The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-10-10

Of the Country.
from the Herald
In the excitement and confusion Of ideas pro-
duced by the political and party contests carried
on all over the country, the great underlying
question Is hardly realized or recognized. Men
are apt to think that the point on which the
elections turn is whether the President or Con-
gress is TO be sustained, whether the restoration
of the seeded States is to- be accomplished by
Executive will or in accordance with the dhec-
tions OF the national Legislature, and whether
the Democratic party is to resume the power
which 1t abused and lost or the Government is
TO remain in the hands of that party which re-
presents the ideas and policy that prevailed in
the terrible contest out of which the nation has
so recently emerged. To certain extent these
questions are involved in the present elections
but only as collateral or subsidiary questions.
The real issue, which lies deeper than those of
the present contest, and which Is to take shape
and prominency in the next session of Congress
ana in the elections OF two years hence, is,
''What party shall have the governing power in
this country tor the next half-century or moreW
The unseemly and undIgniied personal squab-
bes between President Johnson and the men,
berS of the present Congress are but disgraceful
incidents in the politics of the times, and can
not affect, one way or the other, the solution of
the great question which we have here indi
Gated.
What, then, is to be the future governing
party Of the United States? We know what
pariyhas governed it, with but few intermis-
siOns, for eighty years and more, up to the
commencement of the Rebellion; but that party
can govern it no more. We know that the
ideas OF the leading politicians of Eastern Vir-
ginia and South Carolina controlled the Gov
ernment from the days when the Constitution
was formed, down TO those gloomy days when
Buchanan, inspired by them, declared to Con
gress that there was no power under the Con-
stitutiOn to coerce rebellious States into sub
mission.
With the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Pre-
sidency in 1860 the death-knell of that power
was tolled. The Southern politicians heard it
with prophetic ear, and knew too we'll whai it
foreboded. They recognized IN it the doom of
their old pro-slavcrY State-rigbts ideas, and the
growth OF better and stronger and truer sys-
tenn OF republican government. Pro-slavery,
State-rights democracy, fell in 1860 never to
rise again, Driven to desperation, the leaders
and adherents OF the decayed political faith
took up arms and with a resolve to govern
either in or out of the Union, made a tremen-
dous effort to destroy the life of the nation.
Fooled in that attempt, and doubly defeated
on the political field and on the battlefield, they
gave up the struggle, and have abandoned, COM
plctely and forever, we believe, those dogmas of
government which they have been forced to
recognize as united tor the present age. The
Democratic party, therefore, as the representa-
tive of those political dogmas, has ceased to
exist; and the organization which now assumes
that name has hardly anything in common with
that party which so long ruled the country.
To say, therefore, that there is political
contest going on between the Republican and
the Democratic parties-as these we're known
up to the overthrow of the Rebellion-would be
mieappllcation OF words. The living cannot
fight with the dead But there is great con-
test going on between the representatives of
opposing ideas in Congress and among the
people. One side represents the principle uR
otCtls--wo to the vanQuished-in its extremist
and most ruthless form, and advocates general
confiscation throughout the late Rebel States,
the distribution OF their lands among the colored
population, the entranchisement of the blacks,
and the Acknowledgement of all who took part
IN the Rebellion, meaning all the white citizens
of the South. ..... .... ...' .-
the conceited Sumner, and the loud-mouthed,
believing Butler, the mock hero of Bethel and
Fort Fisher, and protector of the famous Dutch
Gap canal. The other side, supported by the
moderate men of all political parties and find
ing adherents even in the Southern States, IN
sists on nothing more than those guarantees for
the future which the acts OF the past seem to
render necessary.
Those guarantees are embodied in the amend
ments to the Constitution proposed by Congress
at its last session. and submitted to the States
for ratification. When those amendments are
engrafted on the Constitution, as they un-
douDtedly will be, then will commence the rule
of that party which will be the governing party
of the future, and under which the strides OF
this country to greatness and power will out
strip in the last third of this century its wonder
ful progress in the first two-thirds OF it. -,
We have seen how the political party which
embodied the views of the extreme men of the
South has been extinguished. We are now to
see how the embodiment of the views OF the
opposite extreme is to share like fate. New
England ideas of government are no more tC
prevail in this reconstructed republic than are
the ideas OF Eastern Virginia and South Care
lima. The practical common sense of the
American people realizes the truth of the ole
Latin maxim, an medi0S res tutissiDluS ibis-tha
safety lies in the middle course-in moderation
1t is neither to extinguish the political life o
Southern communities, nor, on the other hand
TO restore them TO their former power in tn
control of the Government, that the people o
the great middle States, extending from tn
Atlantic to the Pacific, put out their strength Z
crush the Rebellion. The people of those mid
die States are well aware that II was thel
armies that won the victory, and that they ar
equally determined that their political doctrine
shall rule the country. -. '
The question, as we have said, does not de
Velop itself in the elections now at hand; but
will assume form and dimensions and grea
ness in the next session OF Congress, and pa
ticularly in the sessions of the Fortieth Cor
gress, and will como up for final decision in th
elections of 1868. What the result will be n
obserVant man can doubt, The extreme polit
cal doctrines of New England will be trodde
under loot and crushed out OF existence Just
thoroughly as have been those OF the South, al
the party which adopts the modern and mod
rate views of policy will be the governing pow
of the country for the next half century or mol
In other words, the party designated ira
calsD will share the fate OF the secessionists, a
that which is now known by the name of "cC
servatiyer will be the controlling party OF
future,
Houses for the Poor.