Year: 1869

Political matters in the Solth, particularly
in Tennessee, Virginia and Mississippi, are IN
a very nuddled condition. And the adminis- !
tration at Washington is in about as great
muddle about them as the local politicians
themselves. The most remarkable feature is
that with q most intense rivalry and even
bitterness between the radical and conservative
factions they are both for the administration.
Or, perhaps, it would be better to say they are
both for General Grant and cling to him as the
representative man of the people and choice of
the nation. This was evident In the late cleo
tions and is becoming more apparent since.
The Walker party in Virginia. the Sentsr party
in Tennessee and the Dent party in Mississippi
raised the name of the President on their
banners to rally the people to their support
and the radicals in these States did the same
Yet no two parties were ever more bitterly
opposed to each other, and, in some respects,
were never more widely apart in their policy.
The hostility of a few individuals of the con-
servative party to the President, as in the case
of Andy Johnson, Ia personal and does not
represent the status or wishes of parties in the
South. Both the conservative aud radical
factions, as was said, claim and desire to
represent the administration and to act In
accordance with it.


The question that forces itself upon us
here-and it is one which the President will
be compelled to seriously consider-ls, can
this state Of things last? Can both be ad-
,i,sc ct, tton tiNs ho bOc 10 in
policy and feeling? It is impossible. The
President must take his choice with one or the
other. He cannot ride on the backs of both.
No political horsemanship is equal to such
task. What then, will General Grant do9 II
we go back to his antecedents, if we call to
mind his conservative views when he closed
up the war and wished immediate harmony
between the two sections and restoration Of
the South, and II we may judge from his
known desire for peace, we could have no
hesitation in saying he will make the conser-
vatives of the South the administration party.
Nor have we any doubt that his own un-
BIASED inclination would incline him to such
course. This, too, is undoubtedly the wisest
policy; for the result of the late elections
shows that neither the administration nor any
other power can make the Southern people
swallow radcaIism. Should he, unfortunately,
take the side Of the radicals in the South-that
Is, should he place himself in hostility to the
large majority Of the people and public sentl-
ment in that section-he may cause great
deal of trouble, but will not be able, with all
the machinery Of federal power and patronage,
to make the Southern States radical. Indeed,
the very effort to do so would only swell the
majority against him and his policy. We have
an example of what would take place in the
meddling of the radical members of bis Cabinet
in the Tennessee election. The interference
Of Boutwell, and Creswell only increased the
vote against Stokes, the radical candidate for
Governor


We admit that the President is in very
trying situation. Some Of his Cabinet are in
Durable radicals and will all their In
fuence over him and his policy in their efforts
to sustain their faction in the South, while the
rest are Indifferent or mere political nonen-
titles. There is no unity, and, as a oonse
quence, the administration is at sea founder
ing about among dangerous breakers. Should
he listen to the defeated radicals in Tennessee
and Virginia and to the same party In Missis-
sippi, and endeavor to overrule the expression
Of the public voice, his great popularity cannot
save him. The people of the North, even,
would not sustain him in such a course Mill
| tary domination, as in the case of General
| Candy in Virginia, and General Ames, Of
| Mississippi, who has just suspended the writ
| of habeas corpus, cannot be tolerated by the


mass of the American people. They want


peace, restoration, and the war closed up.
They are tired and Disguised with the pre-


tences of reconstruction for party purposes and
the substitution of military rule for civil gov


ernment. Any fresh attempt to defeat the
| popular will in the South by the action of the
administration or the radical party would pro-
duce terrible conservative reaction.


What, then, Is General Grant to do? Fol-
| low the instincts of his own nature and good
| sense and throw overheard the radical mar
| plots in his Cabinet. Yes, let him remodel his
Cabinet and make new one Of able conserva-
tive men who will be united In policy and act
| in accordance with his own views. The people


are with him now and they earnestly desire to


support him all through. He was and still is


the hope of the republic But the present Is


critical time and his future popularity will


depend upon the action he may take in the


political affairs of the South and the choice he


may make between the parties there. There


is no evading this alternative. Nor ought the


President to hesitate. He is master of the


political situation. Should he take the ultra


radical ground that Boutwell, and Creswell in


his Cabinet and the extreme radicals Of Con-


gress urge he will plunge his administration