Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1868-08-18
TIE POIITICAI, SITUATION.


tive than that which proceeds from desire
to be on the strong4side and with the win
ming party: and while there seemed to be
the slightest chance for the election of GRANT
the Herald was one of his supporters, but since
the current is evidently setting in the other
direction, its astute editor is hrayely making
his way over to the opposition. Two weeks
ago, the Herald recommended the election
of Grant and Blair. but on Thursday last its
position was shifted, and it published the fol-
lowing review of the political situation
s'Two points in the canvass are more inn
portant than all others-the history of4the
radical party aad the niggervote. For eight
years the republican party has been in power,
and the final results, as seen by the people,
are the arrangement of all the machinery of
government, an almost Incredible corruption
in Office aud weight intakes that bears
commerce and labor to the earth. VIII the
people longer have patience with a party that
has such history? This'is the question of
the hour. Is there any fear in our future
that should move the people to trust this par
ty again even despite the fearful chance that
it may continue the same destructive career
that has already been so disastrous to the
national prosperity? Can any other party
infict upon US evils worse than those we now
suffer rs the consequence ofradical misrule?
Reconstruction by system oflegislation that
deliberately FORCES calamity for whole peo-
pie and prepares the social ruin of ten States
to secure power to a coterie of politicians
this is the political crime that stamps the
radical faction as utterly dnmnable before the
people. Men inquire what the faction would
stop at that would purchase such an end by
such means, and they know that it will not
stop at anything sacred in the law and will re-
>pect the rights of the people in the North as
little as it has done in the South. Does the
name of Grant furnish any guarantee for the
future of the radicals The people are not
ready to believe it Grant is politically only
promise and possibility. Respectable
men are not willing to doubt his honesty or
his upright purpose but these do not always
qualify Tor success in such a strife as he must
control to save the people from his party
HI may prove capable; he may not, and it
is time VIXEN the people cannot trust their
future to such chance Therefore the
doom of radicalism seems to be burned into
the popular brain, and on such reasoning as
we have limited the people appear to drift
toward what they regard as the least of two
evils, without faith in the republicans and
little hope in the democrats Men ON either
side count for little; it is the history of the
radical party that condemns it. Democracy
has bad history, too. but its sins are trivial
by comparison. IF this faction ever desired
to reconstruct society it was in the interest of
the white man. The word taxation hardly
occurs in its history, and-it never aimed a
blow at the Supreme Court or sought to cripple
the government i'll the person of the Execu-
tive. 1t sympathized with the South in the
war, and that can be forgiven by people who
arc at last coming to look upon the republicans
as the South looked upon them when the war
began If, therefore, the history of the
democracy were darker than it is, the
history of radicalism would be infinitely
beyond it in infamy 1t is upon these broad
views and judgments of parties that the people
move. The common mind averages great
results by processes Gifts own. Isolated facts
are forgotten this or that virtue or vice seems
to pass away but the balance of history is
made up at the polls, and Kentucky indicates
the tendency.
If the reaction of the public mind, stimula-
ted by the history of the radical party does
not sweep the whole North, the negro vote
will be of the first Importance in the struggle.
1t may save the South to the radicals, but it
may give it to the democrats, and, regarding
the possibility of fairly divided North, Sambo
may finally hold the balance of power Some
facts indicate that the negroes may 90 very
largely with the Democrats. Dull as we may
consider the whole race, they have seen
enough to be disguised with radical friend>
ship, and are certainly seeking political allies
outside that party. Negroes from the begins
ming had determined upon their part of the
alliance with the radicals, and thus formed
expectations that the latter could not meet
Confscation tells the story in word
Northern restraint on the dominant party,
even its worst moments rendered it impossible
forit to carry out the virtual compact; but
the negroes will not understand that They
only cherish resentment at the men who
promised, but did not perform Coniiscation,
by giving the negroes n real as well as polit-
ical independence, might have made it possible
that they could sustain political opposition
in the Southern States; but without hold
on the land this was not possible Without
the power, therefore, to make their political
independence effective, with social facts, more,
cogent than radical orators, forcing upon them
that their interests were identical with the
interests of the people among whom they
must live with heart. breaking disappoint-
ment in view of this aud a bitter readiness to
visit their resentment on those who had raised
such high hopes only to betray them, the
niggers inevitably go over to the other side
There is nothing strange in this. 1t would
be strange if it were otherwise, for they
achieve political revenge and act on the best
view they can take of their own welfare
The case of the Presidency, therefore,
Judged by the main facts, seems to stand thus
The history of. the radical party is such that
the people will nottrust it again on any terms,
and this conviction threatens to give the.
North to the democrats. If, however, this
fails. there is possibility that Grant may be
beaten by losing the whole South through the
detection of the negroes, who will go over to
the democrats, partly led by the natural in
fuences of association and partly by resent
ment for the REIMBURSEMENT by the radicals of
that measure that was from the first regarded
as necessary to sustain their political Opposi-