The Plymouth Weekly Democrat

Objects of the Radical Party.

A review of the history of the past three years, and a careful examination of the present condition of the country, leaves no doubt on the mind of an impartial observer that the policy of the party in power has been and is deliberately opposed to the saving of the American Union, or to the fulfillment of the solemn pledges given to the country by the Crittenden resolutions. It is impossible to explain the course pursued on any theory consistent with a patriotic desire to carry out the expressed wishes of the people. On the contrary, if we seek an intelligent explanation of the entire policy of the leaders of that party, we find it only by applying the idea that their objects were revolutionary from the start, and that they always were, as they now are, determined to destroy the voting power of the Southern population in the American Union for at least the period of a life-time. There have been several points of time since the war began, when a wise and conciliatory policy, adopted and carried out by a strong Administration, would have restored the Union. At each of these times the opportunity has been thrown away, the opening for union has been closed up, suddenly and securely, by some radical proclamation or act calculated to drive the minds of returning Southerners into a desperate enmity.

These acts have not been accidental; they have been ingeniously devised and successful. Instead of taking advantage of the opportunities for peace and union, each opportunity has been the signal for more violent attacks on the very rights which the Crittenden resolutions declared should be protected. Instead of seeking to restore the States with their Constitutions and rights unimpaired, it has been the steadfast object of the party in power to prevent the restoration of a solitary State with any of its independent rights. The passage of the House of Representatives of the bill for reconstruction, is but a confession of all that we have said. The Republican party has certainly been as revolutionary in its character and designs as the rebels themselves. Both have gone to work to destroy the American Union—the one for separate power over a section, the other for absolute power over all.

What is left for the people to do? The plan of the Administration is hopeless. There is no possible contingency in the future which can make it successful in restoring the American Union. It does not design to restore the old Union, and it cannot by any possibility succeed in making a new Union which will stand for a year of peace. Its theories are all disorganizing and revolutionary, and its plans will necessarily bring us to anarchy and chaos.

If there is any hope in the future, it is in the calm action of the conservative men of the country in the coming elections. Let them unite. Republicans and Democrats—men of all names who are true American patriots, and change the whole character of the Administration. Let them restore wisdom to Washington. Let them place in office men of vigor, intellect, men who can be trusted; and let them displace men who violate, with cool deliberation, every pledge that they make to the people, and disregard all the guaranteed as well as the implied rights of citizens, merchants, bankers, soldiers—nay, even of women and children.

The record of these successive violations of rights will be a fearful record in the future. When men read the history of our times they will shrink in terror from the spectacle of new institutions delivered up to the plunder of every politician. It is the saddest page in all the world's history. America, plunged into war by Southern treason and rebellion; then degraded, robbed, debauched by a licentious Northern party, drunk with power, and her very literature at last culminating in a second Joe Miller jest book—the jests of her Chief Magistrate!—[N. Y. Jour. Com.