Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-04-18
ii duiOn aud gispateh.
SATURDAY. APKIL Is. 1893.
CASTING THE HOROSCOPE.

CASTING THE HOROSCOPE.
A Republican Paper DenOunees RE
construction as ga BungIe."-If
Notes the Decline Of iIs Party and
FOrfeIIs its FaII-TaxaiiOn and Cor
rupfIon Not the Least Among its
Sins.
From the Cincinnati Commercial April lG.
That the present Republican party are
about 10 make bungle aud a failure Of the
whole business Of reconstruction there are
grave reasons for apprehending. Three
years after the close of the war Of rebellion
The country sees itself apparently further
from settlement, peace and order than when
| the last Rebel had but newly laid down his
arms. Not single insnrgent State, save
Tennessee, is restored to the Union, and
even in Tennessee the political condition is
a strange and unrepubIican compound Of
| repression, revolution and anarchy. The
policy of Congress has been changed and
modified TO meet the exigencY again and
again, until il is scarcely possible for we'll
! informed politicians TO state clearly what
that policy now is, much less what itie TO
be for the future. The statute books are
written over with reconstruction bills and
supplementary reconstruction bills, and
acts ito amend an act entitled an act" etc,
till few men less learned than the recently
appointed commission TO codify the laws
can tell what they now mean. s.
Meanwhile, the South is filled with dis
organization and discomfort, and the North
is in a condition of uncertainty and unrest
which bodies little favor for any party
which can be held responsible for prolong-
ing the situation. A general feeling Of
distrusi, vague, perhaps, but not the less
uneasy, peryades the public mind. The
Republican party has lost mach Of the
| prestige and cohesion which the struggle
| for national existence gave TO il during the
war, and no longer marches TO battle in the
| sure confidence of victory As yet, il has
not been able fully 20 hold its own in a
/ single State election of the present year
| Notwithstanding the capital IL has de-
rived from the very bad behavior of the
| President, aud from the almost assured
| prospect of his speedy removal from Office
| il beholds the American public strangely
| apsthetlc TO party eXigencies and partisan
| appeals. The great historic event of the
| Impeachment, unprecedented and startling
ar it il, produces no excitement whatever,
| outside the narrow circle of imaginative
newspaper correspondents and interested
| politicians. The issues which the Repnb-
| licans have of late made in the Northern
elections have either been carried by
greatly reduced maiorities, or have been
decided against them Ohio, by forty
| thousand majority, and Michigan, by
| IL haf
litical equality of the black and white
races is not yet fit to be established.
1t is easy for our complscent Republican
Senators aud Representatives, secure in the
enjoyment of their comfortable Eve thou
sand dollars a wear, beside mileage and
other perquisites, to forget the disagree
able subjects Of taxation, economy and
finance, aud TO fancy that the displacement
Of johnson will make all right, and that
they can walk over the course with Grant
IN the fall without trouble. They are do
ing their best TO ignore the unpleasant facts
OF the situation, and are spending the
public money, in the intervals of impeaCh-
ment, with looseness which is indicative
Of anything but caution OF of wisdom. BY
their neglect OF financial questions, and
their failure TO re-adiust taxation, they are
laying up, unless We are greatly mistaken,
huge arsenal of weapons TO be used
against them in the next election. We
aasure them that the people regard 1t as OF
much less consequence who is President Oi
the United States than what is the rate oi
the income tax which all must pay. Though
IL may be very improper 10 say 1T, 1t IS
nevertheless true, that the mass ot our TEL
low-citizens are far more anxious about
equality Of taxation than equality of races
However ready they may he TO de
plore the unreconstructed condition
Of the South, they have 4 more intimate
conviction Of the evils that are rife in thC
North, and which will not long brook post
ponement or delay. At such season a
this, the Congress which refuses to retrencl
expenditures, or which does any thing {,
add to the public burdens, wantonly courts
defeat before the people. The era OF ex
travaganCe in private expenditure Ions
|, since reached its eliminating point in thi
country, and even the rich and idle classe
are entered upon the practice of economy
| IL will not do for great party that is hei'
, | responsible for the government, TO shut 1t
| eyes to the one great necessity OF the times
| III il persists in 30 doing; if il goes on II
, the career of extravaganza already begun
| il it puts through Congress more lan'
grants, steamships subsidies, pension bill
and loans of the public credit-it will de
serve, as il will most probably receive,
crushing defeat at the polls next November
Impeachment cannot save It; Grant can
not save il; it will be defeated, as has 5
often happened heretofore to a corrupt an
extravagant party, by whatever organiza
ton will inscribe on its banners the poten
) watchwords RctreHchment and Reform.