Year: 1868

/ uovoI Uoioro udo oltucr party ConCorhou, III 'Ho


State and throughout the United States, mani


tested so deep an interest in any Connecticut


election. Last year, with Barnum and his


travelling caravan at the head of the radical


procession, there was more fun, more fuss ana


more noise and confusion; but this year there


is more system, more earnestness and more


hard work on both sides. The impeachment


acts powerfully on this election, and the result


one way or the other, will react upon the I'm


peachment. The issue is regarded as matter


of life or death to the radicals, and they have
left no stone unturned to recover the State.


Men with whom honesty is the best policy,


and men with whom policy is the best honesty,


are equally perplexed to account for the late


dishonest and impolitic announcement in the
| New York Tribune, that General Grant had
expressed the opinion that the safety of the
country can be secured only with the removal
| of Andrew johnson, and that, therefore, the
only course left for the Senate is to hurry through
this impeachment trial and get this obnoxious
man out ofthe way as speedily as possible. Some
imagine that this scandalous pronunciamento
was intended to whip in certain Senators sup
posed to be weak in the knees; some suppose
| that this thing was intended to damage General
| Grant; some conjecture that the object was
| merely bit of buncombe for the Connecticut
| election; some imagine that Greeley, aspiring to
place in the Cabinet under cold Ben Wade, !"
is getting impatient of the laws delays, and
there are some who are inclined to think that


this unreasonable and startling announcement
of General Grants opinion of this impeachment


was, after all, stupidity paraded only as news


paper sensational item, without stopping to


consider the possible consequences.


| The truth probably is that this disreputable


publication was designed partly as warning


to the Senate and partly as an electioneering
! item for Connecticut; for there are some snug


little Offices In Connecticut and some large


ones at Washington and elsewhere dependent


upon the issue of this impeachment; and


"great expectations" among the rank and file


of the Connecticut working republicans in this
canvass are at the bottom of their jealous and


Industrious efforts to carry this election. They
seem to think, too, that the result, one way or
the other, will be apt to operate upon the
| Senate pretty much as the charge of re-
spected Judge operates upon confding and


weak -kneed jury, and that with the popular
voice of Connecticut added to that of New
Hampshire every shaky republican Senator
will be brought to proper appreciation of the
indictment against Andrew Johnson. It is
thus apparent that, next to the popularity of
General Grant as the universally accepted re-
publican candidate, this impeachment, in view
of the spoils and plunder involved in the final
result, has operated and is operating in Con-
necticut to bring into camp the republican
stragglers from all sides.


On this question the election Of the new
Legislature, upon which will devolve the cleo


ton of q United States Senator in the place
of Dixon (Johnson conservative, will mainly
turn. Should the result be democratic
Legislature it will be equivalent not only to
an endorsement of Dixon and vindication Of
Johnson, but tantamount to instructions to
Senator Ferry (republican) to vote with his
colleague for Johnsons acquittal. Nay, more;
if the popularity of Grant cannot carry Connec-
ticut in connection with the radical sine qua
non of Johnsons removal, the result in the
Senate may be failure to remove him. In this
event we may look for an immediate disruption
of the republican party into two hostile camps,
and for the nomination of Chief Justice Chase
as the conservative republican candidate
against General Grant. Here, then, will be
chance for democratic fusion upon Chase, or
for concentration upon Farragut, which will
carry the Presidential election; and with such
an opportunity the democrats will surely act
upon the good old rule that even half loaf is
better than no bread at all. How far the dis
appointments and aspirations of party leaders
have contributed heretofore to defeat and break
down in their turn both the great political
| parties of the country most of our readers
will remember with the mere mention of the
names of Calhoun, Van Buren,, Tyler, Fillmore,
| Breckenridge, Douglas and JEFF Davis and his


leading Southern confederacy colleagues. We
know, too, that like causes produce like effects,
and especially among rival politicians Of the
same church.


In the present republican Senate at Wash
| ington we know that Fessenden was an aspirant
| for the place now held by Wade; that Trum-
bull will not be ruled over by Sumner; that
Van Wrinkle and Wiley, of West Virginia, are


no ultra radicals; that Sherman is a cautious


conservative, and that Grimes, free trader,
has no admiration for the high tariff notions


Of Wade. Here are disaffections which the


chapter of accidents may yet aggravate to an


extensive revolt. With Chase as an aspirant


for the position secured by Grant as the radical


favorite, we shall only need, perhaps, the


entering wedge of radical defeat in Con-


necticut to bring about an Independent repub-


lican party and ticket for the Presidency with


the acquittal of Andrew johnson.