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tee weekly constitutionalist
WEDNESDAY MORNING. APRIL 22,1868
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alist.
The year 1868 will be one of the most
momentous in the political history of this
country. A great contest—one that is to
shape the form of government and fate of
the people for many years —will be fought
and decided. On the one side, we behold
the forces of Despotism, arrayed under
the Radical banner ; on the other side, the
defenders of Constitutional Liberty, mar
shalled under the glorious ensign of De
mocracy. While the Negro and the Public
Debt will be matters of contention in the
North, the acts of the Unconstitutional
Convention will engage the attention of
the South. The grand struggle for the
overthrow of Radicalism will pervade all
sections and shake them with a convulsion
equal to that of 1860-61.
In view of this tremendous drama, it will
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CARPET-BAG THEOLOGIANS.
When your Skowhegan skunk turns poli
tician and invades the South, it is a part of
his programme to abase himself and seek
admiration by rolling in the mire. He is
rabid after office and a general support at
somebody’s expense. Finding it impossible
to deceive or placate the decent whites, he
bargains with outlaws as venal and despi
cable as himself, and playing into each
other’s hands, they delude the negro popu
lation by false promises, filch their hard
earned money by cajolery, and ride into
power on the backs of those who are foolish
enough to trust them and their ignominious
coalition. This is to be expected of the
adventurer vomited forth from Skowhegan
and the adjacent provinces of New Eng
land, but we did hope that when a Skow
heganite turned his attention to theology,
a lovely scorn of ambition and lucre would,
in some measure, expiate the baseness of
his political compeer. Such, however, is
not the case. The “ friends of the freed
man,” hailing from those States that tram
ple him down whenever he lifts his head,
are just as bad when they get hold of
Sambo with the spirit of Cotton Mather,
uis those who now hold him with the spirit
of the late-lamented Richardson. One
bangs him over the head with the Billie
and the other with a copy of the new con
stitution. All of them plunder him and
seek his scandal and destruction.
These columns have not been wanting in
illustrations of the hypocrisy of the politi
cal knave in the character of a negro wor
shipper; we call attention to the ministe
rial charlatan as the Moses of the Ethio
pian.
In the city of Washington there assem
bled a body of parsons, genuine Yankee
Radicals, called the National Theological
.Society. The published report of the pro
ceedings is one of the most disgraceful on
record, exposing, as it does, an angry ulcer
in the clergy of the North and a shrewd
lust for cash most unbecoming in disciples
of the meek and lowly Jesus. The great
quarrel -of the Society was over the control
of an institute organized to qualify negroes
for the ministry. Some were in favor of
giving authority to the Theological So
ciety ; others proposed that “ brethren in
Boston ” should take charge. The combat
of Milton’s devils and angels was not a
circumstance to the acrimonious tussle of!
these Reverend Puritans over the bodies !
and the funds of the negro institute. Every
mother’s son of them wanted to fill the of
fices and manipulate the “demnition cash,”
and where all were so eager compromises
were impossible. The regular Skowhegan,
carpet-bag Satan showed his cloven foot as
palpably in dividing Christ’s garment as
he has exhibited it in mutilating the rai
ment of the South. Faith, hope, charity,
religion, the sacerdotal character —all were
forgotten in beastly hatred of one another,
and wolfish craving to cheat the negro,
though he reposed on the altar and sought
refuge in the sanctuary.
Read the following report and see how
loyal saints of the Skowhegan church
trifle with the negro, and how closely
your Yankee cleric approaches his brother
layman in the sacred thirst of plunder.
Read this, quarrel over the money-bag.
While perusing, old odors of the Georgia
Convention steal into the nostril with a
stronger infusion of rotten codfish.
The Treasurer puts himself in position,
and the scramble commences thus :
Mr. Z. Richards said that it was claimed that
this was the Institute, and bis office as Treas
urer bad expired, and that many now claiming
to be members were not such, having failed to
pay their last annual installments of $1 each.
