The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-10-14
What the Late Elections Have Decided

What the Late Elections Have Decided,
Fl ON The ". y. World.
They have, of course, decided very little,
unless other elections, yet to be held this fall,
shall be of like tenor. But of this it is not
Ossible to doubt. The result in Pennsylva-
MIA and Ohio, following the results in Connec-
ticut, California, and Maine, confirms the
impression that great reaction is in progress;
and by the natural influence of elections upon
each other, these successes will give to the
reaction a new impetus. Men change sides
with facility when multitudes 60 with them.
1t is as good as certain, therefore, that the
Democratic party will do much better in the
November, than they have done in the Octo-
ber elections. The returns will be all in
before Congress meets next month, and there
can be little hazard in predicting their conse-
quences.
First, the elections knock the bottom out of
the radical reconstruction bucket, and spill all
the contents. The miscarriage of the recon-
struction scheme is certain, be the action of
Congress what it may. To say nothing of the
stunning and paralyzing effect of this great
revulsion upon Congress, the reconstruction
scheme will be defeated by the action-or
rather by the stubborn inaction-of the South.
Even if Congress should be equally stubborn,
it will not shake the determination OF the
South. The Southern people would sooner
wait four or six years for the election of new
Senate. than return under the proffered condi-
tions number OF leading SOutherners have
indeed counselled submission; but the argu-
ment has been, "Let us accept these harsh
conditions because they are inevitable or,
'Let us take these lest we get worse" Thence
forward white Southerners will seorn to use
this kind of reasoning or to listen to it. They
viii fall back upon their rights and decline all
action under the reconstruction laws. II new
Governments are organized it will be the sole
work of the negroes; and Congress, with Its
brief lease of power, will not dare TO recognize
negro Governments pure and simple, especially
since negro suffrage has been signally and IN
dignantly rejected in those elections by the
only Northern State that had an opportunity
to pronounce upon it,
With what issue then, will the Republican
party 90 into the Presidential electiont Never
were all the plans of party so shattered and
upset. The Republicans have, in thousand
and q thousand ways, so committed them
selves to their present scheme OF reconstruc-
ton that they cannot retreat from 1t without a
total rout; but they are eXposedto still greater
disasters if they try to maintain their ground
With what face can they stand by this scheme
of reconstruction, after negro suffrage, It's
central principle, has been scornfully rejected
in the North? How incensed must be the
thrice-insulted South at any further attempts
to force upon them an innovation which Is
confessed to be intolerable by the Northern
Statesl If the Republicans persist, their ranks
will be thinned by desertiOn. Ruin stares al
them
standard and profess moderate principles
Wendell Phillips and the intense radicals will
run a separate candidate for the undisguised
purpose of Furnishing the party for desertinG
its principles.
The Republican party made fatal mistake
in putting a wlfully dishonest interpretation
on the elections of last year. They asked
the people to indorse the pending Constitu
tional amendment, and as soon as they go
the Endorsement, they treated it as authority
TO kick the very thing indorsed, that IS, th,
Constitutional amendment, aside, and substl
tute for it a plan totally different and Inn
niteIy more harsh and humiliating. 10 1ml
the judgment of the people thus back lnt
their faces; to reject a plan the moment TN
people had siguifed their approval OF 1t; anC
with enormous lying impudence preten'
they had Endorsed something they ma
never thought Of was as insulting
fraud as it would be to procure
mans signature to a note OF nifty dollars, au
then Immediately efIace the substance OF tn
note by a. chemical process, and write owe
the name another note for fifty thousand
Mutitudes voted with the Republicans las
year " no did not really approve OF the Ool
situtional amendment, because they though
1t the speediest way Of settling a quesuo
which had beeu, even then, too long keI
open. They We're too impatient to have Ia
country tranquillzed, and supposed that
strong Northern vote endorsing the amend
IN, Mt would cause its immediate ratihcatio
by the South. This proved mistaken calcI
la'ion. But if the South stood out again
the amendment, with all the Northern STATE
voting in its favor, what chance is there
their succumbing to the reconstructiO
scheme, infinitely haTsher and more obie
tionable, with the Northern States votiI
against it
Another Republican project made abortiy
by the elections is the impeachment of Pres