The New York herald., 1867-01-15
highly Important and Decisive Movement
for Southern Restoration.


We are happy to state that at last there is
movement afoot which cannot fail, but which
promises speedy, comprehensive and decisive
settlement Of all the difficulties of Southern re-
construction and restoration. 1t is a move
ment which, in embracing the settlement of the
next Presidential election in advance, removes
many OF the distractions to the pending con-
stitutional amendment, aud which, in relieving
the outside States of the test OF disfrancbising
their own people concerned in the rebellion,
makes their reclamation easy to themselves
while satisfactory to all concerned
Looking upon the surface Of things at WASH
ington, the various political elements, sections,
factions, cliques and coteries thrown together
there seem to be mixed up in hopeless con.
fusion. There is the republican financial fac
ton, directing Its efforts mainly to a precipi-
tate return to specie payments, whereby the
national banks and all their appendages
in the interest or Chief Justice Chase
(the founder of the greenback system)
for the Presidency, expect to realize, no
doubt, clear profits at the expense Of the
people at large Of at least one hundred and
fifty millions Of dollars. Then there is the
human rights radical faction, pure and simple,
who will have nothing less as Southern settle
ment than universal negro suffrage as estab
lshed in the District of Columbia. Then
there is the copperhead faction, waiting and
hoping and working for n violent collision
between Congress and the President, under
the delusion that it may bring about another
civil war; and then there are the old State
rights fre-eaters of the South still vainly look
ing 10 the administration for rescue from the
grip OF the Northern radicals and the consti-
tutional amendment. II Is apparent that If
there cannot soon be found way Of deliver
ance from all these conflicting forces the ruling
majority of the republicans in Congress will
cut the gordian knot in the Presidents i'm
peachment As the business classes Of the
country, however, East and West, dread the
depressing effects of this expedient, it will
probably be withheld to the last extremity,
and it may be indefinitely postponed in view
of the more graceful anl acceptable move
ment which we shall presently explain.
A cause and name-a cause which swal-
which stands high among the people. one essen
tial to the success OF any great measure or sys-
tenn of measures involving reconstruction Of
our political affairs. Such cause and such
name are now needed to fuse the clashing fac
tons Of the dominant party Of the North and
to settle the public mind of the South in favor
Of definite and uniform policy of reconstruc-
ton and restoration. For these purposes we
understand o movement. which will cover the
ground. hes been set on foot through a consul
tation at Washington Of number OF the lead
Ing mon of the republican party from the prin-
cipal Northern States--a movement which we
say cannot fail and cannot be seriously re-
sisted. This movement embraces first, the rati-
fication Of the pending constitutional amend.
ment by the republican States as fast as prac-
ticable, and next, when threefouItbs of the
States represented in the general government
shall have adopted 1t, an act Of Congress de-
claring said amendment part and parcel of the
supreme law Of the land. binding alike upon
the inside States, the outside States and all the
Territories Of the United States.
This is the measure; and next come the cause
and the name which are to carry il through
The cause agreed upon Is the Presidential sue
cession, which covers everything and the
name 10 be proclaimed as the candidate Of the
republican party on the platform Of the amend
ment, is the name which, OF oil living mon,
stands highest among the American people
the favorite name of General Grant. This is
the programme, and the simple statement of it
will carry with ii the general conviction OF it's
success. 1t will remove at once all the
stumbling blocks TO a settlement with the
South, in the shape of conflicting cliques and
schemes for the Presidency; it will consolidate
the North upon the amendment and upon Gen.
eral Grant ss lis champion, and it will bring
the Southern States to a graceful submission
to a reorganization which will have become
part Of the constitution, without forcing them
to sign it, Furthermore, If they choos, to avail
themselves Of its advantages in regard to
negro suffrage and representation, they may
speedily regain their balance Of power in Con-
gress, and, with new departure by new
opposition party in the North, they may regain
in 1879 even the White House with both
houses OF Congress.
The, name of General Grant will settle the
contest Of 1865 in advance. He entered
into the late war a modest captain under
General Fremont; he came out Of 1t at the
head OF over million Of Union soldiers,
crowned with series of victories, which, in
strategy and tactics, eclipse the most brilliant
campaigns of the great Napoleon. But the
modesty Of the General-in-Chief Of the armies
Of the United States Is still the same as that of
rally shrinks from politics and politicians and
yet SO clear Is his faith in Mis- pending consti-
tutional amendment shat DC has felt constrained
to express /. And herein, after all, lies his
greatest strength. Had President Johnson,
with the passage OF tAis amendment by Con