The New York herald., 1868-06-02
The Democracy and the Presidency-chief
Justice Chase Their Only Chance

regular L0uiSta IA crevaSse! lou hno" tna.
for hundreds of miles the mighty stream OF the
lower Mississippi 10 confined between artllcia
embankments or leva' IS, which protect the rlcf
lowlands on both sidea from inundation. Bu
there are times when the spring floods from
twenty States and Teri.' 'ories fill these EN-
bankments to the very bri,n, and then tht
steamboat passenger fronS considerable ele
vation looks down on the COTTON fields ano
planters houses on each side of him. AT suct
time, when the water begins to tricAile ovel
a depression in the soft aIluvion Of the levee,
if not Immediately attended TO great gar
will soon be formed, through which q resistless
torrent will deluge the plains below. This is q
crevasse. Its tremendous volume and. force
may be imagined from the. fact that not only
does this escape valve serve to inundate thou
sands of square miles of fields and forest
lands, but sometimes changes the course of the
river ITSELF Hence the numerous crescent and
horseshoe lakes on both sides Of it below
Memphis. They were formerly bends in the
channel of the shifting stream
The radicals are now threatened with a Gre
vase of this description in the democratic
movement for Chief Justice Chase as their
Presidential candidate. The results. may be a.,
change in the course of the government, which
will cast the ultra radical policy off
to one side like one of those Missis-
sippi river side lakes, no more resorted
to except for their catfish. The big In
dians of the Albany Regency, near thee head of
navigation on the Hudson, had littletcouncl
pect, when, as it appears, ''the Oneida Chief"
Horatio Seymour, boldly and earnestly pleaded
the policy of nominatIn Chief Justice Chase as
the last chance for the perplexed democracy
against the hero of the Appomattox apple
tree" The hint is Immediately taken up at the
lower end of the river by Captain Rynders,
who, in few pointed historical and logical
remarks, proves that Mr. Chase is first rate
democrat and the man Of all men for Tam
many Hall in this crisis. Last fall he was
the anointed head radical of Tilton and the,
model statesman of Greeley, on the presump
Phillips on the platform Of manhood suffrage,
universal negro suffrage, radical negro recon
and Southern negro supremacy. But
the whirligig of politics brings about great
changes upon short notice. Now it is known
that Chase is no radical, but sound con-
servative; that his political ideas are much
nearer the policy of Johnson than that of Ben
Wade, and that, next to Johnson, Chase has
fallen under the wrath of Butler, Boutwell,,
Stevens and all the impeachers.
Here, then, is the champion for the demo-
cracy and all the conservative forces-the
great statesman who furnished the sinews of
the war, without which even General Grant
would have been a failure. The Chicago
republican platform throws Pendleton out Of
the fight, in leaving him nothing to fight
against on his greenback policy; while on the
other tack it hedges off Seymour on his shib-
bOleth of gold to the bondholders. Then, on
the question of universal negro suffrage, as the
republicans limit it to the unrestored rebel
States they practically give up their case,
nasmuch as, with the restoration of those
as New York and Jersey to regulate the suf-
frage each for themselves, universal or
qualified. Knock out the impeachment reso-
luton, and the Chicago platform may be
adopted by the July Tammany Hall Conven-
tion; and so, as in 1852, the two parties may
occupy substantially the same ground, and the
result, fropa similar causes of distrust against
their party leaders and managers and their real
designs, may be the same to the first soldier of
the age.
Chase and Dix will make splendid oppo-
sition ticket, and some such combination is the
only chance for the democracy. They will go
down again with Pendleton, or Seymour, or
Hendricks, or Hoffman, or Wood, or poor Pierce,
or Fillmore, or Black, or Brown, or any other
decayed politician identified with the peace
party of the war. The fastidious Western
copperhead democracy turn up their dainty
noses q. Hancock. They don't like his epau-
lets, and they won't have him. The aristo-
cratic managers of the Eastern democracy have
always given the cold shoulder to Johnson,
perhaps because they have no faith in goose or
lapboard, thimble or scissors. We have tried
them with brave old Admiral Farragut,
but they evidently were afraid that, as
he was not dyed in the wool at Charleston or
Chicago, he knows nothing of democracy
Mr. johnson himself has done all that he
could towards finding democratic candidate,
but all to no purpose, till at last the party
leaders discover that Chase is their only
chance Of salvation. Seymour and Rynders
pronounce him n good democrat: Greeley still
pronounce him great statesman, his recent
record proves him good conservative, and
all men acknowledge him thoroughly loyal
and trusty. There is no fear that II elected
he will take the copperhead democratic back
track to ''the constitution as II was, including
slavery, and no fear that he will diverge to