Year: 1868

southampton. The mails I0r europe VIII CLOSE ~
the Post ONCE at twelve O'Clock NJ.


The stock market was weak and unsettled yester-
day. Government securities were dull Gold closed
at 1857.


The Presidential Question-Another Mani


festo from Mr.. Chase.


The special organ of Chief Justice Chase, as
a politician, is the Cincinnati Gazette. The
opinions which 1t advances from time to time
as to his views and position In reference to the
political issnes and parties of the day are
vouchsafed with the air and tone of one who
speaks by authority. After the last October
Ohio election, for instance, our readers will re-
member that from the journal in question we
published a manifesto in behalf of Mr.. Chase,
the particular object of which was to clear him
of the responsibility for the decisive defeat of
the radicals in said election on the test question
of universal negro suffrage. In this defence of
the Chief Justice 1t was contended that he had
had nothing to do with this negro suffrage issue
in Ohio, and that, in Short instead of being a
radicalhe was a conservative republican. This
| manifesto, however, did not save him in the
| New York November election, in which the re-
publicans, under the management of the radi-
cal faction, were made to understand that the
availability of Mr.. Chase as their Presidential
candidate was the main question in the can
vass. Upon this issue democratic majority
on the State ticket of some fifty thousand was
decisive against the radical favorite of that day,
and subsequent events rapidly brought General
Grant into the foreground as the universal
republican favorite, including the New York
radicals. The Grant-Johnson correspondence
and the New Hampshire election settled the
last doubts upon this point, even in the mind of
Mr.. Chase himself.


This conviction to him came with the force
of stunning blow; forit upset and demolished
all his Presidential plans and calculations of
eight years of active engineering. In 1864, for
the republican nomination, he made an earnest
and vigorous fight against Abraham Lincoln.
With the leaders of the party he had made pro-
missing headway but In the Convention he was
nowhere against the popular pressure in favor
of Honest Old Abe" Mr.. Chase submitted
and fell into line, as Mr.. Seward gave way to
Fremont in 1856. But crushing as was
Stewards disappointment in being superseded
again in 1860, it was not, perhaps, felt more
keenly by him, though his last chance, than is
this other second disappointment felt by Mr..
Chase.


There is limit to the Presidential hopes of
every aspirant, which the party concerned, as
the time approaches, seldom fails to discover.
Thus Martin Van Buren, who gave way to
Polk in 1914, looked for his reward in the
democratic nomination of 184S, and in being
cut out again he saw that his last chance with
the democracy was gone. He felt that he had
been trifed with, and that nothing was left
him but to settle his outstanding balance
against his party in the defeat of Cass and it
was SO settled. In 1852, in being overtopped
by General Scott in the Wing Convention, Mil
lard Fillmore doubtless expected his reward in
1856; but then, in being superseded by Fre-
mont, he adopted the Independent retaliation
ticket of Van Buren, and with similar result.
Now, from this Cincinnati manifesto in behalf
of Chief Justice Chase we perceive thai his
disappointment is analogous to that of Van
Buren, and that of Fillmore, and that on
certain conditions he Is prepared to accept the
suffrages of the opposition against the ticket of
his own party, with which but yesterday he
stood as chief apostle. Such is the whirligig
of party politics. The party does not hesitate
to throw this or that leader overheard to save
the ship, and the leader does not, upon the
pinch, hesitate to desert the sinking ship to
save himself The Chief Justice, in falling
properly act upon the idea that he is free to
take his own course.


His Cincinnati organ tells us that there is no
ground for supposing that Mr.. Chase would
abandon his lifelong principles even for an elec-
tion to the Presidency but-and there is much
virtue in but-there is some ground of differ
| ence between him and the republicans of Con-
gress on the military features of the reconstruc-
ton laws, although this is the only difference.
'sHe is and always has been a strong advocate
of (not universal, buD impartial suffrage; !" and
| on the money question ''he s In favor Of pay
ing the debt honestly, as was intended when II
was created, and lin favor Of appreciating the
value Of greenbacks, and not of depreciating
| them by further ISSUE" Finally, If the
| democrats ''should nominate him on his own
platform he would probably accept, though he
has never said as much" ''If he should by
any possibility be placed in that position the
only issue in the approaching campaign would
be simply that of mem" for the platforms Of
both parties would be virtually the same.


Now, as in striking out ''the military fea-


lures" Of the Reconstruction laws we knock


the whole system on the head, and as in substi-


tuting impartial for universal suffrage we


abolish the radical programme Of Southern


negro supremacy, there would appear to be no


impossible chasm between Mr.. Chase and the
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