The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-03-29


orat doing his utmost to defeat it. Will
General Hampton be thus candid Let us
wait and see.
The Future Of the United stOtes-A Hint
TO the Republican Party.
From The Herald.
When, in the yet distant future, time having
rolled away the mists of prejudice through
which we are too apt to contemplate the
things of the present, the history Of these
United States comes to be wisely and impair
TALLY written, the crisis through which the
nation has passed, and the crisis on which she
has entered will form two of it's most inter
esting and most instructive sections. In
treating of the first of these crises, il will de-
vOlve upon the historian to trace to their roots
the various causes which at last exploded in
a gigantic civil war to relate how, for time,
that war threatened to rend the great republic
in twain, and how, contrary to almost univer-
sal expectation, and after almost unexampled
sacrifice and suffering, the Rebellion was finally
and eilectualy suppressed. Nor will it be
possible for him, in summing up the results
of that fearful struggle, not to speak in terms
of lofty eulogy of that political party to
whose wisdom and energy and seli-sacriice
and indomitable perseverance we mainly owe
it that the republic has been preserved entire,
and that never at any former period was its
flag more respected or its destiny more pro-
missing. The character of the other crisis lies,
as yet, hidden in the womb of the future but
it will be well for the lasting reputation of the
Republican party if, at the close of this
second period, their record shall prove to be
as illustrious as it was at the close of the first.
1t cannot be said that the course which
events have taken since the suppression of
the Rebellion has exclusively encouraged such
a hope. The history of the dominant Re-
publican party since the close of the war has
unfortunately in too many particulars, re-
sembled the history of dominant and success
full parties in all ages and in all nations.
United, vigorous, patriotic so long as they are
beset by a common enemy, they have too
often become prey to division, to weakness,
to selfshness, the moment the enemy has
ceased to resist. 1t was when the energies of
the nation combined and successfully repelled
a powerful foreign invasion, that the French
republic revealed its greatest vitality. 1t was
directly when that enemy was gone that the
republic revealed its greatest weakness. The
passions and preiudices and petty rivalries of
sections and individuals, which We're stihed
and restrained so long as France was threat
ened by foe from without, burst forth with
destructive violence as soon as the foe disap-
peared; and the French republic was ruined
by enemies from within.
If the republic of the United States is free
from such danger, and can look forward with
hope and confidence to prosperous and glori-
Gus future, it cannot be said that we are in
debted for our security and hopefulness to the
lofty wisdom, the unfailing good sense, the
noble and undivided aims of those in whose
hands the government of the nation has been
vested since the close of the war. The debt
under which we are laid to the Republican
party should not blind us to their faults. The
general course of American politics. the say
ings and doings of American statesmen, the
unseemly exhibitions which are daily made
within the halls of Congress, and the demorali-
zatiOn which has set in with powerful cur
rent, and which is characteristic in a greater
or lesser degree of both of our great political
parties, are in the eyes of the world in the
last degree dishonoring to the American Union,
and to those noble institutions of which we
have so much cause to be proud. 1t is i'm
possible, indeed, for any one interested in the
honor and welfare of his country to contem-
plate the present aspect of things but with
feelings of pain
There is one section of politicians to whom
the nation is beginning to turn its eyes with a
hopeful confidence. The more conservative of
the Republican party, who have long been in
the minority, are already making their in
fuence felt. Now is their opportunity. If
they would give a new tone to and take the
lead of the party with whom they have been
acting, or if they would organize new party
on broader and nObler basis, they never can
have more fitting opportunity. The nation
is sick of strife and division. Wiser andmore
temperate counsels are needed. The change
of feeling which has taken place in the South
seems to have begotten corresponding change
in the North. Restoration cannot be more
anxiously longed for in the one case than it
will be heartily welcomed in the other BV
dint of skilful management North and South
may soon be knit together in the bonds of
happy Union.
But the crisis is delicate. Extreme mea-
sures may mar and ruin the whole. Wisdom
and caution are in the highest degree neces-
sary. There is no party whose counsels are
more suited to the occasion than those of the
conservative Republicans. Theirs is the op-
portunity if they will only embrace it. If they
fail to take advantage oft, it is impossible to
predict into what disorganization the Repubh-
can party may be thrown, or what may be the
parties and measures of the future. If they
seize and prove themselves worthy of the
occasion, they shall have the honor, not only
of restoring the Union, and thus of wiping out
the last trace of our unhappy domestic
divisions, but of building up a great and
powerful party which shall control the desti-
MES of this nation, and guide her in her on
ward and upward pathway of prosperity and
glory for at least the next half century.
Recon structiOn In the South.
From the Times mon. . ..... H.. .I
The appeals of Brown, Longstreet, Lee,
Patton, Hampton, and other prominent
southerners are producing marked impress
sion upon the press and people of the South.
The change which has come over the popular