The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-10-12
The Wrong Remedy.
From the Independent.

from Me IHueVeHueHt
1t is observable that some journals, among
which the Round Table is the most conspicuous,
while denouncing President johnson, strike also
at republican institutions over his shoulders.
They attribute all his little obIquites to univer-
sal suffrage, and propose to improve matters for
the future by curtaling that. This seems yeTy
much as if General Grant had proposed to take
Richmond by curtaihng his own army. As we
view it, President Johnson and such as he are
the remains of a disease, for which universal
suffrage is the remedy.
Certainly il was not universal suffrage, nor
even such approach to it as the North exhibits,
which gave us our present Chief Magistrate. 1t
did not even give HIM to us Tor Vice-President.
He was the bequest OF the slave power. HIS
speeches are its last dying speech and confes-
sion. He is conspicuous because he has out
lived his proper time and kindred. In past
years the South produced many such men, and
every department at Washington was full of
them. In the early days OF the Rebellion nearly
all of them went under, or went over, or went
somewhere He, lingering, apparently faithful,
was injudlclously accepted by the great Repub'
llcan party, simply because he represented
Southern State. Nobody pretends that he
would have been nominated as Vice-President
if he had been citizen of Maine or Michigan.
Nobody now doubts that it was mistake.
Nobody thinks that the mistake VIII be repeat
ed. With him the list OF Southern chief magls-
trates fitly closes. 1t is not likely tnat another
Southern man will even reach the Vlce-Presi-
dency, until the associations OF slavery are so
far forgotten that the very name OF Norther1er
and Southern have passed from use.
All the "blackguardism, the de0auchery, the
brutal violence" which the Round JG6e charges
upon past CONGRESSES were AS directly the fruit
OF slavery as a slave Jail or a whipping post.
Universal suffrage had nothing 10 do with them.
All Washington felt the purldCaton, from the
time of Mr.. Lncoln's Inauguration to that of his
death. Every intelligent man recognizes the
advance made in all private moralihes by the
present Congress over its predecessors. Rous-
seau was the exception which proved the rule,
by showing that, wherever the traditions OF
slavery fingered, the old, bad spirit survived.
Yet, even in thaC case, 1t was a step in advance,
from Brooks to Rousseau, from South Carolina
to Kentucky. The Kentucky bully at least felt
himself finally dlsgraced; whereas, IN the good
old times, he would have been the hero OF Wash
ington, and would have been presented with
walking canes enough for centipede.
Nearly every peculiar atrocty which has dis
graced our political existence has grown directly
or indirectly from slavery; in other words, from
oligarchy. On the other hand, the anti-slavery
| movement has been, from Its origin, move
ment OF the common people. Not many wise,
not many rich, not many great have been called.
| 1t was printers boy who first threw down his
metaphorcal (or typicaD gauntlet against the
| Mayor OF Boston, in this contest; ana 1T was
| gentlemen of property and standing" who
afterwards mobbed that young mechanic into
| everlasting fame. State, church, college, Capl-
| tai, all seemed arrayed against freedom. 1t
grew strong only Dy Jle songs OF Ine pOeJS, Gne
persecution OF the saints, and the selfdeyotion
of the poor But for popular suffrage, and the
agitation it implied, anti-slavery effort would
have fallen dead. 1t was in conventions primary
meetings, obscure churches, rural constituent
ces, that its strength lay. Off the pavement 1t
found itself strong; IN the centres OF capital and
| culture it weak. The leaders OF business
| and society never were anti-slavery; they are
not so now. But the masses whom the Round
Table calls Ignorant" knew enough to establish
righteousness in spite of their leaders. Set
aside the Irish vote-whch was determined by
exceptional and ecclesiastical infuences-and
| those whom the Round Table would dlstranchise
have proved themselves far more Trustworthy
than that select constituency alter which the
Round Table pines.
We counsel our contemporary, If q reform in
suffrage is desired to look for it IN the OpposltC
direction enlaremg, not Curtailing. There is
nothing wrong about our present system in the
Northern States, except that it is not universe
enough. In some States negroes are un
righ'eously distranchised; in all the States
women. Had women been allowed the ballo
twenty years since, the anti slavery reform
would have doubled Its rate of progress, anC
slavery might hBve been abolished without {