Year: 1877

Il


occasions when citizen elected as
Vice President and acceding to the Presl-


dency by the death of the incumbent has
found himself at variance with the party
that elected him at the first meeting OF Con-
gress after his accession. But this has
never before happened to President
elected as SUCH The national convention
of party is sometimes tempted TO nomi-
nate for the Vice Presidency candidate
who belongs to some outlying region
of politics, with view to catch outside
votes 1t was in this view that Andrew
Johnson was placed on the same ticket with
Mr.. Lincoln in 1864, to gain the support Of
war democrats, and for a similar reason that
John Tyler was made the whig candidate for
Vice President in 1910 The position Of
such officers is very trying both to them
selves and the party that elected them if the
death of the President elevatcs them to the
highest station. Every instance of the kind
has been followed by conflict between the
accidental President and his party in Con-
gress; but until now there has never been
conflict of the kind between a President
elected as such and the political party which
brought him into power This novel phe-
nomenon in our politics is as curious as it is
unexampled.


We do not expect that the difference be-
tween Mr.. Hayes and the republicans in
Congress will be carried to such lengths and
result in such an open rupture as happened
in the cases of Tyler and Johnson, who
were elected only as Vice Presidents Linz
iting the comparison to the case of Johnson,
which is the more recent, the republican
party has no such overwhelming strength in
Congress as when it embarked in its men,
orable quarrel with that President. 1t had
then majority Of more than two-thirds in
both houses, and being able to override the
Presidents vetoes it could do whatever it
pleased. Moreover, it had as large major
ity Of the people as it had Of both branches
Of Congress, and nothing to fear from pop
ular reaction. The whole political situa-
ton is different now. The republicans have
lost the House they retain but slender
majority Of the Senate they are in o minor
ity Of more than three hundred thousand in
the popular vote of the country. The party
would be ruined by such contest with Mr.
Hayes as it waged triumphantly against
Andrew Johnson. On the other hand,
President Hayes cannot very well afford an
irrcparable breach with the party that
elected him. Unlike Tyler and Johnson, he
has no democratic antecodents. He has
never been anything but republican since
that party existed, and before it was formed
he was a whig. While the democrats are
glad enough to profit by his policy they
hold that he was not honestly elected and
has no equitable title to his Office. After
doing their best to embroil him with his
own party they will leave him to his polit-
ical fate He is already beginning to per-
ceive that if he gets into on irreconcilable
difference with the republicans in Congress
he would be in state Of political isolation.
Repudiated by one party as deserter, by
the other party as ''freud, his only sup
port would come from small personal
coterie, which is the most humiliating posi-
ton the Chief Magistrate Of great Repub-
lie could occupy. Mr.. Hayes cannot desire
such a position, nor does his own party de-
sire TO force him into it. In the natural
progress Of events a difference will be ad-
iusted which it is for the obvious inter-
est of both sides to get adjusted. Mr..
Hayes has not really understood the gravity
Of the situation until since the meeting Of
country, in which he was greeted with so
much warmth, had not prepared him for
what it was inevitable he should meet on
the assembling Of Congress. Having been
under a hallucination he has encountered
mortifying surprise. The result of the
Ohio election may have partially opened his
ewes, but even that did not reveal the full
extent OF the opposition he was destined to
meet from his own party. Since the meet


ing Of Congress he is brought to dead halt
He causes it to be given out that he
will make no fight against the party
leaders in Congress; but how could
he make fight when no republican
is ready to stand forth as his champion 1t
is said that he will confine himself strictly
to his executive duties and leave Congress
to pursue its own course without even an
appearance of protest. Having thus re-
treated behind his Notifications, he makes
himself mere spectator of the action of
his party in Congress- which is at least a
singular attitude for President to main
tain toward the political organization that
elected him. OF what advantage is it to the
republicans to have secured the Presidency
if the incumbent Of the Office sewers his
connection with them and follows his indi-
vidual views without regard to what they
may wish or think?


An attitude 50 unusual and so unnatural
cannot long be maintained without leading
to irreconcilablc cstrangement. Mr.. Hayes
will have 10 decide whether he will absolve
himself from all Difference to his party and
sunder his relations with it, leaving it in
the same position as If it had failed to elect