Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-03-04
A Parailsi-Yanosy and Phillips-Thsre
will bs no Presidential Election.

Il =
bility of reinstatipg the adherents OF
Davis and Yancey was very remote
They had been accustomed to the tenure
Of office, and hought themselves deeply
wrsnged. Though the success of the Sc
cesson movement was deemed as fatal 10
slavery as It's defeat has proven to be,
slavery was made the occasion of war
which found its cause in the personal
ambition Of party leaders. Much was
said about our rights in the territories;
but sane men never entered upon such
contest as that from which we have
emerged, in order to take an " abstract
niger to an impossible place--Kansas.
The war was merely a political, q parti-
sau struggle transformed from the hust-
iDgs to the battlefield The right to
secede may have existed, but its exer-
else was without any adequate cause
save as suggested. Mr.. Stephens, of
Georgia, has written q book that his
theories might be understood. / have
not seen the volume, but am inclined to
believe that his exposition Of the philoso'
ply of secession consists in the statement
of simple facts here recited. nofu
THE oBvERsE OF THE HISTORICAL MEDAL
4 I woN nahl LION
When the Yancey-Davis party was de-
lethroned by the defeat of Breckenridge
nominated that he might be defeated
Wendell Phillips party grasped the reins
of supreme power. Yancey was the
counterpart of Phillips. 1fthe former
had been born, reared and educated in
| New England, and the latter in the Gulf
States, Phillips would have been the nat
ural exponent Of radical secessionism,
and Yancey of radical Unionism.1 The
moral and mental idiosyncracies Of the
two men were identical. Both were very
like Brownlow, who has only differed
/ from them in enacting the roles of both
at different periods in his extravagant,
extraordinary and violent career. This
last parallelism does not, of course, af-
| feet the culture of men to whom it is APP
plied-it is not asserted of such men that
they were impelled by purely selfish mo-
tives. On the contrary, they are the
4 honest men of parties they represent,
while the great body of their followers
are actuated by the love of power, and
\ mania for Office made incurable by graft
fication. If the peace Of the country
4 and two thousand millions of slave prop
| erty were wifully sacrificed by those
who accepted Yancey's theories of inter
State relations, in order that they might
retain places under government that
disbursed only eighty millions annually,
how infinitely greater are inducements
now presented to Wendell Phillips class
| of political thinkers to establish another
government that they may dispense five
hundred millions2 Yancey sought to
take part of the Union from itself;
Phillips would move the whole Union
| into another sphere of centralized exist
ence. He would obliterate State lines,
| and, making Congress King, pronounce
America an ocean bound republic.
Yaucey proposed to make States ma
tions. as Phillips would make nation
of States. Under the practical opera
ton of his political philosophy, States
are counties and Congress is the State,
and there is one Congress and one State.
THE pARALLELIsM RUNS UPON ALL-FouR
Neither Yancey's nor Phillips, nor
Northern nor Southern radicallsm, can
restore the Union. The Union was the
essence of compromise, and its duration,
| through each stage of its growth and
existence. was due to compromises. Its
stability, peace and prosperity came OF
that craftsmanship evolved by compro-
] misses. They who, in legislation, carried
water on both shoulders" never spilled
either tears or blood. To organize a
middle party, as was attempted at
Philadelphia, seems impossible. There
| fore the reign of moderation is impos'
sibls, and the Union no more. Recent
elections in Ohio, California, Maine and
New York render the removal of john
son a partisan, and therefore an un-
ayoidable national necessity Radical
ism, another name for Ben. Wade, must
dispense Federal revenues in order to
control the Presidential election.
Phillips philosophers for Wade and his
adherents, as did Yancey for Davis and
his followers. Wade is the practical
man of his party, as was Davis in
achieving the ends of Southern Demo-
cratic leaders -'-.....
If Southern wealth and freedom were
wilfully sacrificed by Southern men that
personal ambition might be gratified,
why doubt that the good Of continent,
| in a bloodless contest, will be held for
naught by Northerul Office holders.
Through eight years only, these last
have reveled in the gloriesand splendors
ofuurestrained dominion; Davis and his
ministers had worn the purple Nhrough
nearly forty years. 1t is too much to
ask Northern Radicslism, at this early
dav. 10 surrender its leasehold Of power.
| The suggestion is even absurd, when
made By a Southern Yanceyite Radical
Slowly and surely, the people, coniempla-
ting in stupid. helpless amazement the