The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-09-22
Dir. Beecher and his Cleveland Letter.

PreSloents melapnyslCS ana pOllJlcal economy.
IIr. BeeCher and his Cleveland Letter.
From the Independent.
''What do you think of Mr.. Beecher' lcterr
said a Christian friend. ''ls it rot beautiful?
"a most capital thing, said another; 1.-THE finest
thing have seen n long time" This last
speaker was person who had been delegate
to a rumsellers' convention and who was a
Jealous advocate for Mr.. Mayor Hoffman, as the
Democratic candidate for Governor. One of
these parties looked at the ideal of Mr. Beecher's
letter; the other with a surer instinct and
more unerring logic, saw its direct anu Inevita-
bic tendency 10 help the anti-eXcse law cand-
date, and to hurt one of the pUrest men that
ever held the office OF chief magistrate of New
York. Mr.. Beecher was just upanswersble,
Just as plausible, just as eloquent when lie talked
OF "hlgher law" and "Sharpe's rifles" in the
Kansas times. His mercy, peace, and charity
are no better, no puTer than were the same
qualities and the same appeals IN DR.. Nehe-
miah Adams in 1856 and 1850. We do not
use this as a mere Grgunentum Gd hOmtnem.
1t has a higher application. Let man
choose his own grounds of defense or attacS
let him ignore what he pleases, and he may
make most plausible appeal on almost any
side OF any question. We have had enough o {
this. The nation has long enough been fooled
by letters, speeches, platforms and resolutions
Measures, not men," has become the stalest
cry OF demaloguism until the very reverse
would almost seem the better maxim. 1t is
very possible that the worst party may have, for
the occasion, the better measures, and set forth
the better truths in the abstract They may
have the mot 10 say OF peace, Of forgiveness, of
charity, of trusting one another; aud yet all
these, as they would employ them, may be more
mischieyous in their effects than any seeming
intolerance. Ii a party in tue land has long
proved itself the Devils party, right-thlnklng
man should not vote for it, even it it had the
Sermon on the Mount for its platform. He
should do nothing to favor it, even though he
ht find among its opponents many errors
and impertections. We are ashamed OF attempt
| ing to prove so clear proposition and yet
conviction of its truth Is now the great thing
wanted in our politics.
Measures, and "polices," and cries of peace,
when there is no peace! We have had enough
| of this, we say. Give us, on the other hand
| noble men, truthful men-who have something
more than that shallow virtue OF sincerity,
which may be got up for any occasion-deep-
principled men, tried men, who have been
| weighed and not found wanting IN the great
| crisis through which the country has passed
| give us such men, and we will trust them Tor
| their measures. We could differ from Mr.. Lin
! coin from the very tact that We could trust him.
| He was certain to come out right In the end,
| whatever outward course of policy he might
seem to adopt. This was so because he had to
guide him that wisest thing, truthful heart, a
| spirit intensely hating wrong. On the other
hand, however plausible the measures proposed
| by another class or even however right in the
| abstract, they will be sure in the end, to show
the evil that was inherent in their parentage.
A most eloquent letter may be written on
| almost any side of any question. But there are
| things more unerring than ali our logic. They
| are the movements, tendencies. and athniues
that arise OF themselves out of the conflicts OF
morals and politics. There is no mistaking
them. They have in themselves, hidden logic
| that drives unerringly onward to its conclu-
sons. The instincts that draw together false
men and false parties have satanic Sagaclty.
There is, indeed, no syllogistic connection be-
tween Mr.. Beechers letter and rumselhng
convention, or a Rebel mob in New Orleans, or
what may be said at a Copperhead meeting;
but the rumseler, the mobbist, and the Cop
perhead are no less sure that it helps theu.
There is 70 mistaking such instincts and such
tendencies now. The Copperheads are ali lor
Andrew johnson. There is no need OF any rea-
sOning 10 draw them to him. They know their
man. This is no argument, 1t may be said. But
il is an argument and a most convincing one.
An evil instinct, we say guides them unerr-
Ingly. They have no misgivng as to the tell
dency or result OF the movement they are favor
ing. The New York World here is wiser than
Mr.. Beeeher, Brooks, whom he once so deSpised
and ridiculed has tar more political sagacity.
Mr.. Beecher is now with these men. Have
they changed, or has he changedY If he should
now address political meeting at all, it would
| be composed of materials the very reverse o
those whom be addressed two years ago. His
fellow Northern traitors" as his friend AndreW "
Johnson calls them, are just where they We're
Those who cursed him as the "ianatica
| Abolitionistn are just where they were.
Had there been a real mixture of parties or 8
, real Cnlru party comprising tne Detef portion
of both, there might have been some plea fol
him. But this is not so-Mr. Beecher knows
, that it is not so. II very small number has
been drawn from the Republican ranks he
knows that it has been owing manly TO one o
, the most demorallzing practices in republican
, land-in other words. corrupt official pro
ceeding by which direct bribe Is held out tC
!, political apostasy. That Republican party is
: : still the party of moral CONVICTIONS as Mr.
Beecher once so proudly characterized il.
. has still that feature which made II more in
tensely hated by its opponents than any othel
political party that ever existed in our country
: and Mr.. Beecher, as a Bible-readng and theo
| is the party of moral convictions still; and thi
| the other party-that disCards moral convic
| tions, that finds such a course essential to iii
political safety, and that is ever railing, there
! | fore, against any interference of religion
! | with politics-can never forgive. The YER
profession they resent as a reproach TO them
, selves, and hence the increased intensity o
: | their dislike.
Mr. Beecher may say that he stands With tn
Republican party yet; but his influence of lat
. has been all against it. He may claim to b.
| more friendly 10 some OF its measures than Re
maintain, with some of the extreme radicals,
: | as they are called, that he regards the votlnl
| franchise for colored men, and for all men, as
i | natural right; he may profess an over zeal II
this matter. leading him to condemn the strug
| Cling Republicans Tor not doing more for tn
. negro; he may, as he most unfairly has done
charge upon them the wrong which is due u
Democrats and Johnson men, of not giving TN
: | franchise to colored citizens in some OF TN
Northern States. But what does all this amour
to? What do the Copperheads care for it, a
long as they feel insthctively that their u9dett
standing of the real tendency of his late ehort
is so much clearer and more certain than ni
| own? 1t Is enough for them that the immeol