The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-05-25
GreeleY nnd neecher.

from Ue WOTtu.
On the 3Oth of August, last year, Henry
Ward Beecher wrote an able and rousing let
ter favoring the restoration policy of President
Johnson. That letter stirred up as great
commotion in Plymouth Church as Mr..
Greeley's signing the Davis bonds has in the
Union League Club. But Mr.. Beecher did not
stand to his guns. He got frightened quailed
before the storm wrote an equiTocating letter
affecting to explain the former one, but really
recanting it. Several months afterwards, at
the Southern Relief meeting in Cooper Hall,
he made rsntiDg abusive speech, cut of har-
mony with the occasion, as means of redeem
ing his reputation and reinstating himself in
the good graces of the sons and daughters of
vengeance. This craven retreat destroyed Mr..
Beecher's influence as a politician and his
estimation as a man of moral courage. The
country then saw for the first time that he
dared not stand by his judgment against the
clamOrs of his associates, and thenceforth he
ceased to be regarded as moral force. He
was degraded to the rank of fluent contribu-
tor to public amusements. He has been
beaten as a candidate for the Constitutional
Convention, running behind his ticket in his
own city, and is now seeking reputation in
new field as the compeer of Sylvanus Cobb in
writing bad novels for the New York Ledger.
Whether Mr.. Greeley will not also be oowed
by the fendish vindictiveness of his party,
we shall not undertake to conjecture; but
thus far, at least, he has evinced no want of
pluck. Pluckiness is very popular quality
in whomsoever exhibited, from game-cock
mp to statesman. 1t was to his prompt, in
flexible, and somewhat irascible courage more
than to any other great quality, that General
Jackson owed his boundless influence. But
not many men are endowed with this high
quality, although numbers are tempted TO
simulate it. Mr.. Beecher assumed its tone
,and language so long as it won him plaudits,
but the very first time he was ever put to the
proof by finding himself opposed in quarters
where opposition was inconvenient, he showed
that he was no more a Luther than an actor
who struts his little hour on the stage is a
Cesar. President Johnson also has used
some bold language, but never having
supported it by any bold acts, he has
failed to win that strenuous admiration which
signal exhibitions of moral courage never
fail to evoke. Whether Mr.. Greeley's defiance
of his assailants is genuine firmly bottomed
pluck, and he possesses the toughness of
moral fibre that no obloquy or isolation can
unstring, cannot be decided till this quarrel
has made further progress. He may not be
put to any serious proof, for tempest in
such teapot as the Union League Club can
not be regarded as anything very serious.
But II, as we suspect 10 D6 Jne case, the Club
should prove to be fair representative ol
the average intelligence and magnanimity o
the Republican party of the United States
the consequences which Mr.. Greeley may be
called to confront will be altogether more
formidable. A party which upholds and
applauds such ribald old fend as Parso1
Brownlow, and is striving to spread tyranny
like that he exercises in Tennessee al
! over the South, cannot differ much in spirit
from the Union League Club; and if Mr.
Greeley should find this whole acrid, vitrioliC
party ''scowling" upon him from every par
of the country, it will then be seen whether his
| bold words are anchored in a strong anC
courageous nature. His vessel behaves vel
! in a squall, but are its timbers solid enough
TO ride out gale Is he merely opinionateC
and wayward, or is he a man Of genuine anC
immovable strength of character, a man who's,
courage will always stand as the robust yoke
| fellows of his convictions? His future esti
nation with his countrymen will depend upol
his going through this ordeal with the sam,
intrepid Vigor with which he enters it. H,
has taken his stand so defantly, that, if ht
gives any symptoms of iinching, his friends
and enemies alike will judge him the mer,
! sport of circumstances, and his influence will
be prostrated forever. He has our goot
wishes, both as standing in the foremost ranl
of the editorial profession, and because magma
nimity is virtue for which it is creditable t,
suffer.