The Chair (Mr. Lewis) remarked that when
the meeting went from Newark to Boston it
had less than a quorum, and they illegally
elected officers, etc., and to cap the climax
they took the money of the Institute with
them.
Elder Anderson—Will you take your scat?
We elected you to preside.
Several gentlemen here claimed the floor,
and the Chair asserted he had the right to ex
plain.
Col. N. 11. Hutchins—l would like to see
Brother Fulton run on, to see where he will
go to.
Dr. Turney (former instructor of the Insti
tute) said be would like to have the records of
the executive committee read.
Rev. Dr. Fulton remarked that Brother Tur
ney knew that this was the thiid organization
he has been connected with, and the second
one which he had tried to ruin ; and the ques
tion is, will you allow this to be ruined ?
[Cries of “ Order,” “ Beautiful language for a
brother,” and hisses.] He can’t deny that he
ruined the Fairmount Institute.
Rev. Mr. Nelson—l rise to a point of order:
That Christians should speak of and to each
other as Christian brothers.
The meeting was declared regular; when
Elder Anderson (colored) obtained the floor,
and said :
You white men have disgraced us ;” and
proceeded to remark that Dr. Fulton and all
the other individuals should not be considered
to the detriment of the education of these young
men (the students.) The language used by the
white men was ungentlemanly and had a bad
effect upon the students. You have been tell
ing them that you are in the movement for your
own purposes, and not for any love of princi
ple. [Dr. Turney here engaged in conversation
with the Chairman, which being noticed by the
stalworth Elder, he reached for him and re
quested him (Dr. T.) to take his seat. The
Doctor remarked that be had been called
there by the Chair, and the Elder proceeded.—
Rep.] He did not think that white men could
settle the conflict, and be would urge the adop
tion of-bis motion, and the appointment of col
ored men as the committee. His resolution
was as follows:
Resolved, That a committee of seven be ap
pointed to take into consideration the whole
question of difference between the meetingand
other brethren in Boston and elsewhere claim
ing to be the National Theological Institute.
Mr. Beard proceeded to speak on the origin
and history of the Institute, and remarked that
he believed that Dr. Turney had engaged hon
estly in the work.
Mr. J. 8. Paler moved to adjourn until Satur
day evening, at 6 o’clock.
Mr. Z. Richards said the motion was out of
order, Brother Beard not having yielded the
floor.
Mr. Beard resumed his remarks, and pro
ceeded to give a further history of the work
ings of the Association, saying that no objec
tion was made to adjourning to Boston.
Mr. Morse—We did not authorize you to
steal our money.
Mr. Fulton—We did not take a cent.
Mr. Morse—Oh, yes; nine or ten thousand
dollars.
Mr. Beard seconded the motion to refer to a
special committee.
Mr. ./Lewis relinquished the Chair and said
while the sending of delegates to Boston was
acquiesced in, they did not acquiesce in elect
ing all the officers from that city, and were not
satisfied in making it a Boston Association.
' When its head and tail moved out of the Dis
trict, it was out of its orbit, and when it was
taken to Boston, Boston spent its money.
Dr. Fulton—We did not take a dollar away,
and none was spent except by authority of the
Executive Committee, and every dollar was
spent here. He had seen tbe receipt of SIO,OOO
Obtained from Gen. Howard. [A voice—“ Dr.
Turncv received $1,550 of that money.” An
other yoicc—“ Mr. Paler received some.”] Dr.
Fulton said he came here as the guardian of
the education oi these colored men. [“P-h-e-w”
i and hisses.] Every dollar of the money re-
I ceived from the Freedmen’s Bureau had been
, expended in Washington, under the Washing
l ton corporators. The money paid to Brother
Turney was misapplied in his opinion. [Hisses
and cries of “ Shame,” “ Pretty talk for a chris
•tian,”J and even now there is a letter in Boston
I from Turney demanding his salary. [A voice.—
| “ Ain’t he a pretty Christian ?” Another voice.—
■ “ He ain’t a christain.”|
| Tbe Chair—lt is evident that no good can
I come out ot this discussion.
