Year: 1868

The Presidential Contest-The Southern Bal.


ance Of Power.


The elections of last fall, eliminating in the
fifty thousand democratic majority of the EN-
pire State, broke the spell of republican in
vincibility and convinced the rank and file of
the party that dangerous popular reaction
had set in against them. They had regarded
the Presidential succession as a foregone con-
cluson; they had been sanguine of certain,
easy and overwhelming victory for their Presi
Dental ticket with any candidate. But Con-
necticut, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania and
New York dispelled all such delusions, and
after the startling revolution in the Empire
| State the republican masses and finally the
radical leaders began to realize the necessity
| of calling upon Hercules and to confess that
only General Grant could save them. They
have accordingly made him the republican
candidate. AS with Taylor in 1S4S, there
was the apprehension that, if not taken up by
this side, General Grant might be by the other,
and, as with Scott in 1852, it was felt that if
saved at all only the first soldier of the land
could save the party.


Still, it is apparent that against the revolu-
tionary measures, schemes and tendencies of
radcalism there is powerful array of hostile
elements existing, and that all these elements
may be readily combined under the banner of
Chief Justice Chase as the candidate Of the
National Democratic Convention. With Chase
thus nominated against Grant the radical and
H.,
in their candidate the proper embod-
ment Of their policy. In Grant, the
General-in-Chief of the Army, we have
the appropriate embodiment of the radical
policy, which looks to the supremacy of mill
tary authority; and in Chase, as the Chief
Justice Of the Supreme Court Of the United
States, we shall have the fitting embodiment of
that policy which looks TO the supremacy Of
the constitution and the subordination of the
military to the civil authorities in times of
peace. On the score Of availability the argu-
ment in favor of the Chief Justice as the
democratic nominee is equally strong The re-
publican party, with the abolition of slavery,
fulfilled its mission, and with the extinction of
slavery the old democratic party, on its old
''time-honored principles, really ceased to
exist. The republican party Of to-day, as a
reconstruction party, is drifting to a consoli-
dated military and financial despotism; the
democratic party, therefore, has no other
alternative than the new departure of recog-
nizing the legitimate results of the late rebel
lion and Of fighting with these recognitions
for the landmarks of the constitution.


In this view the nomination of Chief Justice
Chase will require only the simplest explana-
ton in the way Of a platform. His name and
his record his position and his character, past
and present, will be sufficient to attract to him
all the regular opposition forces and large re-
Inducements of conservative republicans East
and West That he will thus carry majority
of the electoral vote of the North is morally
certain, admitting the popularity of Grant as
the conqueror Of the rebellion; for If any man
can neutralize that popularity and bring this
contest down 10 the great living issues of the
day II Is the man who provided and supplied
the sinews of the war, the money which, after
all, in raising, equipping aud feeding our
armies, subdued the rebellion. As Western
man and as the democratic nominee Chase
will hold Ohio even against Grant, and the re-
action of last fall In Pennsylvania and New
York will not be lost, but extended. The re-
publican journals are evidently alarmed and
are pleading the cause Of Pendleton and the
Chicago platform of 1864. The radicals OF
Congress, apprehensive Of danger in the North,
are hurrying up the work Of Southern restora-
ton. From their proceedings we conclude
that North and South Carolina, Georgia,
Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Arkansas