The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-05-21
REPUBLICAN NoN-CoNFoRMIsTs AND THE
RADICAL DEsPERAD0Es.


party continue to thicken. The political des-
peradoes who have SO long controlled the Re-
publican organization, are at present quite as
determined to hold the mastery in it as they
were before their discontinue in the first vote
on the impeachment Indeed, there is no
question that they are more desperately bent
on this than ever. "Blameless counsels are for
the innocent" said Silius, the paramour of
Messalina, " bat in glazing guilt safety
must be sought in reckless daring" SINH
larly the radical leaders now silently reason.
Butler, Logan, Stevens, Bingham, Wade,
Stanton ard the rest have gone too far in the
path Of revolutionary conspiracy to save
themselves from political disgrace and ruin
by retracing their steps. They can find in
prudent counsels no materials for bridging
the bottomless chasm which opens before
their car of revolution. Their only hope of
salvation is to clear the abyss by driving on
with increased velocity. Audacity and fe-
rocity have heretofore served them well in
many crisis; standing TO them instead of
craftsmanship, patriotism, public utility,
moral integrity andreputable character. They
cannot afford to resign their faith in these ex-
pedients at this time. For there they have
garnered up their fortunes, and if there they
can no longer put their trust, all is lost.
1t is impossible that politicians impelled by
this spirit can pursue their course to its logi-
cal issue, and yet continue in political fellow
ship with such public men as Fessenden,
Trumbull, Grimes, Henderson and Chase. 1t
matters not that the latter have been the
ablest, the purest, the most respected men,
bers Of the Republican party. Or, rather it
does matter, from the fact that the illustration
Of ability, purity, and responsibility on the
part of these eminent Republicans, exhibited
in their dealings with the impeachment ques-
ton, forms, in the eyes of the radical leaders,
a crime wich can never be forgiven or expi-
ated. They are criminals, in the Judgment
of Stevens, Butler, Logan, Greeley, Forney,
because they dared, as senators and judges,
as legists, as statesmen, as patriots, as men,
to reserve something of the constitution, of
right, or reason, of country, of conscience,
and of manhood from the excessive and
tyrannous demands of the radical theory of
party loyalty. Under this theory, every
Republican senator was bound to vote for
convicting and removing the impeached Presi-
dent as a punishment for his detection to the
party, under penalty of accommodation and
anathema. The New York Tribune, for ex-
ample, declared that no senator could vote
otherwise who had not ''fully resolved to find
his future associates outside of the Republican
party" and also that 'the Republican senators
who dare to retain Andrew johnson in office
will be guilty of treason only equalled by
that of Benedict Arnold" Impeachment or
infamy :" exclaimed the same exponent of rad
ical loyalty. "This is the alternative of his
tory and senators must meet it.
Nevertheless, seven Republican senators,
defying these denunciations, declined to act
as members of packed jury organized for
the express and sole purpose of convicting
the accused in the accomplishment of su-
preme party expediency. This deliberate
course OF non-conformlty Will "a special teet
of Republican loyalty signifies much more
than temporary interruption of harmony
between these non-conformists and the radi-
cal section of their party, section, it is well
to observe, which includes the vast majority
of the party. 1t indicates that these men are
not only prone to pursue a line of action
different from that of the Logans, the But
lers and the Stevenses, but that they also oc-
cupy a different plane of thought. The diff
ference is moral as well as political, psychic
logical as well as logical. 1t precludes, while
it exists, the possibility of any real afilia-
ton; and it involves, while it continues, the
necessity of constant divergence. But the
precise lines and results of this divergence
are enveloped in mOmentous problem of
the future. The position, meanwhile of the
non-cOnforming Republicans referred to is
very analogous to that of the Girondists of
the French revolution, and it is to be feared
that their separation from the audacious
and ferocious faction represented by the lead
ing impeachers will prove as ineffective for
the cause Of domestic peace and constitu-
tional liberty, as the separation of their Gil
rondist prototypes from a like faction in
spired with the intolerance, the madness and
the malignity of Marat, st. Just and Robes
pierre.
~ 10 uOt bc QucStlOutuS uON6N6T, buhL TIC
radical leaders will preserve their mastery
over the Republican party as long as this
party shall hold together. The non-conform-
ing senator's, judging from votes on impeach-
ment in the two houses, represent the senti-
ments of too small portion of the rank and
file of the party to be able to take out of it
any considerable number of followers. If
the party does not fall to pieces the great bull,
of it may be expected to sustain Stevens,
Butler, Logan, Stanton, and other desperate
politicians, in such plans as they may devise
for carrying the next presidency, and perpetu-
ating radical power, by force. Only an assu-
rance of success by peaceful means will in
duce them to forego the use of military power
for Selling and holding the government if
they can command that violent expedient :;
and they hope that they can command it at
the hands of General Grant, IN virtue of the
coalition which they formed with him in the
the outset of the impeachment scheme. But
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