The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-08-29

under that name are mere pretensions and are
entitled to no regard at all
Senator Wilson the Stump-A Sledgc-
Hammer Speech.
Senator Wilson, as stump speaker, is a
mighty man in Israel His late effort at Ban
gor, Maine, was sledge-hammer speech. 1t is
the condensed milk of Greeley's two ponderous
volumes on ''The American Conflict" 1t gives
us graphic picture Of the decline and fall of
the pro-slavery democratic party and of the
causes and consequences of the shareholders
rebellion appropriately beginning with poor
Pierce. The speaker reminds us that in his
first message to Congress Pierce gave his
pledge that the repOse of the country should
receive no shock during his official term, and
the orator then enlarges upon the repeal of the
Missouri Compromise as the fatal shock to the
domineerng, slavery -propagating democratic
party He dwells upon the ominous border
rufian conflict in Kansas, which may be called
the bloody overture of the great rebellion, and
he reproduces the Southern and democratic
threats of disunion secession and civil war in
|
reproduces the promises of Northern democrats
to Southern revolutionists in 1860 and 1861,
the political events which marked the begin
ming of the war and its progress to the end,
including the various forms and shapes Of
Northern democratic opposition to Congress,
the administration the army and the loyal
masses of the North while engaged in the
work of suppressing the Southern rebellion,
and in all this to the close of the war the his
torical sketch of the political issues, parties
| and conflicts involved is not only exceedingly
like the fattening of piece Of red-hot iron
with sledge-hammer by rapid blows well laid
on, but it is substantially true.
| But upon the issues and conflicts which have
arisen since the war, and especially upon the
great underlying and overshadowing issues of
this Presidential contest Mr.. Wilson ceases in
q great degree to give us the truth of history
and deals too largely in the assumptions and
conclusions Of the mere party politician for
clear exhibit of the political situation. He
tells us that the Southern rebel elements were
predominant in the late Democratic National
Convention, and he undertakes to prove from
Northern and Southern democratic stump
speeches that the whole party, rank and file,
under the sway again of their old Southern
leaders, are in this campaign simply fighting
to revive and establish 'the lost cause" of the
Southern confederacy. In this presentation of
his case Mr. Wilson makes the most of the
abundant capital furnished by such intractable
and hopeless flre-eaters as the rebel Generals
Forrest, Albert Pike, Henry A. Wise and Wade
Hampton, and the unlucky rebel Admiral
Semmes; but still the great Massachusetts,
stumper in Maine does not meet the great issues
of this canvass
What are they? They are the great issues
arising from the measures and the policy de-
veloped by Congress since the war. The
people have the heavy burden to bear of an
enormous national debt; they are taxed by the
national government to the extent of four or
five hundred millions year to meet
current expenses and the interest on the debt,
the principal of which remains, and promises
to remain, an undminished burden for years
to come under the powers that be. Corrup-
tions, spoliations and revenue frauds by mil
|
of the taxpayers, and they are casting about
for change. So with the reconstruction Of
the rebel States. White acknowledgements
and universal negro suffrage have brought
about such confusion in the States concerned
that there is no prospect that those govern
ments can be maintained as restored by Con-
gress except by a standing army. Nor can
the republican party justly demand that the
white people Of Georgia shall submit with
out complaint to this policy Of universal
negro suffrage which Congress dare not
attempt to enforce in New York, Pennsylvania
or Ohio Then, again, in addition to high
taxes, are the high prices of living, the COM
parativc stagnation Of business and the general
distrust on all sides Of the party in power.
Admitting that Seymour is poor stick for
President and that Blair, in returning to the
democratic camp, has become q fire-eater, has
not Mr.. Wilson heard once or twice before this
in his experience the significant popular cry
of "anything for changer" and has he not
seen something Of the consequences? We
would admonish him that the questions of
the war are not the questions which will
determine the general result Of this canvass,
but that it will turn upon the great questions
which have arisen since the war, and which
directly affect every mans interests and every
mans pocket, North and South.
DEADLOCK IN TIE INTERNAL REVENUE De-
PARrMEST.- radical Congress has brought
the departments of the government, and par
ticularly the Treasury Department, into pretty
state Of confusion, difficulty and rrcsponsibity.
The deadlock between Mr.. Rollins, the Com
missioner of Internal Revenue, and Mr.. McCul-
loeb shows the Generalization of the govern