The New York herald., 1871-03-15
Political Thundcrstorm-The Dangers
and tho Opportunities or Parties.

/
| and tho Opportunities or Parties.
The political atmosphere at Washington Is
sto rmy and squally just now. Perhaps we
should not be surprised II hurricanes and
earthquakes were to ensue, considering that
the breezes which disturb the elements at the
national capital come mainly from the tropical
regions Of st. Domingo and the West India
island regions. A st. Domingo tornado has
swept Senator Sumner out Of his seat as
chairman of the Committee on Foreign Rela-
tions. Whether it be wiss policy to swap
horses while crossing the stream" as the
lamented Mr.. Lincoln said on o memorable
OCCASION will have to be determined by the
result which must accrue to the republican
party out Of all this boisterous business.
There are many who think that the time
is not ripe to disturb the status OF our
Senate Committee on Foreign Relations at
this important crisis in our foreign policy,
even to substitute the wise head of Simon
Cameron or Oliver p. Morton for the scholarly
brain Of Charles Sumner. President Grant,
however, trained az he is in the school
of the soldier, welded as he is by education
to discipline in all things and not brooking
| insubordination in the ranks Of the party
any more than he would submit to it
in division, brigade, or regiment, no
doubt considered that the presence of an
enemy to his st. Domingo policy ought not to
be tolerated in so important place as Mr..
Sumner occupied.
That the Presidents intentions are good
and honest no one doubts. His judgment
and wisdom In dealing with party Difficult
ties and intrioacies of faction, on The other
hand, are open to criticism. He may have
all the iron 6rmness of Andrew jackson,
but his party to-day is beset with more dan
gers than threatened the administration or
the personal popularity of the man who could
swear ''by the Eternal" that his will should be
law. It is not only the question involving
Mr.. Summers position which has set all the
disturbing elements in the republican party in
motion-although, among all the deviltries
| pitched into the witches caldron, this may
prove the wickedest. Here is the Ku Klux
trouble in the South. In North Carolina, espe-
cially, the operations of this body would seem
to be very terrible indeed, if we are to rely
upon the majority report of the Senate Com
mittee solely, and ignore the minority report
| altogether, which represents q very different
state Of things. Between two extremes there
Is always to be found sshappy mean" We
can readily imagine the bad feeling
which the presence of crowd Of carpet
baggers-Yankee pedlers in politics-would
create among the Southern people 1t is the
most natural thing in the world that they
should mistrust and detest them. Suppose
that the same class of fellows were to come
into our Northern States from the South to
poke themselves into all our public Offices; to
meddle with our domestic affairs to interfere,
for example-if we might strain point-with
the inherent right of Connecticut to manu-
facture wooden hams if she can find market
for them; or should they crowd around the
polls in our own city to dispute our established
privilege to vote early and vote often, would
not every one Of us feel Ku Kluxy, and desire
| to see the scamps and their carpet-bags sent
back across that imaginary but historic line
known as Mason and Dixon's?
But, apart from all jesting, what is this re-
ported cruel and bloody Ku Klux Klau-this
mysterious league that plots in darkness and
executes in the light of confagration? 1t is
the afterclap of the war. 1t is the wandering
wickedness Of spirits sorely embittered, and
only half subdued, manifesting itself in the
restless way which men are apt to fall into who
are unwilling to accept the consequences of
defeat. But we must not be understood to
adopt all the stories of the Ku Klux afro
cities as true Oa the contrary, we
believe they are greatly exaggerated.
We should be sorry to suppose that much of
this trouble in the South was not rather attri-
butable to the ingeniousness of political
intrigue than to the inhuman instincts of any
portion of our people. We know what the
afterclaps Of great war may be. We may
expect, for instance, to see the Franc tireurs
of the disembodied French army keeping up a
kind Of guerilla warfare in France, inficting,
perhaps, much misery to no purpose. The
German uhlans, in like manner, may torment
the peace of the frontier districts of France
| and the ceded provinces. These are the inevi-
table consequences of great wars /; for we can
not hope to contrsl the irritability of defeat
or the passionate exultation of conquest by a
simple treaty of peace, whether it be verbally
agreed to by two gentlemen wearing the uni
form and recognizing mutually the honor of
soldiers under the apple tree at Appomat-
tox Court House, or whether 1t be done
in due diplomatic form between two prominent
statesmen at Versailles-the palace of fallen
kings and the plaything of dethroned empe-
| rors.
But we must not lose the philosophy of eur
article in historic memories. The republican
party is seriously menaced with dissolution.
Overburdened, as 1t has been, by o miserable
financial system, and having no policy, except