The New York herald., 1868-03-20

IA East river foot Of Wall street, at three O'Clock
| p. M. tomorrow Saturday, for Charleston, s. c.,
| connecting with steamer for Florida ports, &c.
The stock market was strong and active yesterday.
Governments dull, but steady. Gold closed at
| at 1881 1SSx.
| Nigger SuGrage-The Split In the Radical
Party.
There is good sign in Congress. Radical
republicans broadly and definitely differ on ''the
main question" Hitherto the radicals have
had their differences and disputes, but always
on issues in which there was no peculiar party
necessity for agreement-issues that did not
involve the very vitality and cohesion of the
party. Different members of this dominant
faction hold the most opposite views on the
tariff question, and sagacious leaders have
seen and acted on the necessity of keeping that
topic down for the present, conscious that its
| agitation would make an incurable breach
Not less positive is the difference on the money
| question. Some radicals 60 cheek by jowl
| with Pendleton and some would be under the
foot of the gold-exacting bondholder. But
these were differences that could be soothed by
cajolery for the time being, and that were
lost in agreement on the common party pur-
pose-the topic that seemed to the faction
greater than all others together-the central
idea of ngger suffrage. Niger suffrage was
the pole star of the party-the one immovable,
positive fact toward which every act pointed,
and which was kept in view by every
little bill, however apparently insignifi-
cant, that steered its way through the
labyrinth of Congressional schemes. Radi-
calism ciphered down to its final figure was
nigger suffrage and nothing else. Niger suf-
frage was what all the radical orators from
Sumner to Stevens meant in all their bullying
and blather about equality for the whole
people," ''a republican form Of government"
"a Southern guarantee These were the
names they gave 1.-THE sort of sugar coating
to make it less offensive to the people. Now
the radicals differ absolutely and irremediably
as to the safety and expediency of this measure.
In this difference there is hope, prospect,
promise for the country, just as there always
is to honest men when rogues Of any sort fall
| out.
1t is scarcely possible to overestimate the
importance of this radical rupture. 1t is the
peculiarly significant fact of the day in our
political turmoils. On the measure forcing
nigger suffrage one republican member said =
81 should regard the passage of this bill at
this hour as the deathknell of our hopes as a
political party in the Presidential canvass"
From this, then, it seems that the voice of the
people has more influence over the minds of
some republicans than the whistle call Of party
discipline. The magnetism has departed from
Old Thad Stevens finger. Up to this time
radical orthodoxy has turned on the point of
mans devotion to this primary purpose. 1t
was the test Of soundness always called forth
| whenever member seemed to waver or
venture any opinions of his own. His claim
| to the spoils of victory was always de-
pendent on his fidelity in this extreme.
Without personal independence of spirit,
governed by the fear of being ''read out of
the party" before the roll should be called for
the distribution of the spoils, perceiving no
other danger than that which would result
from failure in party duty, the members who
composed the republican majority were easily
enough kept together by so positive and in
exorable Mentor as Old Stevens, who drove
them up to every vote in a compact mass, as
the captains of Xerxes, whip in hand, drove
forward the Persian soldiers at Thermopyle.
But that terrorism has lost its hold on their
spirits. The fear of Stevens and Of the con
sequences Of infidelity to the party is forgotten
in a greater fear; and the men who on only a
sense of danger kept together scatter and
skedaddle when they suddenly perceive that
a greater danger than all others lies In being
caught in the company Of the great offender
against the sense of the nation. So the radica
majority breaks up on the main issue-divide'
on the essential fact that gave the party life
and member from Ohio, regarding the vot,
of his State on the topic, twill suffer his righ
arm to drop from its socket sooner than ht
will vote" for bill securing thing that h,
lately pretended to believe the most righteou.
on earth
Disintegration will follow fast. Nothing car
prevent the faction from going to pieces nov
that the single thread of agreement which gave
1t unity is broken. Members may save them
selves individually by trimming to the popular
will rising in their several States; but, happily
for the nation, the spirit and impulse is gone
forever from the party that, to secure continued
power, has kept the country in state o
anarchy where it should have established
order-has cultivated hatred where 1t nigh
have secured good will-has, in two years o
pretended efforts at reconstruction, done NOR,
to set enmity between the sections and t
render difficult a return to the ancient harmony
Of the Union than was done by four years o
semi-savage warfare. There is no stoppin,
place for radicalism this eide Of tha
which has been its constant aim. ]
! has committed itself so fully, so beyond al
recall Ia an object with which the people hav