I Dr. Fulton—ln the name of God, don’t lay
I violent hands on this institution.
Mr. Condron defended Dr. Turney, saying
that he has been in the bouses of the colored
people when they bad no friends, prayed with
and counselled them. [Voices from the color
ed class—“ That’s so,” “Here’s a living wit
ness,” etc.] He got down and prayed with
them. [Rev. Mr. Grimes arose, but Rev. Mr.
Culver urged him, “ Don’t say a word, let
them insult us,” when a brother remarked, “ It
is impossible to insult you.”] He had been
told by Dr. Fulton that he (Dr. F.) would not
wipe his feet on him. [Considerable disorder
here took place, a number of calls to order be
ing made, but Mr. C. was irrepressible, and
had his say.] He succeeded in say that if Dr.
Turney was as poor as Job he would not have
troubled Boston much.
Elder Anderson remarked that his resolution
should be adopted, and the committee have
time to fully consider the subject.
Rev. L. Grimes, of Boston, defended Dr.
Fulton, and remarked he had been the friend
of Dr. Turney. He would be willing for the
subject to go to a committee.
Mr. Morse said that he did not believe that
a fair committee could be obtained, judging
from what had transpired.
Elder Anderson here left the room, but Dr.
Fulton followed him, and in a few moments
they returned together, and, amid some con
i fusion, Mr. Anderson moved an adjournment,
which was carried.
Mr. Richards said that many of those who
voted were not members.
The Chair decided the motion carried ; and
then came an exciting scene—a Washington
clergyman buttonholeing a knight of the quill,
and urging that a light report, if any, be made;
while a Boston clergyman urged him to “ give
it full;” and Elder Anderson, who stood in
stature like Saul of old, “ head and shoulders
above the rest,” gave the whites quite a severe
lecture on, as he said, their disgraceful con
duct; saying he was born of the loins of a
slave, but he felt that the white men at this
meeting had disgraced the colored rjicc, and
that, too, in the presence of their own colored
' pupils; and the women, white and colored,
i discussed Washington against Boston, and
1 Fulton against Turney, and vice versa.
GORDON AND GEORGIA.
After a brief and somewhat heated can
vass, this day of rest comes like a breath
ing spell before the combat. Never before
in the history of the world have any people
been called upon to suffer the peculiar
hardships of the South, and we trust for
the sake of whatever is bright in humanity,
that this our strange ordeal is the last in
human history where fellow-countrymen
trample upon brethren, and, with a most
quenchless vengeance, hand them over to
the mercies of a servile and semi-barbarous
race. When Austria invoked the aid of
the Cossacks to quell Hungarian liberty,
few whose memories are fresh with the
Magyar struggle can forget the universal
cry of execration that rose over all
Europe, and even crossed the seas
with vibrant echoes to the United States.
It shocked the nerves of Europeans and
awoke the lively sympathy of America,
when the untamed horsemen of Russia
were permitted to humiliate the proud and
enlightened Hungarian. And yet, these
Clossacks, wild and half barbaric as they
are, were not far removed from those they
tormented. They had fair intelligence,
they were of kindred blood, they were im
bued with the spirit of freemen; but cer
tain uncouth traits made them detestable
to the world at large, and the indignity of
allowing a son of the desert to place his
foot upon the neck of a descendant ol
Arpad, was the last analysis ot mortifica
tion. It has, however, been reserved for
the people of the United States to surpass
the meanness of Russia and out-rival
her despotic cruelty. It was reserved
for the Republicans of the North to
free a people that had been slaves since
the creation, in order to enslave anoth
er people whose march has been . with
the grandest civilizations, and by whose
united effort the common land of our Re
volutionary Fathers was won and kept.—
Accident and improbity have given such
enemies to their own race the mastery of
affairs; by the most devouring hatred and
delirious management they propose to main
tain the wages of fraud and circumstance.
