The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-10-02
The Issue uerore ahe oountrr.

The Issue Before Ghe Country.
r ON Ghe ". Y. Herald
Two years have passed since we closed the
war of the Rebellion. The people have waited
. with patience for the country to be restored to
something of its former glory. They have
anxiously watched every political movement
until hope has grown faint under the hands of
the wrecbers, Johnson and Congress. Have
they given us peace, restored confidence in
public enterprise, thrown vigor into our COM
mercial development, made us respected
abroad Not one of all these; but, as if to
make the picture still darker, they have given
us the reverse of what the nation has had
right to expect.
When the first gun against Fort Sumter
threatened the disintegratiOn of our territory,
we as people sprang to arms, and, high above
all petty and partisan feeling, proclaimed the
preservation OF our nationality to be the gage
of battle. Four terrible years, and victory
welded the States together The cause was
won. We emerged from the contest still
vigorous. The mountain of debt we had
assumed-the price in treasure paid for terri
torial unity-we thought lightly of We had
not been fighting for the negro. The negro
was side issue, and came in like many other
secondary elements whose fortunes hung on
the results of the war. The men in power
have, however, in their political madness, COM
pletely lost sight of the primary object in
pursuit of an inferior one. Their minds have
been unable to grasp the great problem; and
it is in the negro alone that they find national
consolidation, national greatness, national de-
velopment, and something which, of kindred
nature, suits their calibre.
Is the nation to centre all its future hopes
upon the ability of the black man to govern it
Are we expected, in the light of the intell-
gence of this century, to believe that any body
of men. be they the Congress of the United
of n hodu nf vtb hole bx,
a simple legislative fiat, lift the negro from
barbarism to the summit of civilization And
yet this is what the radical party is trying to
make us believe. Not only this, but in the
face of every acknowledged truth, they would
persuade us that we have had the madness to
tight for such an idea. A revolution must be
/ Judged by its results. An equation is solved
when we all agree that the result is correct.
Now, if we, as the people of the United States,
permit the fanatical sections of North or
South to bury the great golden principle of
our battle under the secondary idea of negro
elevation, then we sadly reduce ourselves in
our own estimation and admit that this was
the maximum bonum of all our hOpes-that this
virtually is the solution of the revolutionary
equation. But how many of the people of the
United States are willing to admit that this is
the soluton-that this all they fought for
The people are beginning to think of these
things; and we tell Andrew Johnson and our
/ fact that for the people to think in the United
| States is for them to act. To act now as they
| think is to make a clean sweep of officials,
| from the President down to the lowest leech
! that sucks at the national life. The country is
disgusted-is fairly reeling under the blows
| given to it by these political wreckers who
have raised the black flag against our progress.
! The people now cry, "DOWn with them - And
! down they must GOODWIN to the level of the
intelligence of that element which they would
use to prop up their falling fol tunes. Let the
| President and Congress leave the work which
their brains cannot comprehend. From first to
last their policy, on both sides, has been ruin.
| Not alone the loyal North, but every true
! lover OF his country, has looked on from day to
day. for the past two years, only to see the seeds
! OF new revolution planted and fOstered. We
have seen the President reduced so low that
even in a gravey ard, with five thousand
dead heroes lying around him, he has de-
! scended to party spleen in speech and act.
! We have seen conduct on the part of the
! radical leaders no less disgusting. The nation
now, drugged to surfeit with such things
demands change. Change must come, for in
it lies national preservation. We fought four
! years against one party that we might preserve
! our national unity. We won the battle. The
! party in power now make it essential that by
the ballot we shall again do battle for national
safety. Every act of Congress indicates the
| necessity OF TINS; Tor within our Congressional
| halls are enacted laws that would disgrace the
legislation of the Common Council of New
York. The people and their generals put down
the Rebellion and then turned the political
elements into the hands of the politicians.
! These have gone on from bad to worse with
their work until there is no longer any hope
for the country, unless the people assume the
! power that belongs to them and again come
! to the rescue. This must be done. In all
future elections let the strong, clear heads
of the country be placed in responsibility.
Let the demagogues sink to the level from
which they arose to curse us with what
they call legislation. Their last hope now is
lease of power through NJ gro supremacy.
Are the people willing to grant this, and
force to the surface new revolution Let
every man understand that herein lies just as
much of the future welfare of the United
! States as ever hung upon the bayonets OF
our armies during the Rebellion. The new
war is to save intelligence from the flood of
ignorance that the radicals have lOosened to
the attack. These are the true issues before
the people, and the ones which must soon be
decided.
A secsssionist View of RECOMMENDATION.
Bro1n the ". Y World
So far as the Reconstruction laws are not q
mere wanton exercise of arbitrary power, 50
far as they do not depend on the ancient aud