Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-08-18
TIE GROUND SWELL.

eaht bC NSuiA uC NUT CASiiJ loSoNeH
any man the Democrats could have brought
forward The Radical pspersgladly jumped
at the conclusion Of the Herald, and pa
raded il before their readers as evidence of
the drift Of events some Of them stating
that il was the opinion Of paper that
would have supported Chase had be been
nominated But Grants candidacy has
excited no enthusiasm, while that Of Sey-
mour has aroused the people to pitch of
excitement, the like of which has not been
witnessed since the memorable campaign
Of 1910, and the Herald has not BEEN slow
to discover this fact, so keen is its scent for
the current Of popular feeling. The Radi-
cal papers have made the Herald witness
as TO the canvass, and we desire the reader
to see what their witness has 10 say Of its
progress. II finds that Grants popularity
was vastly overrated, and that it moderated
that of Seymour, and The result of the re-
cent elections has fully demonstrated these
propositions. The drift OF events points
unerringly in different direction from
what the Heuld at first supposed, and it
has The csndor to acknowledge the fact.
In its issue of the Nth inst, that paper
shows that the probabilities OF the canvass
are all in favor Of the Democrats. Il says
Kentucky has doubled her Democratic
majority in one year, and that is a reVolu-
tionary fact. Msjorities do not vary at such
rate ordinarily. Hitherto the home Of
Henry Clay has given Democratic MAORI
ties, but not such as are given this year.
Other parties have had very respectable
hearing in that Stste. She was one of the
two Southern States that gave Lincoln a
vote in 1860, and in the same year only
Virginia and Tennessee Of the Southern
States ouivoted her on the Bell and Everett
ticket. Even in 1854 McClelIan's majority
was only thirty.six thousand. Nothing
like 10 intensely Democratic in fhe past as
Southern States generally, she gives the
Democratic candidate this year majority
of ninety thousand vote that indicates
a movement scarcely less than stampede.
Negro suffrage is held responsible for this
change by the local chroniclers, and the
chroniclers are in all probability right.
Negro suffrage, 30 avOwedly the policy of
the Republican party that its orators can
no longer make any denial, has applied a
tremendous process Of "attritiOn" TO the
Republican vote in Kentucky and worked
it down to worthless quantity. lI
Ii win do the same elsewhere. Through
out the South we shall see this one definite
result of negro sufirage-that there will no
longer be any practicable division of the
white vote, but that the people who hsve
hitherto given a respectable vote 10 each of
two parties will now all go together by IN
stinctiVe agglomeration against the negro
suffrage party. In Kentucky the result is
clearly seen, because there is no negro vote
to give respectable proportions to the other
side but the Democratic majority is SO
great that even the natural negro vote of
that State-whieli would be about twenty
five thousand-could not have changed the
result if cast. In those States, therefore.
in which negro suffrage is in force the vote
Of the negro will not come as a balance of
power between parties, it will not swell the
weaker side az that side appeared in the
former political divisions Of the people;
but il cast for the Radicals it will stand
sl0ae against the whole white vote. HUI
man nature can never be reduced to math-
ematics exactly; but if there is a point in
its history very nearly capable of positive
demonstration, it is the force with which
the various otherwise hostile elements
Of people combine in presence of
common danger. There is no point of DIFF
ference between the people that will not
dwindle TO insignifcance by comparison
with the differences between black and
white. The consequence in the South will
be that the Democrats will carry every
Southern State except South Carolina,
the statistics of elections up TO
1860, as we'll as the recent registration, we
should have excepted Mississippi also, but
the recent vote on the Constitution indi-
Gates that the Democracy rule there ALSO
In 1860 eleven Southern States gave five
hundred and eighty -lhree thousand votes
for the Democratic candidate, and four
hundred and seven thousand for the Bell
and Everett ticket. Doubtless the Bell and
Everett vote represents the proportion of
Southern sentiment that might have
favored the policy of a reeonstructing
party of patriotic purposes and holding ra-
ional views of politics and Of human ma
urej bat against party to whose policy
negro suffrage is only the preface the
whole white Southern vote of 1860 is sure
o go together, and will make total suffi-
;ient to neutralize the negro vote, and, in
addition, balance the Republican majority
If 1864 on the popular vote of the whole
country.
In the North the vote against the Re-
'ublicans will be very heavy. Men know
low far Democratic misrule would go, and |
THAT direction il would take, and they do
ot know the limit of Radical madness.
Judging 1t by the past, they find IL difficult |
0 conceive that the Republican fairy has |
ny definite limit. Hitherto il has hesi-
ated at nothing, has pushed recklessly on |
'herever bounded by ambitious leaders, |
nd rather than be dragged where such
arty would 60, the people will take the
nance of revolution with the Democrats.s
in fact, is driven 10 point
which it Is desperate. For two years it
as stood npon the defensive before the
eople. Had the popular Jealousy Of It's
been less clearly shown, it
onld have pushed on TO the extremity
contiscation and prescription; for its
aders felt that these were necessary parts
its policy, that these alone could give it
fe possession Of what il had already won.
'ithout coniiscalion the results Of negro
iIrage will slip through its fingers. With. =
1t prescription the Southern States cannot
kept from the natural leaders Of the
'uthern people. The Republican party
The future, therefore, viii, be ready for
y desperation, convinced from its past
at the greatest danger is in standing still.
lere is, then, greater reason than ever
~ il should be kept from power, and
is ibe people evidently feel. Last year
e gains against the Republican party on
votes had wiped out its
,jorities and established an equality, and,
Instantly increasing, the gains will now
Ike the balance on the other side. Such
.hange as We have seen in Oregon, and
If such majorities as Kentucky has given,
II present total TO astonish and con
md political philosophers.
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