Finding that they stand convicted before
the world of perfidy; finding that the white
men of all sections repudiate their doctrines
and prepare to overthrow their power,
they resort to any outrage for per
petuating wrong and keeping the spoils of
treachery. An experiment has been made
with South Carolina and resulted just
as the architects of ruin prefer. Noble
and gallant white men, valorous, learn
ed, courteous and moral, have been forced
into thraldom in South Carolina. The
offices of that once glorious Common
wealth are filled by strolling mountebanks
from New England, filthy adventurers from
Europe and beastly negroes from the cotton
patches. A more damnable amalgam never
entered into the imagination of the Evil
One ; and the living of South Carolina, un
der the dominion of such elements, may
well envy the dead of battle-fields and the
Federal prison-pen. It is a shameless in
sult not for one day, but for generations ; it
will spread like a canker, and corrupt
whatever it approaches. It will bring a
future to the whites and blacks they dimly
dream of now; but one that rises luridly
before the eyes of those who have prophetic
ken.
The fate imposed on South Carolina with
such ease and cold blood, is the same fate
attempted to be thrust upon Georgia with
greater exertion. The opposing hosts arc
more evenly matched here; hence the throes
of competition and the restless strife for
victory. That side which wars against the
supremacy of the Caucasian and the order
of nature is not only strong in numbers
but it has the civil and military backing of
a vast empire. It has plenary indulgence
to commit fraud and plenary privilege to
manufacture majorities. The few white
men supporting it are inspired by the low
est motives and most depraved sentiments.
They herd with the ignorant and criminal
to reap the spoils. They wallow in the
mire so that the God ot Mud, now regnant
in the land, may recognize how low human
ity is capable of descending lor a base re
ward.
We need not enter into a comparison
with these disciples of Ben Butler. Our
standard-bearer is known to all Georgians
who love Georgia; and when he rises before
tlie people like the knight of olden days,
sans peur et sans reproche, the bayonet
propped renegades and their allies are
properly' abashed, and fear for their thirty
pieces, though they seem so near and so
secure. We call upen Georgians to reflect
upon tlie doom of South Carolina. We
call upon them to save their State from the
villany practiced upon their sister State.
We call upon them to administer a rebuke
to tlie Skowhegan missionaries which they
will never forget. We call upon them to
rally to the polls and help others to rally
there. We call upon them to remember
the past and think of the future. We call
upon them to leave no stone unturned to
whip this tight. From the mountains to
the savannahs let the slogan go forth:
Gordon and Georgia forever !
~ORDER N 0761. ~
Gen. Meade, beating upon his adjutant’s
drum, has contrived to raise quite a cam
motion in camp. No one need be frighten
ed by tlie noise, which is of doubtful charac
ter, to say the best of it.
Gen. Meade thinks Congress may re
quire the test-oath of members elect to the
Legislature, but he is by no means sure. —
Well, since the General is in doubt, we have
the best right to take tlie benefit of the
doubt and act accordingly.
Os course, if it suit Congress to make a
provisional test-oath Legislature, Congress
will doit by those peculiar processes known
to Mr. Spalding, who admitted that the
Alabama Constitution was deteated and
yet proclaimed it triumphant.
If the same iniquity' should be forced
upon Georgia, Congress will have to assume
the responsibility of flagrant wrong, and it
is the duty of every voter to compel Con
gress to expose itself as much as possible.
Order No. 61 looks to the prospect of a
provisional Legislature having to take the
test oath, in order to ratify the proposed
fourteenth article of the United States Con
stitution. How a provisional Legislature
can administer upon our National Com
pact is an absurdity that only Ben But
ler can see by means of a Radical squint.
Order No. 61, far from being a discourage
ment, should be a new incentive for the
white men of Georgia. Gen. Meade is not
the final arbiter of the fitness of those we
shall choose to represent us. There is
something left of the Supreme Court. The
Court may shirk its duty, but we can, at
least, compel the Court to drive another
nail in the coffin of the Republic, and every
nail that goes there abuses the dead and
may, at last, awake the living to a sense of
duty.
