The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-07-30


piled with the requirements of Congress, the
act constituting them military districts has
''become temperatures" so the armed power of
the nation is withdrawn and the power here
tofore lodged with commanders is ''remitted to
the civil authorities" Law and not the will
OF any man is now theoretically supreme in
those communities. But what law? Particu-
larly the fourteenth amendment, which Mr..
| Seward has just somewhat supernuously) de-
clared valid to all intents and purposes as
| part of the constitution Of the United States I"
| These Southern communities are now subject to
their local laws save in so far as these conflict
with the national laws and they are subject to
the laws Of Congress except when these con-
flict with the provisions of the constitution
Just as the parts of the reconstruction law that
established military authority in the South have
now "become imperative" and are put aside,
so other parts of the same law will of course
become imperative and be put aside, as they
seem to be superseded by the higher constitu-
tional enactments. Between the reconstruc-
ton laws and the fourteenth amendment there
is direct collision on that vital point of Southern
| politcs-negro suffrage. In the amendment
the Southern communities may find full power
| to supersede and push aside the laws that es-
tablish this suffrage, and from all the indica-
tons we now have of Southern temper we
cannot doubt their readiness to use that power at
the earliest possible moment In erasing negro
suffrage they lose certain weight in the ma
tonal Legislature but they will deprive them
selves of that to put their domestic institutions
on basis satisfactory to themselves. For this
they will only wait to manipulate one State
| election, and so get the power that Congress
has left with the carpet-baggers To this effort
they are manifestly invited by the attitude of
the Executive, by the DESTINATIONS announce
ment to them just as Congress has adjourned
that the generals have no longer any power
and that the fourteenth amendment is the para
mount law.
Here we go, then, into another stretch of revo-
lutionary possibilities, into another phase of the
war of factions, as if to demonstrate that the
newest republic shall not be exempt from the
vices that destroyed all its historical predeces-
sors, and to declare that forms Of government
give no security against the evils that flow
from party fury and all other developments Of
political vice. Our future we can only study
in the history Of other nations. Was the fall
of the Roman republic an accurate antelope
of ours? Between the decay of the old re-
publican forms and spirit and the next gov
eminent that gave glory to the Roman name
there were over hundred years in which the
State was alternately in the hands of one or
another faction. Reaction from one extreme
always brought the other into power, and the
incoming faction found no labor 50 agreeable
as tearing up all that the former had done and
in initiating another organization ofgovernment
from the most widely different principles
Laws were only made by one to be unnade
by the other, and society-the peeple-every
interest of the community was thus kept at the
constant mercy of mon who could see nothing
thatstood in the way of their party revenges.
Thus the Roman republic went down, until its
people so lost their great spirit that they could
accept o master, and then the shadow of
Caesars name, greater than Caesar, CONSOLE
dated the empire. Are we to experience the
same changes? Was the government founded
by our fathers only ut for republic of Eve to
ten millions Of persons, and did the growth of
| the nation render inevitable q change in its
| political system? And must we, in order to
| reconcile us to the system of the future that
shall be suited to fifty millions 60 through all
the miseries Of rule Of faction till we shall
be ready to accept with peace system that
now would be repugnant to our republican in
stincts?
As we stand we are in tho hands Of the
demagogues. This most atrocous faction that
we call the radicals has cheated the nation of
the just results of its great efforts and victory,
and thus starts the reaction that has threatened
to bring into power the other extreme. But
shall we fare any better with that other ex-
IRENE? What can we expect Of Seymour, of
Blair or of party one of whose orators is
Wade Hampton, and whose platform is made
in great part by the men who waged four
years war to destroy the government? Sey-
mour is rather worse than poor Pierce-a mere
retailer Of infinite twaddle. If his party were
to win we should expect to see him withdraw
and Blair take his place. Blair has promised
in advance to take us back to the chaos of dis
organization. He would observe constitutional
forms-that is, he would wait until he had Sc :
cured Congress of his own creatures, which
he could certainly do by such use Of govern
ment patronage as has not been dreamed of
hitherto. With that Congress and that Presi-
dent whittier might we not be taken9 And If
the Northern people resisted another war of CO.
ercion would be easy to start, and Southern
army, with change Of coat and colors, might
march into the Middle or New England States
under Wade Hampton to assert the authority