The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-10-04
The Question of FideIIty--Who Are the
Unfaithful
From the Times.


The Question of FideIIty--Who Are the
From the Times
The charge of bad faith under which Demo-
cratic journalists endeavor to hide their own
violation of the compact entered into at Phila-
delphia, is echoed with apparent honesty by
some of our Southern contemporaries. econ
servative Republicans" they say, "have de-
ceiyed us with the Philadelphia Convention,
and then betrayed us by abandoning that move
ment after committing us to 1t To establish
the injustice of the accusation, it is only neces
saTy to reconsider the facts of the case on which
it is made to rest.
As between the Northern parties to the Con-
veEtion there is really no room for controversy.
From the very outset, there was a distinct un-
dersthnding that the meeting of Republicans
and Demo Ocrats on a common platform did not
involve any essential change in the ordinary
party relations OF either. 1t was an eXtra-palty
OCcasiOn-an occasion on which, Tor a certain
dehned national purpofe, politicians consented
to torego their par:lsanship, and to cooperate
without reference to past or prospective alli-
ances.
TIE earliest possible restoration of the Union
was recognized as an object that justified the
sacrifice of personal ambition and the surrender
of old prejuuiees; the pivot of the movement
being an implied agreement that SO long as this
object rem malned unattllned, mere party Que5-
tions should be held III abeyance. On this basis
the Convention was org9ri2ed and worked.
And its success was attributable TO the admi-
rable temper and judgment with which the
principle OF compromise and party abnegation
was adhered to.
obviously, the same spirit should have actu-
ated the members ard professed friends of the
Convention IN the after-sta2es OF the movement.
Harmony at Philadelphia could amount to but
little unless it were the prelude to harmony in
the States which were to be the theatre OF the
pending canvass. The conditions under which
Il In thaH int thn mt i1,oh
the continuance of an unselhsh, patriotic spirit
In The management of local campaigns. Had 1t
been declared beforehand that IN New York or
elsewhere the Democrats were TO assume control
of gatherings called in the interest OF National
Union, and were 70 regulate the nominations
with an avowed regard to their party convent.
enCe and benefit, the programme at Philadelphia
would have been entirely changed, and the
result entirely different.
The charge Of bad faith, then is applicable to
the Democratic section OF the Philadelphia Con
ventlon, and in no degree to the conservative
Republicans. The latter have q right to be
compliments IN the premises; for while pre-
pal ed to carry out steadastly the terms ad opted
at philadelphia by subordinating party to ma
tonal considerations, they found the Democrats
intent upon prostltutlng the National Union
movement to the uses Of their old party oryani-
Zation. And when, by resort to agencies and
means which we care not now to characterize,
the Democrats acquired the mastery for their
own party, the conservative Republicans, who
up to that time had adhered faithfully to the
project matured at Philadelphia, were con-
| strained to leave Democracy to their devices
and the defeat tnat awaits them. No other
course was open without forfeiture of self
| respect, and becoming paItlcipators in
breach of faith dIscreditable as it will be dis
| astrous.
For this after-play, perhaps, we ought to have
| been prepared Perhaps we erred in ever sup
posing that journals like the World would ad-
here faithfully to the terms of the Philadelphia
| Convention. whose proceedings they so slgnally
failed to control. Perhaps the course of the
| Word prior TO the Convention might have been
| held to toreshadow the treachery Of the Word
school OF polltici9ns after the Convention. They
| had cOntended, remember, that as a matter OF
! right and necessity it should be to all intents
| and purposes a Democratic Assembly, with con-
| seTvative Republicans as admitted but unintlu-
ential guests; The fact that these anticlpations
| were not realized, and that the moderation and
| good feeling OF the Southern delegates secured
prominence and influence to the class whom the
Norid had all but prescribed, was probably as
| surprising as it was mortlylng to the politicians
| who more recently gained the upper hand al
| Albany
A reference to the columns of the World viii
| show this beyCnd doubt. Our contem porary
hardly knew how to conceal its chaerin; anC
| though compelled by the pressure of clrcum
stances TO endorse the action at Philadelphia
it moveo so tardily-with such manifest reluct
ance and diCgust-that there was no difficulty
in discovering where its heart stood in the con
trovelsy. The mere words were the words o
the conservative Jacob, but the tone, thu
temper, the purpose, all savored of the Demo
cratic Esau. Hence We maintain tina
the Democrats for whom the World speaks
entered the Philadelphia Convention re
solved to be its masters; that, being disappointed
they left it resolved to be It's betrayers
that the doings at Albany, by which all that wa
vital in the National Union movement was dis
carded, were in pursuance of the foregone con
clusion to use the movement solely as tende
to the Democratic party. From which it fol
lows that the imputations INDUCED in by the
Richmond Enquirer, and other Southern jour
mails Of that class, justly apply to none beside
Northern Democrats. They, and they alone
have crushed the hopes excited by the Phila
delphia Convention, and incurred the odiun
of bad faith by breaking the conditions of tina
movement after formally enlisting in the rank
of its adherents.