Vote ! Vote! Be true to yourselves, men
of Georgia. Let Order No. 61 take care of
itself.
THE CRISIS.
Before another issue of our paper the
great political drama that has been passing
in review before the people of Georgia will
have reached that point of interest—that
stirring scene, which will surpass, in the
magnitude of its issues, every former act
in this mighty revolution.
The restless and captious spirit of the
Northern anarchs is determined to resist
every overture of peace, to trample down
every vestage of kindly feeling that may
yet linger in the hearts of the Southern
people, and stir with fresh elements of bit
terness the repose so essential to success
and prosperity after so many years of strife
and suffering. When the reconstruction
machinery was set in motion to remodel
and rejuvinate the South with unlimited
power at the capital—with unobstructed
rule and dominion—with no counsellor to
object, no organization to resist, it was ex
pected that the wisdom and might of these
people, claiming so much learning and civ
ilization, would have organized a policy
every way suited to their view of the situ
ation. The registers were sent abroad, the
talent and integrity of the country disfran
chised, the ignorant and corrupt placed in
power, and every ruse rdsorted to, to ele
vate over the prostrate fortunes of a gallant
people their imperial sway.
When they required a majority of the re
gistered voters to validate the convention,
we were spared the humiliation of a con
test with those Yankee emissaries who were
too vile to succeed and build up political
fortunes even among the festering kennel
of Northern fanaticism. We avoided that
contest, dissuaded no man from exercising
his political rights as a voter, and yet a
dread of the failure of their darling schemes
has caused a shifting of their tactics, and
MllUtilCl rtiuomliiiciib tv tliv <felr<ytt<ly ttllldltietl
reconstruction acts is hastily manipulated.
We arc now required to avail ourselves of
the last meagre semblance of popular
sovereignty, and stay if we can the raging
tide of imperial fanaticism, or tamely sub
mit to the iron rule of intolerance and
ostracism. They disclaim the dictatorial,
yet require us to stultify ourselves and
contribute to our own degradiation. Pro
mises and threats are resorted to, to bring
about by our own acts what they have the
power, but not the nerve to accomplish.—
What shall we do ? What is the duty of the
hour ? What policy does wisdom dictate ?
Self preservation directs but one course!
Every man should go to the polls who is
entitled to vote. Let no factious opposi
tion to policy, no finical squeinishness, no
disinclination to engage in a distasteful
contest for a moment deter a single voter
from a punctual and faithful discharge of
this solemn duty. The issues are momen
tous and may decide the destiny of your
State and people for all time to come.—
There is no alternative left you. Fail now
and no ken of prophecy can penetrate the
angry c louds that hang upon yonr future.
This is our country; the graves of our
fathers and the hopes of our children are
strongly mixed with the current of events,
and they demand that we exercise faith
fully this privilege—perhaps the last—to
avert the dreadful calamities in store for
us. If this motley crew, with Bullock at
its head, should be invested with official
power, who can tell what dire misfortune
may yet await us. Gen. Gordon can be
elected. Information from every part of
the State encourage us to believe that the
Southern whites will assert their manhood,
as in days of yore, and come to the rescue
almost unanimously; and the blacks, tired
of the deceptions practiced upon them by
these miserable Northern emissaries and
Southern traitors, -will spurn their affiliation
and stand by their true friends, with whom
they have been reared, with whom they
must live, and on whom they must rely for
counsel and support in all time to come.
We can elect a majority of the Legislature,
secure the Senate, pass wise and wholesome
laws, protect the treasury of the State,
place in the appointive offices the learned
and good, and elect to local offices in each
neighboring county honest and true men
Everything is at stake—all that we have
and all that we hope for. We insist that
our people stand by their rights at the polls,
protect, as far as possible, that sacred
deposite from fraud and manipulation, and
success will crown our efforts.
The Difference.—Gov. Brown has a two
column article in the New Era this morning,
the burthen of which is, that Geu. Gordon is
ineligible !
