Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-02-27

The names of the Democratic Sena.
tors are printed in italics, Independent
anti-Administration in small capitals
and Radical Republicans in Roman.
Politically, they may be summarized as
follows:
Democrats. ......2S Independents 80. 3
Republicans .....4O Vacancy. l
It is believed that there are eight
Republicans who may safely be counted
upon as opposed to the extreme meas
ures of the present government. This
viii reduce the ultra Republican vote
32-less than majority, thus render
ing the extremists pOwerless for mis-
chief. This fact explains the terrible
struggle these architects of ruin" are
now making in Congress.
The terms of twenty-six Senators
will expire in 1877, and their successors
will be chosen by the Legislatures to be
elected in the fall of 1876. Of these
twenty-six, seventeen are Republicans,
and the Democrats Will most likely gain
five or six cf them. If the tide con.
tinues In the direction in which it set
last fall, the Democrats will almost GER
tainly wipe out the Radical majority in
the,Senate within the next two years.
In an article on the probable devel-
opment Of party strength at the extra
session, the Ne50 York Sun has the fol-
lowing speculations:
Putting down the ultra Republicans
at thirty-fve and the pronounced
Democrats at twenty-eight, making a
total of sixty-three, there remain eleven
Senators to be classified. Now, it is
upon these eleven that the whole case
turns as to the political character Of
the new Senate.
Who and what are the eleven? To
answer this questionis to solve a rather
difficult problem. We include among
them the Senator from Louisiana, for
whose seat poor PinchIack is making
what seems to be a hopeless fight. We
think that chair will yet be filed by
Conservative; but treating 1t as now
vacant, there are only ten Senators re-
manning to be classified.
Booth, of California, and Hamilton,
Of Texas, were elected as Liberals or
Independents, and will always 20
against Grant and ultra measures. In
the recent Senatorial contests, Christ
ancy, of Michigan, who beat Chandler,
and Mcmillan, of Minnesota, who beat
Ramsey, and Cameron, of Wisconsin,
who beat Carpenter, and Braddock, of
Nebraska, who beat Thayer, were elect
ed over the regular Grant Republican
candidates; and although they are not
Democrats, 1t is understood that they
will act with the Democracy In oppOsi-
ton to all extreme measures, and
especially against the rule Of the
Southern States by the sword, and
againft a third tenn for Grant.
Now, by adding the six Indepen-
dents above named to the twentY-eight
pronounced Democrats, we have a total
Of thirty.fOur, or one less than the
thirty-five out-and-out GRANTEES. But
there are still four Senators who re-
main unclassifed, and here are their
names: Ferry, of Connecticut, who
owed his election to the Democrats,
and Burnside, of Rhode Island, who
was chosen In opposition to the regular
Grant candidate, and Sharon, Of Ne
vada, who says he shall follow the die
tates of his judgment, and Alcorn, of
Mississippi, who occasionally flares up
and kicks out of the traces.
Regarding the Louisiana seat as va
cant, it Will be observed that to Secure
a bare majority in the Senate, Grant
must not only hold the thirty-fve ex-
IRENE Republicans, but must win the
support of three Of the ten Senators
whose political positions we have aimed
to define. Can he get them? The
course of events in the extra session
may furnish the answer to this ques-
ton, or we may have to wait for it till
next winter. At any rate, Grant is in
a tight place in the new Senate; and,
with a majority of more than seventy
against him In the House, he will find
himself on the sharp and ragged edge
of uncertainty during the remainder of
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