The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-02-26
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2e, 1866.
The Rebel vice-President on the National
Future.

The Rebel Vice-President on the National
Future.
MR.. ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS delivered at
Milledgeville, on Washington's Birthday, a
very pretty rhetorical address-an address in
which all the rules OF eloquence, as laid down
by CICERO, were carefully observed, and from
which all the warm sentiments which prove
that the words flow from the heart as well as
the mouth, were carefully expunged. 1t was
a cold, brilliant, glittering oration, reading
beautifully; is as entertaining as the best Of
British essays; contains considerable logic;
quotes freely from history, but which has no
soul. 1t seems as though the same thought
which occurs to us was continually before the
speaker, and taunting him throughout the ad
dress with the charge to practise what he
preached. He talks OF loyalty of the devotion
of the American people; OF his unalterable
faith in the popular heart. He quotes the
language OF man who has no record but
clean one, and speaks as though he was ad-
dressing the soldiers of the Republic, instead
of the proven traitors of our land.
There is a great deal of the Grafton which
could be omitted which sounded well in
Georgia, and pleased the ears of the repentant,
or rather unrepentant, auditors, but which is
mere words There is, however, one senti-
which, to our view, presents a parallel upon
which it behoOves the North to gaze as well
as the South. Mr.. STEPHENS, citing British
records, refers to the fact that the crimes Of
CHARLES caused a civil war, and says
''The King was deposed and executed. A
Commonwealth was proclaimed. But the end
was the reduction OF the people OF England to
worse stale OF oppression than they had been IN
for centuries. They retraced their steps after
nearly twenty years OF exhaustion and blood,
and the loss OF the greater portion OF the liber-
ties enjoyed by them before. The restoration
came CHARLES II assembled the throne, as un.
limited monarch as ever ruled the empire.
Not pledge was asked guarantee given,
touching the concessions of the royal preroga-
tiveS that had been eXacted and obtained from
his father. The true friends OF liberty OF reform,
and OF progress in government had become con.
Ylnced that these were the offspring OF peace
and OF enlightened reason, and not of pas'Ion
nor OF arms. The House or Commons and the
House of Lords were henceforth the theatres OF
their operations, and not the fields of Ne wberry
or Marston Moor. The result was that in less
than thirty years all their ancient rights and
privileges, which had been lost in the civil war,
with new securities, were re re.established in the
oNer.memorable settlement of 1853, which, for
all practical purposes, may be looked upon as
bloOdless revolution.
''May we not indulge in hope even in the al
ternative before us, from the great example of
restoration, il we but do as the best friends OF
liberty there did? This is my hope, my only
hope. 1t is founded on the virtue intelligence,
and patriotism of the American people. I have
not lost my faith in the people, or in their capa-
city Tor selt-government.n
To translate this parallel into plain Eng
lish is easy. "We have tried Newberry and
Marston Moor. We have lost what we
struggled for. We have failed by the sword to
win power. Now let us gain in the legislative
halls what we have striven to achieve on the
battlefelds; and let us crown our efforts by q
settlement as comprehensive as that of 1885,
Such is what Mr.. STEPHENS says,and we must
commend that unjust steward for the wisdom
which he has displayed. II we were South
erners we would follow the same track as
ALEXANDER II. STEPHENS. It is the only
sure course, and by it, with dexterity and
address, the defeated will come out victors.
1t is because we are Northern in our in
stincts, in our feelings, in our prejudices,
that we bitterly oppose this scheme.
What we have gained at the point of
the bayonet should be maintained with the
ballot. And while, therefore, it is COM
mendable ambition for the faction to which
Mr.. STEPHENS belongs to endeavor to win
power, yet it is an equally laudable and much
more promising impulse which induces us to
oppose him. Be that as 1t may, the late Vice
President has told the people of the South
how to win. He has spoken like the Sphynx,
and has attempted to ume an ease OF man
ner which would imply that he has slept
ten thousand years, and has been dsinte-
rested spectator OF the contest now closed.
To sum up. we have to give him credit for
eloquence, polish, and well, chosen arguments,
but must deny him consistency and all that
ferVor which adds ten times the force to the
simplest words. and the absence of which falls
chill and death-like on the most flowery
Grafton from the lips OF a MIRABEAU or a
CHATHAM.
Our Claims Against England.
THE recently published correspondence be-
81