The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-08-28
The Prospects Of the Campaign.
From Che Round Table, August ~.


mulating their resources, but neither has
yet actually taken the field. Trumpets of
| defiance and fish-horns of vituperation have
been sounded on both sides in manner
sufficiently discreditable, and the respective
candidates have been so satisfactorily proved
to be the basest Of mankind that neither
would seem to possess any moral advantage
over the other. The mouthpieces Of each
fairly contests the palm for prominence in
blackguardism, and Mr.. Greeley's La Crosse
Republican is neck-and-neck with Mr..
Pomeroy's La Crosse Democrat.
Specifically speaking, the chances of the
two parties may appear to be relatively un
changed, and the probability, therefore,
| would seem to be vastly in favor Of the
election of General Grant. Our conviction
was freely expressed at the time Of the New
York nomination that in selecting Governor
| Seymour for their standard-bearer the De-
| mocrats had set the seal to their own de-
feat. Did we judge merely from indica
| tions on the surface, this conviction might
remain unchanged. We have, however, be-
come persuaded that there is n powerful
under-current of popular dissatisfaction with
Radical rule and Radical measures which
is gaining rather than losing strength with
| the passage Of time, and that consequently
| the chances, which at present we estimate
as nearly even, may incline in November,
in victorious degree, to the Democratic
side. r.
1t is plain that, Notwithstanding the as
sistance of some of their old-time allies,
the fire-eating zealots of the South, the
efforts Of the Radicals to afix to the Demo-
cratic cause the stigma Of disloyalty, or, in
general, Of attachment to dead and gone
unpopular issues, meets no sympathetic
response from the great body of the people.
| The civil war is not to be fought over again,
neither is slavery to be revived. There
1 are regulators among Republica ms rs we'll as
| among Democrats, and the respective adyo-
Gates Of free trade and protection are alike
| to be found in the ranks Of both parties. In
word, there is no distinctive principle or
measure on either side which is likely to
outweigh with the bulk of. voters their con-
yictions on the subject Of reconstruction.
| Substantially speaking, those who believe
in and would perpetuate universal negro
suffrage will vote solidly on one side, and
| those who disbelieve in universal negro suf-
frage, or would leave it to the regulation of
the States themselves, will vote On the other.
Assuredly no intelligent man can credit
that there would be less danger to the ma
tional honor, 30 far as the public debt is
concerned, in the success of party which
counts General Butler among it's most in
| huential leaders than would rise from the
victory of its rival. But in point of fact
no immediate question of finance will be
| determined either one way or the other by
| the Presidential election. ProspectiYely,
there may be looked for that mitigation of
public burdens or that aggravation of them
which becomes respectively natural when
a man trained in public affairs or o
man ignorant of then-both being ad-
mitted to be equally patriotic-accedes
to a commanding and influential position.
In the absence of specific pledges, or, in
| deed, of any definite or unchecked control
| bearing upon matters Of exche9uer, SO far
as preference attaches to either, the Demo-
cratic candidate should manifestly be the
favorite. But the outrageous blunders of
the party in power in all things relating to
this momentous subject, their utter want Of
anything like settled or permanent policy,
the enormous injury they have inflicted
upon nearly every business interest in the
country by their procrastinations, their I'M
certainties and their ignorance, undoubt-
edly have persuaded thousands of sober
minded men that on this ground alone any
possible change in administration would
be change for the better. Most certainly
no conceivable party or policy could
be worse than those that, by refusing
| to reform the civil service, have re-
fused in time of unprecedented public
burdens to save the country sixty-hve mil
lions of dollars a year and who, by their
connivance with whiskey frauds, have i'm
poyershed the treasury to an amount equal
to more than half the entire present an
nual revenue. Now, all this cheating, i'm
becility, and folly may be inseparable from
loyalty and hatred of Copperheads and dis
interested love of negroes !; but if they are,
being of very palpable injury to the ma
tional interests, while their inevitable ad-
iuncts are of but theoretic advantage, ii
seems exceedingly likely that a practical
people may prefer, apart from all other
issues, to rid themselves of the whole load
of such good, bad, and doubtful qualities
together. .-a
But the election hinges upon RECONSTRUCT
ton, to which all other questions, however
important, are evidently to be reckoned as
subordinate. The Republicans, well know
ing their most vulnerable side, deprecate
this view of the case with refreshing sim
plicity. The issue of reconstruction, say
they, is closed by events. Reconstruction
is thing accomplished. Hence it is mad
MISSILE, or at least improbable, to discuss
the wisdom Of the process. In other words,
premium should be offered for all future
time to encourage rancorous, preclpltate,
o,l ,,ooonct;+ut;opo1 1erislotion with the
promised result of vitiating every estab-
lished element of the United States Gov
eminent and insuring its early overthrow,
The national history has been eventful and
UNIQUE, and, particularly of late years, has
presented unexpected vicissitudes, but We
do not vet believe that Americans are pre-
pared without, revision, to accept solution
of their great social and political problem
which, irrevocable thereafter, without
bloodshed, involves the negation of q
hitherto cherished and signally important
principle of their Constitution. ...--
Already we hear from numerous points
accounts of collisions which have been re-
peatedly foreshadowed in these columns as
inevitable if a political equality, by many
deemed unnatural, and which in any mode
rate view was at least premature, were
forced upon the superior race Of the south
ern people. Already the results of an
amazing want of craftsmanship, to say
nothing Of ordinary tact or generous feel
ing, are becoming critically manifest
Already crazy fanaticism is exulung over
secondary symptoms that it fails to see may
prove the medicine to have been even worse
than the disease. The remarkable unpopu'