Per contra, Gen. Meade has decided that Gen.
Gordon is eligible, and pledges him his official
influence in procuring his seat, in case ol his
election. Alas for Brown Opinion. '
The largest income in New Hampshire'is
that of the proprietor of a “ Hair Restorer.”
He has got to be the richest man in that State
in six years, by advertising. At least it is to
printers’ ink mainly that he attributes his pe
cuniary prosperity.
ORDER NO. 61.
We never believed that Congress and its
tools, military and Skowheganite, would
give us the least chance, in the long run, to
redeem ourselves in any fashion antago
nistic to their hate and greed. Order No.
61, issued on the very threshhold of an
election, is only one of many obstacles pur
posely put in our path to circumvent and
betray. At this late hour, we are blandly
informed that the constitution, if adopted,
will be merely provisional, and, until rati
fied by Congress, the members of Legisla
ture come under the head of United States
officials. This ruling implies a resort to
the test oath and is a characteristic trick
of perfidious legislators to consign the
State to the guidance of negroes, carpet
baggers and perjurers. The Atlanta Intel
ligencer, anticipating Meade’s order, thus
speaks of the imposition of the test oath:
“ The reconstruction acts were designed to
accomplish a totally different purpose from
that of the test oath. If not, then they are
without meaning and worthless. Their effect
is to fully pardon for all political offenses
against the United States Government, and to
all the privileges of citizenship all who can and
are registered, including, of course, the right
to hold the offices to which any of them may
be elected should the State be admitted to her
representation in Congress. There is so clear
a distinction between the test and registration
oath—between the purpose of each, that any
man can see and feel it who will. Those who
are wilfully oblivious, and determined to take
unfair and unconscientious advantages, of
course will not. We would ask how happened
it that under the reconstruction acts Confede
rate soldiers, and divers others who could not
take the test oath, were members of the State
Convention, and framed the fundamental laws
of the State? And we would ask how is it
that these members, many of whom are now
candidates for the Legislature, have to be re
lieved from their disabilities by Congress be
fore they can administer the constitution they
themselves have made I
“ The constitutional amendment to be adopt
ed declares directly the contrary, for Congress
only reserves to itself the right to relieve from
disability all who cannot register. It would,
indeed, be wonderful if Congress has to sit in
judgment upon the case of every member of
the Legislature before their acts can have any
validity. The test oath has no such applica
tion, and so it has been administered by all the
military commanders of the unreconstructed
States.”
No one need be- deceived by the apparent
fairness of the commanding general, or the
possibility of Congress relaxing one iota of
its plenary wrath. The fiat has gone forth
that we are to be handed over, bound hand
and foot, to villains in our midst. The
United States army is to stand guard over
this outrage, and the great American peo
ple are called upon to witness and applaud.
We are in the fight; let there be no backing
down. If we are to be betrayed, let us
hurl upon the adversary the infamy of the
act. Let his shame be the more glaring by
our unitvu pvntost. Let the Legislative
and other offices be to him pillories. Let us
give him a token of future retribution that
shall never pass away from him in the night
or day. On with the canvass! On with
Gordon and the regular nominees! The
ides of November are not far distant. If the
cause of Republican liberty triumph then,
we shall not be troubled much longer with
the yahoos now tormenting us. If it fail,
we can stand them, and wait for the time
when “ He who forgetteth not the cry of
the humble, will be our friend and our
avenger.”
ANOTHER ORDER-
As the election approaches, Gen. Meade
shows an extraordinary fecundity in the
way of Orders. By reference to our tele
graphic columns, it will be seen that ac
cording to the latest inspiration at Head
quarters, members elect to the Legislature
may nave to take the Test-Oath. This is
an unexpected ruling and we look for ad
ditional evidence. The proposed constitu
tion, under which members of the Legisla
ture can hold any authority, thus specifies
the oath of office:
“Every Senator, or Representative, before
taking his seat, shall take an oath, or affirma
tion, to support tbe Constitution of the United
States, and of this State ; that he has not prac
ticed any unlawful means, directly or indirect
ly, to procure his election, and that he has not
given, or offered, or promised, or caused to be
given, or offered, or promised, to any person,
any money, treat, or thing of value, with in
tent to affect any vote, or to prevent any per
son voting at the election at which he was
elected.”
