The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-11-24
Tn. Republics Crisis.


position Of the federal Senate and warned
the republican party of the imminent dam
ger which menaced it. That friendly office
seemed like inspecting an unseaworthy
vessel which might continue its voyage If
the weather should prove favorable, but was
exposed to disaster in the first storm it
might encounter. Rough,weather has come
sooner than we expected, and it will be
little short Of o miracle If the shattered re-
publican hulk ever gets into port after the
rude shock Of the waves which are dashing
with such violence against it.
Even il the truant Sharon should obey
the telegraphic summons sent him and
make all speed to reach Washington his
presence would be of no avail If Patterson
and Conover continue to vote with the
democrats. Their votes give the democrats
a majority Of two, and even if Sharon comes
the democrats will still have o majority of
one if Patterson and Conover act with them.
If, with their assistance, the case of Butler
is taken up first and he is admitted, and
then, with his assistance, the case of Eustis
is next acted upon and Eustis is admitted,
the democrats will have no difficulty in
seating Spofford, when they will be indie
pendent of outside assistance. This is
ms likely result as any. and if
the democrats should henceforth control
the Senate the republicans Senators may,
perhaps. be brought to sense of their
stupendous folly in quarrelling with the
President. In their arrogant attempt to
coerce him they were trading on too small
capital. AS Poor Richard" said
Vessels large may venture more.
But little boats must keep near shore.
It will not do for political party to get
at loggerheads with President itself has
elected, unless it has either a majority Of
both houses or o very large and perfectly
united majority of the Senate Previous to
the death of Senator Morton the republi-
cans had q reasonable hope of con-
trolling the Senate during the first
half of Mr.. Hayes term. if wise
enough to keep clAr Of intestine divi-
sions but from the hour that he expired it
was sheer political lunacy TO stand out
against the policy Of the President Mr..
Mortons death and the appointment Of
democratic successor reduced the already
slender republican majority by two, and
made the margin too alarmingly narrow for
experiments on the unity of the party.
There still remained five carpet-bag Sena-
tors whose terms, with one exception
Bruce, Of Missssippi), expire year from
next March. II these gentlemen expect to
.a.;la 10. %ba;. rat;rovror< IN tho Ctotac
which they represent, their wish to
stand we'll with their neighbors would
make some of them q lit
tie shaky in their politics The other
republican Senators have no reason
for surprise that their carpet-bag associates
do not take SO deep an interest in the
republican party as Northern Senators who
hope for a reelection. Men like Conover
and Patterson have no possible chance Of
ever again appearing in public life after the
expiration of the brief residue Of their
terms, and the good will, Of their fellow
citizens at home may be Of great value to
them in their private pursuits and social
intercourse. It is the most natural thing in
the world that some Of the republican Sena-
tors from the South should lose their
interest in politics as the time approaches
when they must retire from public life
forever. The republican leaders were blind
when they overlooked this tendency
and made no allowance for the nat
ural decline of party zeal among this Sec
tion of their supporters. They must now
begin to see where they stand, for the pres
emit crisis is only "the beginning of the
end"
We will not venture to say that the repub-
lican party is dead and that it was buried
in the same grave with Senator Morton, but
its chances of life we're certainly impaired
by the loss of that vigorous leader The
party strongly resembles him, both in his
infrmities and in his sanguine hope of re-
covery when the hand Of death was visibly
upon him. Its disease is like paralytic
shock, which commonly visits and disables
one side before completing its work on
the whole body. The Southern half of
the republican party is in a state
of complete and hopeless paralysis
There are sixteen Of the thirty EIGHT
States in which the republican organization
has become extinct. Although it may be
premature as yet to say that the republican
party is dead there can be no dispute or
question as to its complete death in sixteen
States of the Union. 1t is like man whose
whole left side is paralyzed and his right
side afflicted with apparently inSurable
wounds. Aside from the wounds how can
this paralytic expect to run political race
and win it1 The author of "Hudibras"
gave his doughty knight but one-half of
pair Of spurs, assigning as reason that if
he pricked one side Of his horse into
gallop the other could not hang behind.
But the converse of this grotesque maxim
would hold equally true, that if one
side Of the steed stood still the other
could not get very far ahead. The