2

The Radical Republican Politicians — They Threaten the President, the Cabinet and Congress — Their Object.

The radical republican politicians do not think the war work is going on rapidly enough — the heart of the negro country has not been reached by our troops — the slaves have not seen the "armies of freedom" — universal anarchy, insurrection and their attendant horrors have not yet overwhelmed the south and spread desolation throughout its borders. They say to the cabinet, General Scott and the army, "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" The New York Times threatened the president with removal by force from his office, if there was any faltering on his part in pushing the war to the extremity, and now the New York Tribune warns the members of the cabinet that if they have the remotest idea of stopping this war by an adjustment, they cannot much longer remain in the service of the United States; while the Tribune's Washington correspondent says, in view of a prospect of adjustment: "There are five hundred thousand earnest men in arms who will as easily and readily organize a military despotism, if the exigencies of the hour demand it, as they can reconstruct on the foundation of tranquil orbitration." The Washington dispatch to the New York Herald also says:

"A spirit is being aroused that will result in placing the man who shall dare offer a proposition to compromise with traitors in the same category, and to hang both. The feeling against any thing of that kind here is so intense at the present time, that it is believed that the man who would openly propose to settle with the southern rebels by compromising would by hung as soon as found."

All that indicates the terrible apprehensions of the radical republican politicians that the war may be stopped by an adjustment before the slaves are freed. The president is threatened; the members of the cabinet are warned; senators and representatives in congress have the gallows paraded before their eyes, and the country is notified that, if necessary, the army will proclaim a military dictator, and organize a military despotism in the place of the present constitutional government, if the exigencies of the hour demand it. That is the feeling that the radical republican politicians are now endeavoring to get up throughout the army and the country. The great end sought to be accomplished by them is not to settle more firmly the principles of constitutional liberty by upholding the constitutional liberty by upholding the constitution and the Union, but to liberate the slaves. Hear what the Washington correspondent of the New York Tribune says, and whose sentiments are indorsed by that paper:

"If this war were for any thing short of realizing a perfect equality of rights for every human being, it would be the most foolish crusade or the direst butchery that the world was ever stained withal. On the triumph of freedom over slavery rests the honor and the fate of this nation. We achieved national liberty through the revolution; we must now acheive individual liberty for all men in the nation, to make us as a people the worthy standard bearer of that holy cause which we claim to have espoused for all the world."

That is what these radical republican politicians think of this war. If its object is not to be the setting free of every slave in the land and putting them on "a perfect equality of rights" with the white man, then would it be "the most foolish crusade, or the direst butchery, that the world was ever stained withal" — in the opinion of these persons. They care nothing for the constitution as it is — nothing for the Union as it is — nothing for the flag of country — so long as under them negroes are held in slavery. Is it any wonder that these persons, fearing that their hopes may be destroyed by a peace adjustment, threaten the president, the cabinet and congress? It is well that patriotic, constitutional Union loving citizens should keep a watch on these radical republican politicians. They are the ones who are primarily responsible for our present troubles, and if they are permitted to control and direct this war, then will this country witness horrors and experience calamities beyond what the world has ever witnessed. We take pleasure in stating our conviction, and it is no more than justice for us to say that the great body of the republicans do not concur with the radical politicians of their party in these utlra views, that they are faithful to the constitution, and desire the preservation of the government for its benignity and the blessings it confers, and support its efforts to crush out the rebellion without any reference whatever to the slave question.