The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1869-07-01
MISCELLANY:
THE RADICAL BREAK UP.

The Nation, (Radic.l,) on, of the
most candid and thoughtful journals OF
the party in power, in its last issue, uses
The following languags:
It seems nd. ut all likely that VIC
shall witness something Of the same
Kind dBriBg the coming fall. It's cast-
ibg no c4tfavFditaty dissIsdit oh the
Republican patty to say that eset siucs
1865, it has been losing its hold on the
popular affection. Ithad a very dific1lt
work to do in reconstruction, and one
for which the experience Of the war had
hardly fitted its leaders, and which from
It's very na,ure, was sure 30 damage the
Reputation Of any party which under
took it: ltwas enabled to carry it out
successfully solely ukihg to Andrew
Johnson's folly ahd The sva'a's obsti
macy and s,ubidity: tfos deeply the
leaders felt the impoftinse of johnson
fully to the patty *as we'll shown by the
frantic efforts made by them and by the
party papers to magnify his "crimes".
and the gravity of the impeachment
trial In addition to this, the party
has had the spending f5r eight years
of enormous sunis Of mdiiey, ahd has
been forced to collect and disbIrse it
without any adequate administrative
machinery. The cdhscqucncc, and the
inevitable consequence. has been not
only that the party has lad To Shoulder
The responsibility of great abuses, but
has had to witness the accession to its
ranks ofa proti5ou number of knaves
and sdven ursrs, and to bcat the bur
den of their "loy atty" and "suundnsss"
while entirely unable to pitt top to
their plunderins and Specializing. Some
allowance, too, iii investigating the
tause Of the d:cliue Of the party in p"p-
hlar estimation, must, Of course, be made
for the ~sasiHsss any patty which
has long bssh In PU#er which iHesi'a-
biz comes over the public before iiiany
years. Many people forget the m 'sdeeis
of the opp"s,tio-, ate constantly frcttcd
bt The faults ct the administration, aiid
gradually worked themselves first into
belief tha, any change would be for
the better, md then into dererniina-
tion to have change of some kind at
uny cost.
Tie party was, therefore, in some
what sorry pli=ht at the approach OF
the Presidential election; and if it had
made up its itiind t" discard Grant, and
bemucrats had made UP thtlr mihds to
take Chase, there is, We believe, little
doubt iu the minds of careful obscfvt!s
that it would have gone to pieces. Here
the folly Of the opposition; combined
with the enctgetic atiion. Of the schsi-
bic uien at the Chicago Convention post
poued the evil day. As it vas, Grant
may said to have aEttited respectable
victory only by the pecaliafltirs Of the
elective machinery. Had he been de
pendent on direct popular vote he
would barely have escaped defeat. The his
tory of his administration thus fur has
ecrtuiulS not been Of character to give
the parry new hold on the popular
confidence. Indeed, its warmes, friends
have been forced almost from the first
To act on the de,ensite-tc devote them
selves, in fact, mainly to the work Of
proving, not that t has es,abli,hcd new
elaims to popular gratitude, but that it
has done nothing 10 caru popular dis
trust:
l., is not at all surprising; therefore,
that the hack politicians, whose pres
eticc IN its ranks aud use of it's machi-
hery as their own ends have brought
80 much dlscrcdlt ON Il, should once
more begin to feel anxions' md cast
about for some means of rekindling the
popular cnthu-i'siif In its behalf, or pro-
curing a renewal Of its lcsse Of power
Little Jimmy is not 80 we'll posted in
spftitul matters as he might be. The
other day, during d discus ion as to-