Year: 1870

Hcpubucans Tor tho Fan Cu~D@


Prospect.


There was joint caucus Of the republican


members Of the two houses OF Congress IN the


Capitol on Monday evening last to take steps


for q new Congressional National Committee.


Senator Hamln was called to the chair and


Representatives Ferry and Cessna were ap-


pointed secretaries Each State delegation Is


to elect its own member Of the national dele


cation within week, when q caucus for the


election Of permanent officers will be held. All


this means that the republicans Of both houses


are organizing for the Congressional elections


of September, October and November next,
the results of which win determine the political
complexion of the next House Of Representa-
tives and, to some extent, the complexion Of
the Senate. ipu4 feh
1t is the business Of the Congressional
National Committee Of each party to keep seve-
raj Of Its most active and experienced men In
party work on duty at Washington during the
recess OF Congress-. They overlook the whole
field Of the United States, and supply their
party in every State in which political con-
test Is going on or coming on with such speak
ers, printed speeches, public documents, let
ters, instructions, &c., as the case In this
State or the other may seem to require.
1t is in this business that the frank
ing privilege is particularly useful; for In
these campaigns. which involve the elections
for new Congress, hundreds Of tons of cleo
tioneering letters and circulars and 'Pub.
Doca - incJudipey gamma iun MARTY cpaochaa
and pamphlets, are sent through the mails
with this inscription, for instance. over the
| address on the rapper-''Free-John Smith,
M. c." Hence, in view of these approaching
Congressional elections, we apprehend that
the House bill for the abolition Of the franking
privilege will be in the list Of the unfinished
business of the Senate at the adjournment of
the present session, and both parties in Con-
gress are interested in so arranging it, Con-
sidering the new political order Of things, the
old party issues that have died out and the
new issues and old issues in new forms that
| are coming to the surface, there will be
vast amount of electioneering work to be done
this summer by the Congressional National
Committee Of each party. Accordingly the
pressure for the retention Of the franking
privilege till next winter will most probably
prove too strong to be resisted.


But what ia the prospect, looking toward
these approaching elections for the next Con-
gress2 From the late elections in New Hamp-
shire and Connecticut the two parties through
out the country remain substantially as they
were in 1868. Under Andy Johnson the republi-
cans had to fight the combined forces of the
administration and the democracy. Now they
have the administration with them and the
head of 1t as the embodiment and foreordained
candidate of the party for the Presidential sue
cession. They elected General Grant upon
the policy of Congress against the policy of
johnson; now they will 60 into the campaign
for the next Congress upon the policy of Cen
eral Grant, and they will be supported by all
the party machinery of his administration. In
short, the republicans in Grant and his admin
istration have common rallying point which
gives them a vantage ground apparently quite
as strong as that which the democratic party
held under General Jackson.


In his retrenchments, revenue reforms and
savings, and reduction of the national debt,
General Grant has already made for his ad-
ministration record which is much liked by
the people. On the fifteenth amendment and
the general questions Of equal civil and political
rights, regardless of race or color, or Of sex, we
may say, too, his course has been so bold, clear
and emphatic that we may safely venture the
opinion that he and the party which he re-


.sn a. Tho mt
secure almost en- naGsse the new African voting
element of the North and most likely the mass
of this important political balance of power in
the South. The Southern conservative party
movement in behalf Of an afiiliation with the
blacks, which was so successful in Virginia last
summer, appears to have been abandoned. In
the little State of Delaware the leading demo-
| Gratis have been making some foolish efforts to
| get up sswhite mans party" against the


ssblasted nigger;" and throughout the South
1 we find from our exchanges that the democracy
have turned their attention to denunciations of
the fifteenth amendment, when, in considering
how they are to deal with the fixed fact, they
should be cultivating the vote of Sambo.


The republicans in Congress are anything
but unit on the tariff question, and this may
give them some trouble in these approaching
elections. The new movement of the labor
reformers, on the other hand, in the last New


Hampshire election. actually cut into the camp
of the democracy. So far, indeed, as
cohesion is considered, the republicans
in General Grant have the advantages


of an official leader, a recognized candidate


and a positive policy, while the democrats out


side of New York are without recognized


leader or candidate or anything as policy,


except the policy, hit or miss, Of oppo-


sition to the party in power and General


Grants administration. Such being the exist


ing conditions and positions of the two parties,