The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-06-05
Judge Chase-Reconstruct ton.

- sss " Is q.
we do not know what authority to attach
% tho New York Herald S exposition Of the
views Of Judge CHASE on national affairs.
Ifthat exposition--the substance OF which
onncared in our columns yesterday.-is an-
,bor;zed, It places the Judgein position Of
conservatism and liberality which has not
before been publicly assumed by any mem
her f-the Republican party. The idea that
the States should control the. whole ques-
ton of suffrage, coupled with the important
declaration that Congress has no power to
keen the States in subsection, places the
whole question of the day in q light Of per
feet fairness and safety. The Federal Con-
rress, by taking the very opposite ground
has brought the country to astate Of discord
greater than ever existed before, and the
national interests to the very brink of ruin.
The reconstruction, upon the idea attributed
to Judge CHASE, would, even at this time,
restore national confidence; and national
prosperity, harmony and peace would 1oi-
low, as consequential.
We cannot but regard the views I'M
puted to Judge CHASE as indicative OF the
tendency of the public mind to that SOBER
second thought" which the scenes OF the
aav must becct. Men cannot look out upon
the waste that has succeeded to fruitful
ness and bloom,-upon the discord ana pas
sion which have taken the place OF peace
ana barmony-upon the poverty and want
that have fallen upon prosperous anu
bappv people-without becoming weary Oh
tho state policy from which these things have
come. and without being impelled to seek a
romedv in some other and more benehcent
nlan of national restoration.
Judge CHASE is but yielding to the re-
turning tide of public opinion, and which
vii, in time sweep away and overwhelm
,bose who resist it. This government must
he one of States acting separately for their
domestic and social welfare, and conformity
through their representatives at the Federal
con;tal for the common defence and general
welfare of all: or it must be a centralized
desnotism under the authority of an En-
ncror. If it is to be according to the
former of these two propositions, it must be
confederacy of equal States-it cannot
exist half free and half slave, with States
in entire subsection to Congress, and States
independent of Congress in their power as
States. And it is to this point that Judge
CHAsE's view is directly applicable. He
denies the power Of Congress to hold States
in subsection. as it now holds the southern
States and most justly, because to SO hold
them destroys the vital feature of the Re-
public which makes it q confederation OF
coGoual States. Nor can there be anything
like regular and healthy operation OF the
Government until all the States are placed
exactly in this position.
If we fail in this there is no relief
from the TYRANNY OF PARTIALLY but in
the will of one man to peryade equally the
area of the whole nation. The monstrous
idea of the Radical platform which de-
MES to some States the rights accorded to
others in the matter of suffrage is destruc-
tive to the whole system of confederation.
Ii is q breach of the compact of States-to
the benefit of every provision of which
every State is entitled upon its admission
and, according to DANIEL WEBSTER, vio-
iation of one part of the compact is destruc-
tive to the whole, and absolves all the par
ties to it. There can be no reconstruction
upon this Radical Partially plan. The Go
vernment never will move smoothly until
any such inequality as that now maintained
and that proposed by the Radicals is alto
gether repudiated by the nation. The union
Of unequal States is dead union. Nothing
can give it life but equality. Nothing can
give it yigor and prosperity but the pre-
dominance of the enlightened and educated
masses which the Radical policy has DOOM
ed to Acknowledgement and banishment
from the public councils.