this nice
distinction between the schemes Of Stevens and
the plan Of Congress; and 50 we dismiss Mr..
Cowan.
We have next but passing word to say Of
the late stump speech Of Mayor Hoffman at
Rochester. II lies before us in one of our ex-
A tiresome rigmarole Of the current
election serving clap-trap. The
only point made by this champion Of the
Tammany "ring" against the amendment be-
fore the people that We deem worthy Of notice
is that If the excluded States rstify this amend
ment IL will not admit them into Congress. We
answer again that Congress has bound itself
10 their admission in the admission Of Ten
nessee. Hoffman, in short, Is playing the
Sumner and Stevens game to defeat this
amendment. and in this way copperbeads and
radical Jacobins are giving aid and comfort
to each other and to Southern revolutionists.
From all these stump speeches Of quibbling
and INSCRIPTIONS factionists 1t is refreshing to
turn to such an exposition Of the issue before
the country as we find in the reports Of late
speech Of Senator Sherman, at Cincinnati. He
tells the people that in the adoption Of the plan
OF Congress t1e joint committee OF the two
houses "lay1 aside every radical measure
brought before thsm,n including universal
.sfrag> and the treatment Of the late rebel
States q Territories, and that - member Of
the Senate be hopes the Southern States will
ADOPT the amendment, because II viii admit
them into Congress and he wants them 70 IN
derstand that ifthey viii NOT accept this, 1.-THE