Sharp.—Blodgett, who needs relief
from disabilities more than any man in this
community, proposes to effect the removal
of disabilities from Republican candidates
to the Legislature. Well, Congress has a
fitting instrument. But Blodgett should
re Member that Congress has used and pet
ted many men as smart as he is—and Con
gress has put its used-up pets out of the
way in a fashion little to their relish. Take
care, Blodgett. Mr. Bingham is a cun
ning spider and could tell sad stories of
Congressional puppets. Suppose you fail
to please ; suppose the whole Radical plot
becomes bankrupt—where would you be,
little man, and where your testoath mimic
ries ?
Another Blodgett Case.—The Postmaster
General has given orders that an agent of the
Post Office Department shall take possession
of a post office in Wisconsin, and that the post
master shall be immediately removed, because
of alleged defalcation and refusal to pay over
or account for Government moneys used. This
is another instance of the character of the
Georgia case, testified to by Foster Blodgett,
on Thursday last, in the impeachment trial. If
the present incumbent of the Wisconsin post
office be the bad man he is represented to be,
the Postmaster General cannot permit him to
remain in possession until the petition of an
applicant shall be presented, his qualification
canvassed, and then wait for the problematical
action of the Senate ; in other words, the puo
lic interests would suffer should the Postmas
ter General strictly pursue the forms required
bv the tenure of office act.— Exchange.
[Special Telegram to the N. Y. Herald.
* The Great Radical Conspiracy.
The Plot of the Radicals for the Overthrow of
a Republican Government—The Hucutroe
and the Supreme Court to be Abolished
The Terms of Office of Grant and the Sena
tors to be Extended to Ten Years—A Com
bined Military and Senatorial Dictatorship
Contemplated.
Washington, April 14,1868.
History records numerous instances of
conspiracies to overthrow existing govern
ments or to change ruling dynasties, but
they have generally been the work of a few
restless spirits, who have kept their real de
signs concealed from all but their imme
diate associates, and thus have led their fol
lowers blindly on in tbe path of revolution
in ignorance of its ultimate goal. The Ja
cobins of France were bold in their action;
but even with them when their revolution
ary fires were first kindled only the men
who applied the match knew fully the ex
tent of the destruction that was designed
to follow the conflagration. The Radical
conspiracy now. under full way at Wash
ington is probably the most reckless that
has ever sought to strike at the life of a
strong and beneficent government and to
reduce a happy people to a state of anarchy.
Events have occurred here within the
past two or three days which render it cer
tain that the ultimate object of the men
who are striving to control the Republican
party in Congress is to effect an entire
change in our republican form of govern
ment, and to substitute in its place a dicta
torship more absolute and arbitrary than
that of Robespierre and the Commune de
Paris. The apparent triumph of the im
peachers on Saturday last, when the Sen
ate, after giving the broadest license to the
managers in regard to the admission of evi
dence against President Johnson, refused to
the latter the privilege of examining Gen.
Sherman on points vital to the defense, im
parted such confidence to the Radical con
spirators as to tempt them to cast aside all
caution and to boast openly of their power
and of the manner in which they are re
solved to exercise it. In the bar-rooms and
over the dinner tables principles were'
avowed which, under other governments,
would speedilv consign their exponents to
a felon's cell." The objects of the revolu
tionists were declared to be the entire over
throw of constitutional republican govern
ment, as a failure, proved to be such . by the
war of the rebellion, and the substitution
in its place of a so-called “ Government of
the Peonle,” under the delusive Jacobin
cry of “ Liberty and Equality.” The means
and process by which this end is to be ac
complished are set forth as follows :
The conviction and removal of Andrew
Johnson, and the installation of Ben Wade
in the Presidency for three or four months
before the commencement of the next Presi
dential term.
