The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-11-14
CHI A r L E S TON. E.
SATURDAY MORNING. NOVEMBER IA, 1868.
What Next and Next1

1t was confidently announced during the
late Presidential canvass that the Radicals
were determined, if successful in electing
General Grant, to force universal suffrage
upon all States not already sufficiently Re-
publican. They were understood to hold
the opinion that the question of Statal as
opposed to Federal rights, would be def
nitely settled in their favor by the national
popular verdict, so that in Congress should
lie the power Of controlling absolutely and
without limitation the elective franchise in
every State of the Union This view of the
purposes and eims of the Radical leaders
is now confirmed by the statement that Rep
resentative Kelley, of Pennsy ylYania, will, on
the first day of the session, introduce into
Congress constitutional amendment pro-
viding for universal suffrage in all the
States.
The South, which has been tossed and
trampled on, first by one party and then by
another; which has been deluded, cajoled
and tricked in every move made upon the
political chess-board; which has had thrust
upon her by force of arms that negro suf-
frage which led to the African carnival
which disgraced our streets two or three
days aegean afford to look quietly on
while the game of Radical revolution is
played in the North and West. We know
the extent of our own troubles and are pre-
pared to make the best of them, and there
will be grim satisfaction in watching the
ch-Radicals as they goad on their follow
ers to the work of reconstructing, upon the
Southern pattern, New York and Pennsyl-
vania and the mighty States of the West.
The North had already been warned that
the party which attempted to reduce the
South to slavery would next turn its atten-
ton to the States nearer home, and the pre-
diction made and disregarded -bmo years
ago is now being verified.
The contest, however, will be bitter in
the extreme. Neither the West nor the
North has any great love for the negro, and
there will be many jar and tussle before
the universal suffrage amendment becomes
an organic law. Before long the two par
ties will array themselves in opposing lines.
Thad. Stevens no longer lives to magnetic
the Radical backsliders and urge them to do
their work outside the constitution; but his
place may be worthily filled by Congress
man Kelley, whose savage vindictiveness is
already known in Charleston, as it is in the
halls of the capitol. By the side Of Kelley
will stand Butler and Boutwell,, of Massa-
chusetts, Julian, of Indiana, and men of
the same stamp. Against them will be
found the moderate and conservative Re-
publicans, led by such men as Bingham,
Spaulding and Garfield.
Then will the battle-royal begin between
the Republicans who are satisfied with what
they have already accomplished, and the
Radicals who will not stop short Of roliti-
cal and social anarchy and run. And in
this contest the moderate Republicans will
not be without substantial and effective sup
port. Upon the issue of compulsory uni
versal suffrage law, the Democratic leaders,
Brooks, Eldridge and Fernando Wood, will
the foes of ultra Radicalism, thus prepar-
ing the way, perhaps, for the formation of
that new and mighty party which shall in
the future control the destinies of the great
Republic.
Nor will the moderate men be without
outside help. The masses Of the people
who elected Grant, because they believed
him to be a temperate and conservative man,
will give their moral support to their rep
resentatives in Congress, who would save
the country from another era Of distrust,
unrest and confusion. And when all else
fails, we believe that President Grant will
uuhesitatingly throw his vast influence into
the scale against the advocates of that
s'higher law" which overrides the consti-
tuition. Then will the moderation and in
teliigence of the country, with the Chief
Magistrate at its head, be pitted against q
band of crazy fanatics, held together by
thirst for power and the hope of more
States to conquer.
There should be no doubt of tie result.
And the South can await the coming of the
end with political calmness, but with an in
dustrial activity which will make her pros
per, while her Northern brethren are in
rolved in the heat and fury of the war be-
tween conservatism and destruction.