The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-06-06
ONE OF THE ILL oMENs FOR RADI-
CALIsM.

The New York Sun is coming into line with
| a class of journals which serve the party in
power as a certain class of courtiers served
the reigning sovereign in England when it
seemed uncertain whether the Stuarts or a
new dynasty would obtain permanent occu-
pancy of the throne. The chronic mutability
Of public affairs, and the violent swing OF
alternate revolution and reaction had so
thoroughly demoraized them that they could
not devote themselves with more than half a
heart to any cause. Their utmost fidelity
was qualified with the paramount purpose OF
securing their safety in any event. They
openly took the oath of allegiance to one
king. and secretly pledged their loyalty to an
other. AT those moments, especially, when
the throne seemed to be shaky under William,
or Anne, or George, they were untiring in eff
forts to ingratiate themselves with the ban
ished dynasty by communicating to it state
secrets and protesting to give it counsel in the
interest of its restoration. The political situa-
ton at this time in the United States is some
what analogous to that of England in the
days of Godolphin and Marlborough, of Har-
ley and Bolingbroke; and the same care
which those men took to provide against the
uncertain contingencies of the future, by
dividing their homage between two royalties,
is now manifested by certain editors and poll
ticians of the North in their endeavors to
conciliate the reactionary sentiment of the
country on the one hand, without openly re-
pudiating the radical ticket or unequivocally
breaking with the radical organization on the
other hand Like Raymond, of the New
York Times, and Weed, of the New York Ad-
vertiser, Dana of the New York Sun, has
adopted the practice of switching of, so to
speak, from the party train, at dubious con-
lectures, and making political observations
from detached point os view. They have
evidently no fancy for the excitements and
hazards of the position which Greeley de-
scribes as 'between the devil and the deep
sea" and which the philosopher scribe of
the Tribune delights to occupy.
Among the demonstrations of homage on
the part of Mr. Weeds paper to sound states
manship and anti-radical policy, is the criti-
cism on the suffrage clause of the platform
just accepted by Grant that it declares that
in one part of the country where colored suf-
frage is likely to prove ruinoust it may be
established and enforced by superior power,
while in another part, where such suffrage
would be too inconsiderable to be noticed, it
may be left to the people who have already
declared against it." That Mr.. Weed should,
nevertheless, profess to be in favor of Grant
for President on this "ruinous" platform,
is a paradox that bears more hardly on his
moral fame than on his intellectual reputa-
ton. Yet the opponents of Grant and radi-
ealism may almost pardon the adhesion of
this old and able editor to the radical ticket,
in consideration of the conclusive reasons
which he gives why no friend of the Consti-
tuition, and no patriotic citizen, can afford to
support it. The motives of his adhesion are
his own; the substance of his reasons
adverse to such adhesion is the common pro-
perry of all who value truth and justice.
1t is no doubt safe to say that the late
course of the class of journals referred to has
a significance which is anything but favora-
BILE to radical ascendancy in the future for
this course is tacit recognition of the
increasing power and ultimate triumph of re-
action, on the part of editors whose GOODNESS
and shrewdness of observation are not sur
passed in American journalism.