The election of Grant as President and
Ben Wade as Vice-President and wesident
of the Senate, by the aid of martial law in
doubtful States, if necessary.
The virtual abolition of the Supreme
Court of the United States, by stripping the
judiciary of the power to pass upon the
constitutionality of any act of Congress re
lating to reconstruction or to the •business
of the government.
The extension of the term of office of the
President, Grant,lthe Vice-President, Wade,
and the present United States Senate to ten
years from the Ist of March, 1869, on the
pleathat a constantly recurring change in
the government is harmful in the existing
condition of the country and was one of the
main causes ofthe late war of the rebellion.
The unlimited inflation of the currency,
s~o«-«„,T>pntnlitv of the nations!
banks, so as to throw upon the country an
enormous amount of paper moirey, by
means of which the people are to be kept in
a state of excitement and good humor, and
to be amused and made satisfied with an
apparent prosperity.
This is the end and aim of the Radical
conspiracy, to which impeachment is only
one of the preliminary steps. The dictator
ship of Grant will be nominal only, and the
real power will be in the Senate, with Ben
Wade at its head. The appointments made
by him during his brief term of power will
be carefully selected from the tools of the
conspirators, and the patronage and influ
ence of the office holders will stand at the
back of the revolutionary commune. Grant
will not have the power, if he had the dis
position, to change a single feature in the
programme—a single creature in the action
of the drama—for the Senate will hold him
in a vice stronger than that they have pre
pared for Andrew Johnson. With the lat
ter out oi the Presidential office, nowoice
will be raised in vetoes to expose the true
character of Radical legislation, and acts
will be passed which will strike down what
little of protection yet remains to the peo
ple in the barriers of the Constitution.—
With a paper currency flooding the coun
try speculation will run wild, stocks of all
kinds will rise, railroad schemes, land
schemes and all the wildest projects that
ingenuity can devise will find ready vota
ries, and in the general fire and smoke of
the great revolution the Radical dictator
ship will be made perpetual. The united
power of Grant, the Senate and the nation
al banks is relied npon to crush out all op
position and to enforce a Reign of Terror
to which the experience of 1862 and 1863
will be but a trifle. The conspirators cite
the case of Louis Napoleon in support of
their argument, that boldness only is re
quired to turn into an absolutism a rule
commenced under the guise of republican
liberty.
The immediate admission of the Southern
States, with their negro constituencies and
negro representatives, will follow the first
successful steps of the conspiracy, and then
the vote of New York in the House of Rep
resentatives will be nullified by that of
South Carolina. The real object of the
Radical conspirators is no longer a secret.
Men may shut their eyes to the truth, but
the revolution will not go backwards, and
its last acts, which are here foreshadowed,
will come as surely as military rule, negro
supremacy, the usurpation of the constitu
tional powers of the Executive, the destruc
tion of the Supreme Court, and finally, the
impeachment of the President of the Lnited
States, have one after another followed the
close of the war of the rebellion.
Imperial Government. Republics
change into Empires by' a very simple pro
cess. Cheap citizenship and a debased
franchise push into power more and more
demagogues, property and intelligence
cease Ito be represented, the will of the ig
norant majority usurps the place of law,
patriotism perishes because there remains
in the country' nothing worthy to be loved
or to be proud of, and the people, weary' o.
the base struggle in high places for mere
plunder, accept repose at any cost.
We see in the profound apathy with
which the trial of Mr. Johnson is regarded
abundant proof that the people of this con
tinent have forgotten the nature of freedom
and remember barely the name. Perhaps
they are not ready for the trappings of em
pire. It is certain that they have accepted
with complacency the rule'of the bayonet.
Their chief anxiety is to make money and
have it secured to them. As for the form
of the government which shall gratify their
anxiety, that is not material. The pear of
imperialism will soon ripen in the Ameri
can hot-house.— Native Virginian.