The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-11-14
The POLITICAL WORLD.

Shall the Democratic Party Die or LiYel
Annexed is the leader from the Chicago Times
Of MOnday:-
"Ihe present is a crisis in the Democratic
party which has no precedent in its history, as
1t is Crisis IN the progress of the country
which IS also without precedent. Never before
mas the democratic party encountered events 50
seriously affecting its future vitality as now.
Not that 1t beholds itself diminished In the
magnitude of its nun bers-for it is numerically
stronger than il has ever been betore-but that,
havlng been beaten on great national issue,
as to which it believed itself to be wholly right
and the opposition wholly wrong, and still so
believes, 1t must nevertheless abandon that issue
--for the decision of it is tnal-and either SIC
down in helpless and decaying inactivity, or
strike boldly out upon a ne line, selected with
peculiar reference, not to things as we wolld
have them, but to things as they actually are,
and IN pursuing which line 1t shall cease to be
a hold-back or conservative party and be-
come, what it was in It's palmy days, progress
sive and aggressive party. These are the alter
natives.
at will not sit down in helpless and decaying
inactivity.
"What, then, shall the new line be? In the
first place, must we not cut loose from the
Administration of Andrew johnson, and leave
that hybrid concern to float on the sea of pub
lie contempt into which 1t some time since
entered and from which no power can rescue
it Is not the late defeat attributable more
largely to this Administration than to all other
causes combined? What is there in its COM
Who belonging to it is entitled by reason OF
his antecedents or of his craftsmanship TO
the confidence or the respect of the Demo
cratic party Certainly not Andrew johnson,
nor William II. Seward, nor Edwin NJ. Stanton.
True, this Administration had a right policy,
and the Democratic party, in overlooking the
chief men comprising 1t, and thinking only of
the righttu ness OF the policy, displayed patri-
otism whose purity was never eXcelled; but
the policy having failed and having failed, too,
through the teebleness and folly and otfenses
against public proprety of the Administration,
why should not the Democratic party abanion
the dead body, longer adherence to which Is
death also to itself?
What next? Can the Democratic party sue
ceed until the negro question shall be gotten
out of the way? II cannot What next? is
not negro suffrage inevitable, and is it not the
quickest way TO get the negro question out of
the way 10 at once cOncede the suffrage, making
issue only on the degree in which it shall be
conceded? We know that many Democrats have
not reached this advanced view of the case, and
that such still feel greatly inclined to revolt at
the proposition of negro suffrage in any degree;
but let us tell them that it is always wise TO
accept the inevitable when the inevitable comes
Negro Suffrage, we say, is Inevitable, and
pends upon the promptness or otherwise with
which the Democratic party shall move with
reference to it. The South will speedily yield
qualified negro suffrage upon the motion of the
Democratic party, because, flor no other reason
that if she do not yield it, she will ultimately
be compelled to accept universal negro-sufrage
Qualified negro suffrage yielded by the South
and by this we mean impartial suffrage, or
suffrage dependent upon the intelligence of the
man, irrespective of color, az is now the rule in
Massachusetts-the negro question will have
been disposed Of and the occupation of the
Northern Republican radical party will be gone
forever. Not one inch of ground will it have to
stand upon; and the country can once more
turn to those material questions of public
policy, the right disposition of which is so essen
tial TO the public prosperity. II will be upon
these questions that the Democratic party will
triumph, and it will be by this triumph that
constitutional government and our federal
system will be preserved
'If the South be wise, it will not wait, on
this suffrage question, even for the motion of the
Democratic party. If it be wise 1t will lose no
time in putting in motion the necessary ma
chnery, by which it will at the same time save
itself from humiliation, preserve its own self
respect, rid the country of the most veXatious
question that ever distracted any country, kill
the worst political party that existed on the
globe, ana put the Union in the way of speedy
restoration. This machinery consists, of course,
in conventions to revise the State constitutions"