The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-01-16
THE PRESIDENT TO Be SWEPT AWAY.

1 one of two issues the wreck of the govern
I nient OF the establishment of a military dicta-
torship. The contingency of this alternative
was involved in the political problem from
the moment that an unwholesome coalition
of uneducated intellect, unbridled fanaticism
and unscrupulous partisanship obtained con-
troll of the Legislative power, and of great
part of the administrative machinery of the
government. And there was, from the
beginning, but one means of preventing the
occurrence of this contingency. That was to
overthrow the coalition to whose policy it was
unnecessarily incident In the absence of such
| prevention there is no reason for surprise at
the dangerous conjuucture to which affairs
have come in Washington. The incapacity
| of the radical leaders to arrive by legislation
at final settlement of any vexed question of
the day, was inherent in the very nature of
their politics 1t is no marvel that legis-
lators who were essentially disqualified for
coming to a sensible, practicable and
satisfactory conclusion about anything, should
have failed to satisfy either themselves or the
country in the series of measures which they
have adopted with reference to reconstruction.
And it was altogether within the scope of logi-
cal anticipation that, in their handling, the
Southern question would become, as it has
become, the Southern impossibility. Yet it is
on the basis of this impossibility that they are
now attempting to build the future dominion
of their party. The true conditions of that
dominion are only to be found in state of
chronic revolution. The normal restoration
Of the Union on plan combining peace,
harmony, order and liberty under the sane
tons and restraints of Constitution generally
respected and effectively maintained, would
leave not the least footing for the radical rule
which has been harassing the country for the
past two years. Radical leaders, who learn
nothing and forget nothing, and whose hopes
and aspirations center in an indefinite con-
tinuance of sectional distraction and class
animosities, are impelled by an instinct of
self-preservation, to carry their policy from
bad toworse, as they are now doing in the halls
of Congress. Every step which they take in
revolutionary legislation becomes an imperious
argument for still another step in the same
direction. 1t would have been good for the
peace and welfare of the country for ire
Senate not to have insisted on the reinstate-
pent of Stanton in the war Office, The same
considerations demanded abstinence from sur-
Their legislation designed to stife civil liberty
in the South, and to invade the constitutional
prerogatives of the President as commander
in-ehief of the army. But the radical leaders
saw ruin to their political fortunes in conces-
sion to such pleas. Hence they have kept on
in their course with the fatal persistency of
Othello's revenge. They act like men who
are no longer free agents They seem to be |
driven by blind impulse. Having gone SO
far, they must make a last and desperate |
effort to sweep from their path, not SO much |
the President, as the Presidential Office created
By The Constitution, This necessity is OWNED |
by the New York Tribune whenit says: "This
is no time to split hairs or chop logic, or
dawdle over the mere technicalities of prece- |
dent. The work must be done. We must |
reconstruct the South in spite of the Presi- |
dent. We must override him, and if he per-
sist in his fatal and deplorable course, he must
be swept away as an impediment to recon-
struction." This means nothing less than
that the time has come for finging aside all |
pretence of respect for the substance or the |
form of constitutionality, and for making an |
open appeal to the argument of revolution.
But while thus attacking the constitutional |
authority, they cannot dispense
with the aid of some kind of executive agency |
Hence, the further they carry this war, the |
more urgent becomes their need of existing |
Gen. Grant in their conspiracy against con- |
stitutiond liberty. This dependence on Gen.
Grant has increased with the decline of popu- |
lar sympathy in the North with radicalism,
until it begins to have the character of OBJ |
sequious servility. 1t is plain, therefore, that
if he has committed himself to their revo- |
lutionary scheme, its success will not rem
der them independent of an executive |
authority. They, will have got rid of a |
civil and constitutional President, only to put |
themselves at the mercy of military dicta-
tor. That will be all In such a state of
things it would, perhaps, be blessing to the
country if this dictatorship should be in the
hands of man disposed to exercise large
prone to self assertion, and prompt
and vigorous in action Should Gen. Grant
prove to be destitute of these qualities, and |
should he think only of making himself a
convenient tool for the radical politicians,
then nothing could avert general anarchy but
a popular reaction more profound, sweeping
and decisive than any movement of the kind |
of which political events have yet indicated |
the incipiency.
Tue LATE AWARD OF PREMIUMs TO SEWING MA.