The New York herald., 1868-05-16
The Chase Movement for the Presidency
The Break I'm the Republican Party.

There is& break in the republican party
Radicalism has made it. There is conserva-
tive movement afoot at Washington to bring
out Chief Justice Chase as an independent can
didate for the Presidential succession. 1t is
given out that the Chief Justice himself is the
chief engineer in this enterprise; that he is
mainly responsible for the defections among
the conservative republican Senators on the
impeachment; that since Monday last he has
had the revolving and doubtful republican mem
bers of the High Court, in several instalments,
at his house, and that he and they and Presi-
dent johnson have substantially agreed upon
plan of operations looking to the defeat of the
radicals under the banner of General Grant.
Nay, it is even rumored that certain managing
democrats have admitted the feasibility of the
fusion of their party upon the conservative
ticket of Chase and Fessenden. We have no
idea that any leading democrats have admitted
anything of the sort; for they have not come to
that yet; nor is the ambulance corps of the
democratic party necessary to carry off Mr..
Chase and his followers from the radical camp.
Among the candidates before the Chicago
Republican Convention of 1860 who were over
topped by Abraham Lincoln were Messrs.
Seward, Chase and Cameron all of whom, in
graceful recognition of their claims and pre-
tensions, were included in Mr.. Lincoln's origi-
nal Cabinet. AS his Secretary of Treasury, in
providing the sinews of war for the suppression
of the late gigantic Southern rebellion through
his comprehensive and elastic paper money
system, the claims of Mr.. Chase for the repub-
lican nomination in 1864, even against Lincoln,
were vigorously agitated by considerable
body of the elite of the party. Lincoln's
popularity, however, swept away this and
all other impedments in the Baltimore Con-
vention and before the people; but, again, in
recognition of the claims Of Mr.. Chase as one
of the most conspicuous lights and leaders of
the republican church, he was, on the death of
Chief Justice Taney, appointed to his position
at the head of the Supreme Court. Having
resolved upon the White House, however, no
body conversant with the persevering nature
of Mr.. Chase supposed that in being invested
with the robes of the Chief Justice he had ceased
to be q Presidential candidate. Last fall he was
the favorite of the radicals, par ercellence,
against the field as a model statesman and
advocate of manhood suffrage" and equal
rights to all races and colors. But the tre-
mendous popular reaction in Ohio and New
York last October and November against
universal negro suffrage turned first the re-
publican masses towards General Grant, and
next, in that decisive fare-up of February
k...skl. Al U~I
champion of the radical leaders, and Chase
was nowhere, looking to the coming Chicago
Convention.
Next comes this impeachment of Johnson;
and Chief Justice Chase, from his impartial
and Independent course in the very beginning
of the trial, excited the wrath of the radicals
and delighted the conservatives. The radical
organs and orators have since abused him
sufficiently to satisfy any reasonable man that
his future career is decreed to be apart from
their company. They have cut him adrift
and he is free to take his own course
| We do not think it likely that If left to
the chance Of the Democratic National
Convention Mr.. Chase will get hearing. He
must be brought out in advance of that Con-
vention. Nor In the event of the collapse of
this impeachment will he gain anything by the
combination limited at in certain quarters in
and Johnson; for while johnson would bring
over no reinf0rcements from the democratic
lines he would probably scare off many repub-
licans otherwise disposed TO rally under the
independent banner Of Chase
The true policy of the active friends of Mr.
Chase is to bring him forward as an independ-
ent conservative Union candidate for the sue
cession, in opposition to the revolutionary
schemes of the radical faction, of which,
though Grant is the Presidential candidate,
the fanatical Wade is the embodiment Wade
is, doubtless, among such reasoning republi-
cans as Grimes, Fessenden, Trumbull and
Henderson, more obnoxious than johnson;
but the differences between Wade and Chase,
among the rank and file, are wide enough to
break up the republican party. We have no
doubt that this impeachment, with the test
question Of Johnson's removal, will be made q
plank in the republican Chicago platform,
whatever may be the action of the High Court
meantime. This will bring the revolutionary
and agrarian programme Of Wade into the
foreground, and against this Chase may rally
powerful party around himself as the repre-
sentative of the constitution. With the admis-
sion Of the outside Southern States the question
Of Southern negro suffrage will be settled for
the present. and while In everything, including
the national finances, Chase will utterly eclipse
Wade, even in the matter of the war for the
Union, he will, in his sphere, have record as
good as that Of Grant.
Radicalsm has been pushed to such ex-
tremes that, like English Roundheadism and
French Jacobinism, II is destroying ITSELF The