Year: 1868

/ the war of rebellion the country sees
itself apparently further from settle
ment, peace and order than when the
last rebel had but newly laid down his
arms. Not a single insurgent State,
save Tennessee, is restored to the
Union, and even in Tennessee the polit-
ical condition is strange and unrepub-
lican. compound of repression, reyolH-
tion and anarchy. The policy of Con-
gress has been changed and modified to
meet the exigency again and again, un-
til it is scarcely possible for even
well-informed politicians to state clear,
ly what that policy now is, much less
what it is to be for the future. The
statute books are written over with re.
construction bills and supplementary
reconstruction bills, and acts Ito amend
an act entitled an act" &C., till few
men less learned than the recently ap.
pointed commission to eodify the laws
can tell what they now mean.


Meanwhile, the South is filled with
disorcauization and discomfort, aud the
North is in condition Of uncertainty
and unrest which bodies little favor foI
any party which can be held response
BILE for prolonging the situation. A
general feeling of distrust, vague, per-
haps, but not the less uneasy, pervades
the public mind. The Republican par
ty has lost much of the prestige and CO.
hesion which the struggle for national
existence gave to it during the war,
and no longer marches to battle i'll
the sure confidence of victory. AS yet,
| it has not been able fully to hold its
own in q single State election of the
present year. Notwithstanding the
capital it has derived from tho very bad
behavior of the President, and from the
almost assured prospect of his speedy
removal from Office, it beholds the
American public strangely apathetic to
party exigencies and partisan appeals.
The great historic event of the i'm
parchment, unprecedented and startling
as it is, produces no excitement what
ever, outside the narrow circle of imag-
inative newspaper correspondents and
interested politicians. The issues which
the Republicans have of late made in
the Northern elections have either been
carried by greatly reduced majorities,
or have been decided against. Ohio, by
forty thousand majority, and Michigan,
by twenty thousand, decide that the
strict political equality of the black
and white races is not yet fit to he
established.


What do these things mean! 1t is
easy to talk about local issues and un-
popular candidates, and to ring the
changes upon Democratic frauds, and so
forth. But there is palpably something
more the matter with the people than
can be thus easily accounted tor. Evi-
IDENTITY tho mass of the people are think
| ing Of other issues, which the polltl-
clans may find ont to their cost, If they
do not take the warning betimes. We
may regret profoundly Gas we certainly
do) that the people are not yet ripe for
the application of the principles OF i'm
partial Justice to the political relations
of men, aud to recognize the equal
right of every citizen to a participation
| in the government. But our convlc-
tions do not blind US to the fact that
other questions are manltestiy now up
permost in the public mind.


| The late President Lincoln, III his long
and memorable contest with Stephen A.
Douglas upon the issues of ten years
aro. repeated everywhere his conviction
that it was the just anG proper object OF
the Republican party to put human slav-
ery in a situation "where the public mind
would rest in the belief of its ultimate
extinction" Now, we are arrived at a
point, at that time uhdreamed of alike
\ by Douglas or Lincoln, when, slavery
being extinguished, the public mind de-
sires to rest in the assurance OF It's eX-
tinction. The great curse which pro-
duced the war being removed, the poo
pie have sought to discharge their minds
of the slavery question and all Its con-
comitants, and to go forward i'll new
career, no longer haunted and disturbed
by the ghost of that dead issue.


1t is very apparent to men not WILL
fully blinded, or not hide-hound by par
ty traditions, that the great questions
new uppermost in the minds OF the peo-
pie are not negroes, nor reconstruction,
nor the impeachment of Andrew john
sou. Nor is it the great vital issue
whether General Grant or his nameless
Democratic competitor shall be the
next President of the United States
The one over shadswing interest that
comes home to all mems business and
bosoms is, what and how great is to
be the burden laid upon the shoulders
of labor and capital in the coming
yearsY The financial problems entailed
npon us by the war are fast engrossluG
to themselves all the attention and scru'
tiny heretpforeb estowed by thoughtful
minds upon the problems of political
rights and the equality of races. The
! business of the country, after season
of abnormal and unnatural prosperity,
has collapsed into most unsatisfactory
state, and theburdens Of taxation, al
most unfelt in times when everybody
was "flush," are pressing with omlnous
severity upon the restive and unwilling
subjects who must continue to beal
them. The "pocket-nerVe," proverbi
ally the most sensitive in the average
human organism, vibrates keenly tc
the touch of the tax-gatherer, and the
party which does any thing at such 6
time as this to increase the public bur
dens, will have heavy account to set
tie with the public.


1t is easy for our complacent Republi
can Senators and Representatives, Sc
cure in the enjoyment of their comforta
BILE five thousand dollars q year, beside
mileage and other perquisites, to forget
the disagreeable subjects of taxation
economy and finance, and so fancy thai
the displacement of johnson will make
all right, and that they can walk Owe
the course with Grant in the fall with
out trouble. They are doing their bes
to ignore the unpleasant facts of th'
situation, and are spending the public
money, in the intervals of impeachment
with a looseness which is indicative o
any thing but caution or of wisdom
By their neglect of financial questions
and their failure to readjust taxation
they are laying up, unless we are great
Ily mistaken, huge arsenal OF weapons


to be used against them in the mex
election. We assure them that the peo
pie regard it as of much less conse
duence who is President of the United
States, than what is the rate of the in
come tax which all must pay. Thougl
it may be very improper to say it, 1t Il
nevertheless true, that the mass of on
fellow citizens are far more anxious
about equality of taxation than equali
ty of race. However ready they ma!
be to deplore the unreconstructed con


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