The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-08-18
THE REACTION IRRESISTIBLE.

II is as true of reactions as of revolutions,
that they never go backwards. Two years
ago, popular feeling in the country at large
began to run against the Radicals. The
Republican party then sealed its fate by re-
fusing to heed the warning. If there was
any hope for it, that hope lay in sharply
breaking loose from Radicalism, and going
as the popular demand pointed in the direc-
ton of universal reform. and especially of all
those refoTmatory policies. which offer the
sole and indispensable conditions of domestic
tranquility and material prosperity. Instead
Of doing this, however, the Republican
party linked its fortunes more closely
than ever to the desperate counsels of
Radicalism. 1t has proceeded from one
piece of Radical proAigacy, from one
Radical outrage to another 1t has
made manifest its total incapacity to
inaugurate the required system of retrench-
ment and economy. And meanwhile whatever
power it has welded, whatever success it has
obtained, have been purely Fictitious, the re-
suit of boldly violating the Constitution, and
of still more boldly defying public opinion.
The last device of its leaders is the attempt
to defeat the voice of the people in the Presi-
dental election by giving the decision to the
reconstructed governments so-called at the
South, the mere spawn of Radical force and
fraud. But in this no doubt they have fatally
misealculated. The people at length perceive
that the Radical leaders despair not only of
the permanent success, but of the permanent
existence of their party, and that they are now
laboriDg for the devilish triumph of snatching
victory from the opposite party and robbing the
country of free government by delivering
its destinies into the hands of single despot.
In view of such an intent, the idea that the
reaction which commenced two years ago
could subside before it had reached any
definite conclusion, or effected any practical
reform, is perfectly preposterous. Yet there
were some politicians and some journalists,
not without repute for shrewdness, who fell
into this egregious folly upon the announce
ment of the Democratic nominations. The
ticket it was argued, would repel the con-
servative element in the Republican
party, an element which could have been
secured by nominating Chase. And it was
also vitiated, so the argument further alleged,
by implying a concession to the lately ''rebel"
population of the South that would be dis
tasteful to the Union war Democrats of the
North. But the men who reasoned in this way
had no conception of the real depth or the
true nature of the pending reaction. This
reaction is simply popular movement against
Radicalism in every contingency, and at all
hazards. 1t is based on the conviction that
the supreme danger of the hour is Radical
ism, and that the only road to safety is to be
found in the complete reversal of Radical
policy. This is the master-thought of the
situation. Names and platforms become in a
measure insignificant. The strength of the
Democratic ticket is in the strength of the
popular impulse which, having once started,
moves with an impetuosity that is wisely |
blind to all considerations but the one patriotic
purpose of overthrowing Radical misrule. |
This impulse-the reaction manifested from |
time to time in various elections during the |
past two years, and which has just resulted in |
the tremendous anti-Radical majority in Ken
lucky, after one hardly less telling in Ore |
5on-is plainly irresistible.