The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-06-29

selves for a party is better dead than
moribund. The Whig party of England
held power for seventy years upon the credit
OF 1858, and even yet, although reduced to
mere shadow, has the largest share OF the
Government, by virtue of its past history.
The Tories retained power uninterruptedly
| for fifteen years after their triumphant con-
cluson of the war against Napoleon. So, in
| this country, the Democratic party has lived
through blunders, incapacity and corruption
of the most amazing kind, solely upon its
traditions of past glories; and to-day the
| great embarrassment of its managers Is, that
while its present organization is too offensive
to the loyal spirit of the country to warrant
the hope of winning a majority to its side,
the party name constitutes so much of its
strength with its present adherents that an
abandonment OF that name would probably
disband the party.
We see no reason for supposing that the
Republican party will prove an exception to
this general rule. 1t has achieved a military
success as complete as and more marvellous
than the triumph of England over Napoleon,
which gave the Tories a long lease of power.
1t has enfranchised larger proportion of the
Southern people than the Wing party of Eng
land did of its people in 1882. The strength
of the hold which 1t has thus acquired upon
the new voters is proved at every Southern
election; and there are as yet no serious indi-
cations of its power being diminished at the
North. 1t cannot calculate upon blind and
unconditional support; but it has every reason
to expect that it will command the grateful
and affectionate adherence, within reasonable
limits, of vast masses of men who look upon
| it as the instrument of their own elevation or
the preservation of a system dear to them as
their own lives.
Some questions, over which there is Just
now much clamor are not of sufficient impor-
tance to have permanent or general effect
Ill,
| which is being made use of quite extensively
by desperate politicians, will speedily expend
its force in few still-born statutes. Probably
nine-tenths of the real workers of the country
have no interest in an eight-hour law; and
| even the classes who are deceived by their
addle-pated leaders into relying upon it as
means of their elevation will speedily be dis
| gusted with its results, if they succeed in put
ting it in force Nor will any of the other
] schemes for interference with property or bust
| ness raise any permanent political issue. A
community in which property is so widely
spread as it is in our Northern States cannot
be led into any hare-brained plans for its redis-
tribution. The laborer who has saved one
hundred dollars is too tenacious of that to be
willing to divide it with his penniless neighbor,
in the hope of getting larger share in the
general division. The South contains much
greater proportion of destitute people, and
therefore such visionary schemes may for a
while be popular there; but the colored people
are beginning to accumulate property under
equal laws, and will lose all interest in confs-
cation as soon as they have homes of their
own, however small and mean. While severely
censuring those who strive to delude the negro
with the hope of plundering his late master
we are not apprehensive that any such efforts
can be successful. ....a.u
The issues arising out of temperance and
Sunday laws are merely local; and though
they may be controlling in New York, yet
they will be settled there without affecting
national politics very materially.
The reconstruction of the South will not be
completed, even under the most favorable cir
cumstances, until the spring of 1868; and
until that is accomplished, its completion will
be the chief political consideration with the
people. Even after the restoration of the
Southern States to the full privileges of the
Union, there must be period of anxiety for
the successful working of the new machinery
which will tend to unite the Republican party,
and thus to prolong its power.
Financial questions must, however, absorb
a larger share of attention in the future than
they have in the past. The amount to be
raised by taxation is so large as to REQUIRE a
degree of wisdom in the mode of assessment
which has never before been called for, and
which is consequently not to be found among
our legislators. The public miud is unedu-
Gated on these points, and the people, seeking
, blindly for relief from burdens which oppress
them, are for time at the mercy of charla-
tans, who offer remedies which seem to prom
, Use intsant relief but which really aggravate
the disease. The hard lessons of experience
will soon make us all wiser, and we shall
learn that the possession of long rivers, grea
: mountains, vast prairies, and free institutions
| does not liberate us from the laws of politica
4 economy, as thousands of well-meaning mer
a now firmly believe that it does. By-and- by
/. they will discover that water runs down hill
Q in America just as much as in Europe.
l Now, there is no absolute necessity fol
? drawing party lines upon financial issues Fol
' years to come there will be so much doubt as
7 to the stability of the new order of things il
the South as to make it the duty of all gooC
: men to cooperate in guaranteeing equal rights
4 in maintaining justice and in promoting edu
{ cation. In most of the Southern States, if mo-
l in all, the numerical power of the colored ract
g will steadily diminish, by reason of the in
o crease of white immigration, hitherto kept ou
1, by slavery and its conoomitants. The coloreC
5 people must rise in intelligence with rapidity
s unequalled by any other liberated race, il
II order to oounteract their loss of the influence
a of mere numbers. That they are capable o
Q doing this, we believe; but the work to be don,
y by and among them is immense, and require
g all the moral influence and material aid which
n the North can give. 1t might be seriously re
y tarded If the National Government should
10 iaH INTO unfriendly hands For this pur
~ pose the Republican party ought to keel
~ itseu IN power, and if it acts wisely it can d
'n 80. But II must be tolerant of differences Q
az opinion upon minor points, however import
ant they may be. 1t has no right To oonstruc