The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-11-21
TrIbuIation OF the RepubIioans.

From TIE World
The author of the "Iliad," in describing the
mourning of the captive maidens over the
corpse of Patroclus, says that. while seeming
to Oewail the dead hero, they we're really
lamenting their own captivity. Tho oficious
anxiety displayed by the Republicans. SINCE the
elections, that the South should for its own
advantage, come to a speedy settlement is of
similar character. Their real anxiety is not for
the prompt relief of the South but for tho
prompt relief of the Republican marty. The
Republicans see, as clearly as we do. that the
present deadlock cannot continue without in-
finite damage to them. The restoration OF the
Union is blocked by their act, and they cannot
escape the responsibility.
They carried the elections bv deludinp the
peoples by making them think that the South
would Immediately succumb if Congress was
sustained by the Northern people, and that that
was the speediest way to secure the great object
for which so much blood has been split. The
people OF the North want to see this difficulty
ended. II the Union is not restored they will
gIow impatient and restive. They win ask why
they were so lndustriously and deceptively told
that Republican triumph IN the election was
the shortest way out OF the embrollment The
party that keeps the Union dismembered will
grow more and more odlous in proportion as the
lapse OF time attests their determination to de-
feat in peace the object tor which we went
to war.
The Republican leaders, foreseeing that they
must face this odlum, are painfully looking
about them for some mode of ext1ication. The
eager and delighted avdty with which they
caught at q recent article in the Chicago Times
recommending a substitute for the amendment
betokeDs their restless anxiety to get out of an
uncomfortable position. The amendment
which it took all the combined wisdom of Con-
gress eight months to batch, aud which was
cried up in every State where an election has
been held as the perfection of justice, Is already
as good as dead. 1t has fallen to the ground
like untimey fruit, rotten before it is ripe. The
air is full of rumors which lead us to doubt
whether it will be ratified even by the Northern
States. 1t is telegraphed from Washington that
influential Southern statesmen (nobody gives
lher names) favor impartial suffrage Il. e.
negro sutiTage) as mode of settlement. When
Chief Justice Chase calls on the President to
confer with HIM about needed changes in the
judiciary laws which ought to be recommended
in the Annual Message, the telegraph Is again
busy informing all the Republican newspapers
that conference is going on between those
high functionaries respecting the state Of the
country, which is likely to result in a new
policy on which Congress and the President can
agree, and which VIII probably be accepted by
the South.
The negro-suffrage article in the Chicago
Times, the apocryphal opinions attributed by
the Washington quldnuncs to leading Southern
statesmen, and the alleged consultations be.
tween the Chief Justice and the President, ena-
bled the Republican prints, during the last
week, to perform new comedy OF Much ado
About Nothing. Though trhes light as air in
themselves, those rumors and the reception
given them are noteworthy indications of the
uneasy, dissatisfied eXpectant state of public
feeling. They know that the late elections,
instead of settling the public mind of the North,
have ompletely unsettled it. While the cleo
tions were pending, 1t was Represented that the
question to be decided by them was whether
the Constitutional amendment was to become
the fixed policy of the country. The friends of
the amendment carried the elections. and now
they seem anxious for colorado preteXt tor
pitching it overheard. The true Interpretation
OF this strange vaclllation is that the Republi-
can leaders Know that the amendment was
dishonest sham, which, having served its tempo-
Iary purpose, they desire TO bury out of sight.
They never supposed it would be adopted and
as soon as Congress meets they will Immediately
try to occupy public attention with some new
scneme, with view to have 1t forgotten. They
never meant it as plan of settlement, but
only as piece of electioneering claptrap.
II the Northern Legislatures should ratify the
amendment 1t VIII be merely for iorm's sake TO
publican, any more than any intelligent Demo-
crat, supposes it will ever be part of the Con-
stitution. Congress will have been in session a
month before most of the Legislatures meet:
ana before they can act on it, it is probable that
some substitute will be broached which Will
supersede ii, and set it aside. We shall feel no
surprise even ii Massachusetts shall fail to ratfy
it, The plea will be, that Massachusetts can
consent 70 nothing short of negro suffrage. If
two or three radical States lead oil in rejecting
il on this ground, it may turn out. before winter
ends that instead OF three-fourths of the States
are against it. We expect to see the Republican
leaders scouting it as a mode of settlement be-
fore Congress mas been two weeks in session. 1t
is certain, from recent indications, that the Re-
pubicans are thoroughly dissatisfied with their
position, and are seeking reteXts to escape
from it.