The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-08-13
SEYMOUR AND THE TWO EXTREMES OF
THE REPUB ICAN PARTY.

Nothing chagrins the hadfcal JourhaiiSOS 50
much as the calm, statesmanlike, prophetc
tone in which Governor Seymour speaks OF
the contingency of his accession to the Presl-
dencv. and of the reasons which the best men
of the Republican party have for desiring to
see the desperate extremists of their party
checked by the opposition of Democratic
Executive and a Democratic House CT Rep
resentatives. At the same time he talks about
the inability of the Democratic party, checked
by Republican Senate, to make sudden or
violent changes !" and he also dwells upon The
duty of the President to protect the rights OF
minorities. All this the Radical Journalists
regard as an insidious electioneering appeal,
well calculated to take effect not only upon
the honest mass of the Republicans. who
really want peace and quietus to all revolu-
tionary agitations, but also upon that class OF
Radicals who fear that when reduced to an in
significant minority, triumphant reaction will
be as bitter and proscriptive to them as they
have been towards their political enemies. And
there is, indeed, reason for this apprehension.
The very men who are now carrying or the
Radical government in the South would con-
suit their own eventual interest by promoting
the election of Governor Seymour. They
are doomed to go down at length
under any presidency. As surely as the sea-
sons shall continue to roll round in their
ceaseless succession, these men, unless they
speedily reverse their present course, will ere
long feel moved to call on the hills to fall on
them, and tie valleys to open and swallow
them up, SO that they may escape from the
horrors of a retributive reaction. Those of
Il en- whose minds are not so stGpefed by the
effects of temporary power and plumber as to
be incapable of logical anticipation, can
already perceive, falling across their path, the
whitening shadow of public reprobation. 1t
is also certain that this tendency of the reac-
tionary sentiment will be to sweep past the
limits of simple reparation of wrong, and not
to stop short of the extremity of vengeance
upon the wrong doors. Where, in this case,
can these men look for protection? They,
who suffered no law to stand in the way of
their schemes of malignity or rapacity, cannot
expect any law to shield them from the stern
and determined fury of popular resent
ment. In that hour such President as
Grant would make would be no more to
them than was the king log of the fable to
the frogs. Or, rather, he would be in
relation to their distress, something worse
than ligneous and motionless majesty; for
he has declared that he would shave no
policy of his own to set up against the will of
the people" and that he regards the will of
the people. anywise expressed, as the claw
of the land" Consistently with this declara-
ton, he would feel bound, as federal execu-
tive, to give effect to to the manifest win of
the people in regard to Radical desperadces
and carpet-bag plunderers. But Gov. Sey-
mour, in the presidency, will still be states
man, and will have principles of his own, and
| a policy of his own. He will aim to be con-
| stitutional President of the whole country,
nothing more, nothing less; and, if need be,
! he will not hesitate to set up his constitu-
tional duty against popular clamor, even il
| this clamor shall only demand, not unnatu-
rally, summary measures of vengeance upon
| the extreme. the violent. tho Hoantious and
| criminal men OF the Radical party. He says,
for example, in his letter of acceptance:
| No man can rightfully enter upon the duties of
the presidential Office unless he is not only will.
ing 10 carry out the wishes of the people ex-
pressed in a constitutional way, but is also pre-
| pared 10 stand up for the rights of minorities.
/ He must be ready to uphold the free exercise of
/ religion. He must denounce measures which
/ would wrong personal or private rights, or the
/ religious conscience of the citizens of the land.
/ He must PROTECT, without distinction of creed or
/ nationality, all the privileges of American cti-
/ zepship. The experience of every public man
who has been faithful to his trust teaches him that
| no one can perform the duties Of the Office OF
/ President unless he is ready not only to undergo
| the fslsehoods and abuse Of the bad, but to suf-
| fer from the censure of the good, who are moved
| by prejudices and Misrepresentation.
| Gov. Seymour as President WILL to be
sure, be with those who are for exacting a
| just atonement from the bad and dangerous
men of the Radical minority But it is
strictly constitutional justice which he will
demand or second; and against any resentful
designs which may threaten to go further
! than this, against violent and revolutionary
measures of any sort, he will be prepared to
interpose all the power of his Office and all
the prestige of his name.
| Thus it is that the best men and the worst
men of the Republican party have cause to
desire the election of Gov. Seymour. Who
can doubt the result of the pending campaign
when the two extremes of that party are
interested in the success of the Democratic
candidate
1