The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-06-22
THE DRIFT OF POLITICS.
The Outlook, as Viewed by the Wash
ington Correspondent Of Radical
Journal.

George Alfred Townsend, the Washington
correspondent Of the Chicago Tribune, the
leading Republican journal of the West, pre-
sents diagnosis of the condition Of the Radi-
cal, 1.-THE Barren Tree Party" and foretells Its
dissolution, with the phlegmatic science OF
Paris physician, delivering his opinion upon
an important patient sick of hopeless di-
sease. Townsend says that the party will die
in 1872. From the standpoint of Washington,
he thus portrays the dying agonies:
The Republican party will undoubtedly
have as much as it can do TO keep Its ma
jorlty in the House Of Representatives. 1t
will lose seats in New York, and, suspect, In
every Southern State. and will be hard pushed
in Connecticut, New Jersey, Ohio, Missouri and
parts of Pennsylvania. BY the Executive Gov
ernment and the Senate 1t will be able to hold
the leading strings Of power for at least three
years more, but the experience of the past is
that the Senate Is duCtlle and malleable
body, seldom leaning far from the true senti-
ments of the lower House, and If you ever find
the House to pass an important bill and the
ly conclude that the House, having
the fear of the people before its eyes,
,leglslated hypocritically, aud afterward
| went up to the Senate and begged nom
concurrence. This was the case with the re-
peal of the franking privilege, and even. with
the Houses Impeachment OF President JOHN
son. The unchanging Senate, therefore, is,
by the conditions Of itself, a thing Of change,
refecting the wishes of the lower house, as
the mirror of Athene showed persons the face
of the Gorgon. Let the Senate stand In the
way of determined Congress and the noises
OF the people will terrify it as Wellington and
his peers grew pale before the roar OF the Re-
Ui fha
Jackson, It was never able to do more than to
irrltate him by rejecting few OF his appoint
ments. The history of o Senate against the
President is that 1t becomes corrupted by his
patronage, and Of Senate against House,
that it Yields to intimidation and the will Of
the country. Nevertheless, on grave occasions
It is the citadel of the State against all.
Isay, therefore, that the change OF the lower
House Is equivalent to general change OF
polity and expenditure; and yet, singular as it
NAV appear, change Of majority In the House
of REPRESENTATIVES at present might be sub
stantialiy Republican victory. Much OF the
present Congress is only Republican In name
and organization. The purposes for wnlch M . tne
| party was organized, and the spirit which ami
mated 1t, are retained by minority of the Re-
| publicans in Congress only. The Republican
party was the party Of free homesteads, but
| this Congress has swept down the homestead
system and substituted the land monopoly
system. The Republican party was the party
OF no section, but of national freedom; this
Congress considers Pennsylvania to be the
Union, and Insulation to be enlightenment.
The Republican party was the party OF all,
and an equal ch nee for them all; but this
Congress has represented few, and they not
those whose daily cry Is, "What shall we eat,
and what shall we drink, and WhereWltnal
shall we be clothed ?" The Republican party
set ND new man as th, type OF the State, anu
asked that he be unrestrained in his Industries,
adventures and enterprises, and be lett Irce
to establish confederacies of freemen like HIM
self in his own way; the majority OF Congress
would create State modelled upon Its own pei
theories and private interests, and compel Tue
man to nhablt and conform to 1t. This IS the
Republlcanism OF majority OF congress, a SCI
| of inventive bureaucrats and a ''mice" IN every
drawer of the bureau. Let these take thelr
| involved piece of cabinetware, which they
have named the New Nation, and preach upon
it for text. The Republicans of the West haH
been true to their first conception. The mem
bers from the State of Illinois have IN gene
raj voted solidly and inteligently for the Tree
State with q man In 1t, and there Is scarcely
one of them who, according to his degree ol
mower and light, has not distinguished his day
and generation. The Republicans OF the States
of Missouri and Iowa have, In general, been
equally true to the origin of. their party, and
Ohio and Indiana have furnished several con-
slstent exemplars of the spirit of '5G. In Wis
consin and Michigan the old mastadons o.
Whggery have risen up and sought In vain to
realize the time and the cline, but the effort
has generally been too much for their vegeta'
rjan stomachs. In those States the Republi'
can party is in clear majority, but the Repuo'
iican party has been betrayed In Congress
Those men who have sold or misntefpreted
the manhood of the West are now to como
face to face with their constituents. and it is
no funeral of the Republican party If they be
| olaotod RI etap ot homo