The New York herald., 1870-11-14
The Republican Pnrty-Its Fcuds, Fac.
tions and Dangers, and tho Remedy.

Ano uiStuTplHg ieuus anu IaCtlouo LII suo ~
publican camp, as developed in this years State
elections, not only threaten the integrity, but
ioreshadow the disintegration, dissolution and
dispersion OF the party. AS the great Union
party OF the war against the Southern rebel
Hon 1t was immeasurably the strongest party
which this country has ever known, AS tho
party, after the suppression of the rebellion,
OF Southern reconstruction on the constitu-
tional amendments, embracing the abolition
and prohibition Of slavery, and the establish
ment of equal civil and political rights regard
less of race or color, it has carried every-
thing before it. The work it has thus accom-
plished, in the war and since the war, is that
glorious revolutions in human history. Organ
izing in 1854 upon the modest but aggressive,
platform Of "no further extensions Of slavery"
1t has abolished slavery, and all the 0dious
and barbarous distinctions resulting from
slavery; and, as the balance of political power
in the nation, it has displaced the late slave
holding oligarchy and has established in it's
place the very negro who but yesterday had
mo rights which white man was bound to
respect"
With the accomplishment of this great mis-.
sion, however, the bonds which have held this
great party so firmly together are loosened,
and it is disturbed here, there and everywhere
by ugly feuds and conflicting leaders, cliques
and factions, while at the same time the pub
lie odium which followed the affiliations of the
Northern democracy with the Southern rebel
conspirators is passing away. This change in
the public mind has been feature in these
late elections and it is due to the fact that
the democracy have entirely ceased to make
war upon the new amendments TO the consti-
tuition. In thus accepting the constitution
as amended as ''the supreme law of
the land" the democratic party stands upon
the same plane with the republican party
The issues of the war and Of reconstruction
will, then, no longer serve the republicans.
Hence, in the absence of any new idea or
issue broad enough to hold them together they
are becoming demoralized, while the demo-
cracy, in the common purpose of recovering
the White House, and cured by experience of
their follies of the last ten years, are united
and Jealous as new organization with great
prize before them.
But what are these republican feuds and
factions which are so alarming? They are
substantially the same as those which broke
up the old democratic party. Who could have
supposed, after the sweeping victory of Pierce
in 1862, that the all-powerful democratic
party of that year would begin to break up in
1853. But it did and over factious squabble
for tho spoils of the New York Custom House
between Bronson and Redfield the party
began to go to pieces by throwing away this
State. The present weakness of the republic
cans of the State may be charged to similar
cause. We may trace it to the breaking up in
1860 of the old political firm of ssSeward,
Weed & Greeley" In that year Greeleys
grievances as an ofice-seeker, studiously
snubbed by his copartners, caused him to bolt
against Seward and settle him in the party
national convention when Lincoln first came in.
But this did not settle the feud. It cropped
out again in 1862, when Seward and Weed
turned the tables upon Greeley's man Wads-
worth in the election Of Seymour as Governor
1t cropped out again in 1865, 1866 and in 1867,
and at Chicago in 1868, against Fenton for
Vice President, and very conspicuously at
Albany in 1869, in the election of Fenton (of
the same radical faction as Greeley as United
States Senator over Morgan, one of the Sew
ard Weed faction. In 1870, Senator Conkling
having joined the Seward-Weed- Morgan fac
ton, regular dead set was made by them upon
the President to give Fenton a hoist, and he
was hoisted in the appointment Of Thomas
Murphy as Collector Of this port, and in the
removal of General Merritt from his fat Office,
both proceedings being "a dead cut, very
obnoxious to Fenton. To make the matter
worse, Fenton's man for Governor, the much
abused Greeley, was cut out, they say, by
Murphy in the Saratoga Convention; and so
Fenton, like Achilles in his wrath, remained
in his tent during the battle, and so Hoffman
is triumphantly reelected. The moral, as
given by Greeley, is this-that the State Of
New York, though not over large for one
republican party, is not large enough for two.
Carl Schurz, an ambitious party leader Of
the German red republican school, has, after
the manner of Greeley and Fenton, been
playing the very mischiefin Missouri. Schurz
wanted more offices than the President could
give him, and not getting them he bolted, and
with a number Of other disappointed office
seekers split the party convention and the
party into two factions. Schurz and his
faction, however, had the advantage of the
popular platform of restoring to ex-rebels the
elective franchise, and so with the aid of the
fight was embittered by an unfortunate letter
from the President, supporting the other fac
ton as the regular party-a letter which,
perhaps, some of the Presidents unwise