Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-06-05
Impeachment and the Presidential Cam.
paign.

Impeachment is broken down COM
pletely, and the failure of this process is
to the Radicals as great defeat as the
ninth Thermidor and the fall of Robe.
sphere was to the Jacobins, or as great
a defeat as the Roundheads met with
whensCromwell turned the canting ras-
Gals out of doors Our revolution had
fallen also, as the French Revolution
did, into the hands of men of whom
Robespierre is the type. Allrevolutions
have the same fate. The great men die
as Mirabeau did, or are driven from
public life by party intolerance as Lsfay-
cite was, and then the reptiles-the
Robespierres = become the prominent
figures. Vain, .cowardly, cruel, con-
temptble in every intellectual aspect,
these men rule for the hour by reason of
their very vices, and then they also
fall, and their fall is a sign that the ma
ton is recovering its balance and learn
ing its true position. So, with Lincoln
murdered, with Chase pushed from his
moral leadership Of the party he made,
with all the original heads of the great
national movement out of the way, But
Ter, Sumner and Stevens had their vile
hour and goried in their political reign
of terror. But the ninth Thermidor
came soon, and their heads are in the
sawdust All the elements they led are
utterly beaten, and in their defeat closes
their three years struggle to manage the
Republican party. This is a party rup-
ture that is irreparable; for the wise,
moderate and respectable portion can of
AacnanA To haua xpratohaa
nor will they intermit their efforts against
the vietors. Satan, stretched on the
burning mari in hell, cursed in mild
and spatbetc style by comparison with
the spirit in which they are even now
venting their rage and imagining means
to repair their fortunes
There is one remarkable result of their
factious activity; they have captured
Grant. He is theirs thoroughly, and in
their interest now rules as a military
dictator over ten States. There is no
more singular spectacle in all the vaga-
ries Of political change than is now pre-
scented by the relative position of two of
the great men of the war-Grant, the
leader of our armies, and Chase, the or
ganizer of the financial system that en-
abled the nation to use It's great resources.
Chase, who, but a short time since, was
intellectually the head and front of the
extreme spirit of the Northern people,
now, seeing that the revolution has ac-
complished its purposes, asserts the SUI
premacy Of, the law, declares the vitality
of the Constitution, and stands for the
civil institutions Of the Government,
the frmest Conservative in the land;
while Grant, who only the other day
was plain soldier, man abjuring poll
ties and statecraft, standing simply on
his duty, has now forgotten all that, gone
headlong over, and heads the cry of the
destructves The change is absolute,
unqualified and without parallel. What
does it mean7 1t means that Grants
first political battle is a defeat, and not q
Belmont, but Bull Ran, or a Shiloh
with no Buell. coming up to save him.
Grant d ID not suit the Radicals, aud had
to be trimmed down and rsshaped to
make him suit He was so plain, so
straightforward, so much an honest pa
triot that they could have nothing to do
with him, and be thought he was likely
TO lose the Presidency thereby. So he
made a step or two toward them,
and his chances looked better for
Chicago. Growing holder with pro-
gress, be stepped out more freely, aud
finally threw himself into their arms Just
in time to get the nomination and to
find that be had thoroughly committed
himself to the idea Of faction that is
fairly driven by its own violence out Of
all respectable association. Such is his
present unenviable position; while
Chase, acting on a large view Of patriotic
duty, standing above these small eddy
ings Of party, is honored with the enmiiy
aud abuse Of the men who little while
ago abused Grant in the sane terms, but
never we're able to disgrace him until
they could call him their ally and SLAYER
him with their praise.-N Y Herald