The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-06-26

The Radtesl BrsatSrnp--RaIaaslal
Bah.
The Nation, (radical, one of the most
candid and thoughtful journals OF the
party in power, in its last issue, uses the
following language:
1t seems not at all likely that we shall
witness something of the same kind dur
ing the coming fall. It is casting no ex-
traordinary discredit on the Republican
party to say that ever since 1866 it has
been losing its hold on the popular affec-
tion. It had very difficult work to do
in reconstruction, and one for which the
experience of the war had hardly fitted
its leaders, and which, from its very ma
ture, was sure to damage the reputation
OF any party which undertook it. It was
enabled to carry it out successfully solely
owing to Andrew Johnson's folly and the
South's obstinacy and stupidity. How
deeply the leaders felt the importan ce of
Johnson's folly to the party was well
shown by the frantic efforts made by
them and by the party papers to magnify
his ''crimes" aud the gravity of the i'm
peachDent trial. In addition to this,
the party has had the spending, for eight
years, of enormous sums of money, and
has been forced to collect and disburse
it w.Vhout any adequate administrative
machinery. The consequence, and the
inevitable consequence, has been, not
only that the party has had to shoulder
the responsibility of great abuses, but
has had to witness the accession to its
ranks of prodigious number of knaves
and adventurers, and to bear the burden
of their loyalty" and "soundness, I"
while entirely unable to put stop to
their plunderiDg and peculatipg Some
allowance, too, in investigating the cause
of the decline OF tho party in popular
estimation, must, of course, be made for
the wearipess of any party which has
been long III power which inevitably
comes over the public before many
years. Many people forget the misdeeds
of the opposition, are constantly fretted
by the faults of the administration, and
gradually worked themselves first into n
belief that any change would be for the
better, and then into IL determination to
have n change Of some kind Mt any cost.
The party was, therefore, in some
what sorry plight at the approach Of the
Presidential election; and il it had made
up its minds to discard Grant, and Demo
Gratis had made up their minds to take
Chase, there Is, we believe, little doubt
i'll the minds of careful observers that it
would have gono to pieces. Here the
folly Of the opposition, combined with
the energetic action of the sensible men
at the Chicago Convention, postponed
the evil day. AS it was, Grant may be
said to have achieved respectable VIC
tory only by the peculnrities of the cleo
tive machinery. Had he been depen-
dent on direct popular vote. he would
have barely escaped defeat. The history
of his administration thus far has certain
" not been of n character to give the party
new hold Oh the popular confidence.
Indeed, its warmest friends have been
forced almost from the first to act on the
defcnsive-to devote themselves, in fact,
maiuly to the work of proving, not that
it hns established new claims to popular
gratitude, but that it has done nothing
to earn popular distrust.
1t is not ut all surprising, therefore,
that the hack politicians, whose presence
in its ranks and use of lis machinery rs
their own ends have brought 30 much
discredit on it, should once more begin
to feel anxious, and cest abont for some
means OF rekindiDg the popular enthusi-
asm in its behalf. or procuring renewal
of its lease of power.