The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-03-18
GOODWIN SMITH OF THE AMERICAN
RAD Gals.

tA-O CA%e~N - 4tcs, lLlOu6- eOoDAc~- 49, 49, 49,
guage OF frifsndly criticism, is telling expo
sure of tn, fallacies and the pernicious ten
denotes 3f the Republican leaders. That it
was Under false pretenses that the movement
represented by these leaders claimed the SYM
pathy of representatives of political progress
and the friends of free institutions in Eng
land, France Germany and other foreign
countries, has been often asserted by South
ern and Democratic journals in the United
States, and must have been plain to every
man in the country, whether of the North or
the South, who intelligently observed the
distinguishing ideas and the obvious drift
of the Republican party, from the time of its
formation. But foreigners have been slow to
make this discovery. All through the late
war; the great majority of political liberals in
Europe sympathized with the Republican ex-
tremists, in the belief that they were the fore
most champions of political liberalism in
America. 1t is only just now that the chief
intellects among those European liberals have
begun to emerge from this delusion. Politi-
cal developments in the United States
are forcing them to the conclusion
that they have egregiously stultifed them
selves with regard to American politics. They
perceive that the American party whose
cause they espouse was, in reality, not
party Of progress, but party of retrogression;
party unfriendly to constitutional liberty,
intolerant of all indefeasible guarantees of
free institutions, and fatally bent on uprooting
both State and individual rights and hurting
them into the vortex of centralized despot-
ism. Prof Goodwin Smith, one of the ablest
and most jealous advocates which the Repub-
lican party has had in England, feels at
length impelled by decent regard for his
own fame as friend Of liberty and progress,
TO protest publicly against the fragrant outrage
upon liberal and progressive principles per-
petrated by the Republican domination at
Washington. He accompanies this protest,
it is true, with an apology for the Republican.
! leaders as men who have lost their mental and
moral equilibrium in the excess of their revo-
lutionary zeal and impetuosity. But in such
cases, constrained and reluctant apologies
from friends are calculated to inhict more
hurt than the swift and eager attacks of enc
mics. In regard to the revolutionary temper
and policy of the Republicans, he says, in the
letter referred to-
The leaders Of revolution are men formed by
revolutions and instinct with revolutionary spirit.
Revolution is TO them the breath of life. They'd
not know its limits OF perceive when the time is
come for bringing II TO close. They do not see
that, the war being over. the people long for re.
pose, that the heart Of each man turns from the
fierce struggle of contending principles to bis own
vine and his own 6g-tree. They strive, by inaam-
matory speeches and measures of violence, TO
spur enthusiasm again to the revolutionary pitch,
and by so doing they increase and precipitate
the reaction. The president, as read IN the his
tory Of his government, is traitor to his cause
and will stand forever in history branded with
that NAME But his impeachment was measure
which belonged to 1868, not to 1867. Whether
legally defensible or not, 1t was morally aud po-
litcally out of date, and could only tend to put
the feelings of the mass of the people, weary of
extremities and alarmed for the Consultation on
the presidents side. A violent attack on the
Supreme Court would infallibly have a similar
effect.
In the conclusion of the following para
graph it will be seen that Professor Goodwin
Smith is obliged to invoke the successful in
tervention of loyal Democrats as a means
of preventing Republican policy from ending
inthe despotism of apermanent contradiction:
I There is one element in the reaction with
which confess positively sympathize. | have
always derided the pretence that the conspiracy
OF the slayeowners to found slave empire on
the ruins OF the Union was an application of the
doctrine of State right. But the doctrine of
State right itself has always seemed to me sound.
have always held that federation-not central
lied nationalty-was the destined system Of the
New World; tie only system by which the |
blessings of union could be extended to the COM
munities of whole continent, and reconciled
with liberty. self government, and independence
OF mind. The civil war in which the federation
was struggling for its existence, naturally pro-
duced q movement in the direction of centralized
nationality, and placed in the hands Of the Gen.
trail government an almost dctatorial power.
which Lincoln was too honest to abuse. Bat
always thought that the time would come when,
the temporary exgency being at an end, the
honorable and loyal portion of the old Demo-
cratic party would probably perform useful
function by preventing transient dictatorship
from becoming permanent Capitalization.
What he thinks of tariff protection, to
which the same party is inextricably commit
ted, may be judged from these words !:
Especially they have identified themselves
with protection. But in America, as in Eu-
rope, protection is stone which must ulti-
mately sink any party round the neck of
which it is tied"
Finally, Professor Goodwin Smith is dis
posed to see in General Grant potential
pacihcator of the country, and a potential
savior of it from the alternative of anarchy
or despodsm involved in the policy Of the
Republican Congress. " 1t would be a happy
thing, indeed, for the nation" says the pro-
fessor, if he could be raised to power, not
as the mere candidate of party, but by
really national vote. He might then with
draw all parties from the false positions into
which they have been thrust, act as mediator
between ALL settle the wavering balance of
the Constitution, and turn to the repression
of legislative corruption, to retrenchment and
other much needed reforms of practical
kind, the energies now expended in virtual
protraction of the civil war"
1t is well that this sketch Of the general, in
q mediatory, paci6catory and salvatory char
acter, is put forth in the subjunctive mood.
The joke Of representing Gen. Grant as in the
above sketch, under the Indicative form of ex-
preston, since he has thrown his sword into