The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-09-26

rally formed of Democratic President. Sup.
pose, then, that we had elected General
Mcclellan. Suppose, further, that he had re-
tanned every member of Mr.. Lincoln's Cabinet
that he had admitted no Democrats of emil
nence or standing even among his bacll-stairs
advisers; that he had appointed only Republi-
cans or unreconstructed ex- Democrats to
foreign missions; that he had given no aid to
the Democratic party in elections; that he
had tried to form new party to supplant
and absorb it, and had instigated a Conven-
tion at Philadelphia for that purpose; sup
pose, we say, that General Mcclellan had been
elected, and had trod in the very tracks
Mr.. Johnson has done, does anybody think
the Democratic party would not have been
incensed Such conduct in a Democratic
President would be wholly inconsistent with
his maintaining any further relations with the
Democratic party. Had General Mcclellan
been elected and given us the same treatment
we have received from Mr.. Johnson, there
would have been no bounds to Democratic de-
nunciations. Why, then, have we treated Mr..
Johnson with so much kindness and torbear-
ancel Just because we have never regarded
him as belonging to our party; because we
had no claim upon him for any kind of favor
or support; and his conservative views on re-
construction being of grace and not of debt,
we acknowledged them with the same disin-
terested magnanimity with which they were
given.
II Mr.. Johnson wishes to join the Demo-
cratic party, we suppose the doors are open;
but that he is at present. or has been during
the last two years, within the Democratic or
ganization, neither he, nor anybody for him,
can truthfully pretend.
In proceeding to discuss the future, we can
1,pfc from fhn nd upio n
'fby gone" for that would be to reject the aid
of experience; which wise men never do.
The same style of argument or eXhortation
which the IntelfgeRcer now addresses to the
World was addressed to the Democratic party
last year, by the promoters of the Philadelphia
Convention. The argument then was, as it is
now, that in so great an emergency those who
think alike should consent to act together.
Nobody can dispute so persuasive truism;
but as it was misapplied then it is proper to
ask if there be no danger of its misapplcation
again The World opposed the Philadelphia
Convention until number of leading Demo-
Gratis were seduced by this plausible appeal,
! when we acquiesced in the experiment
The result, in last falls elections, was not
so brilliant that we feel very strongly inclined
to surrender our judgment again. No knot of
politicians has any authority to speak for the
| party, or to commit it TO any new or unusual
! course of action. In the Democratic party we
all claim to be peers, every member being en-
! titled to an equal voice with every other in
! determining its policy. Our State conven-
tions speak for us in the States; our quadren-
NAL National Convention in the affair of the
Union. In these bodies all is done in the full
light of publicity by the authorized represen-
| tatives of the party, nor will the party acknoW
ledge as binding any engagement, compact, or
bargain, made without its knowledge by any
| other agency or in any other way. Indi-
MD oil ha Gvya a hat
they please, the party has no power to restrain
them; but it will no more ratity their unautho-
! rized or underhand arrangements, than it
would of any other three, five, or seven men,
acting Of their own motion and without autho-
rity.
Party leaders or public Journalists whose
hearts beat in unison with the people, can
predict by fellow wheeling what the people will
! do; and those who, besides this sympathy,
have pe1spicacity to form sound opinions on
new subjects, and facilities for addressing
! their fellow. citizens, can also make true pre-
! dictions founded on their faith in popular in
telligence. The World deems it of far more
! value as a means Of political influence, to
know how the people feel, and what they can
be persuaded to think, than to be in the
! secrets of all the scheming cliques in the
country. All that oliquism can do is to make
! nipples, or, at most, waves, on the sur
! face OF politics; the movements of the people
are the heaving tide which lifts up the whole
mass of the ocean. The World claims no in
! fluence, desires no Influence, nay, it despi5es
all Influence which does not result from its
ability to present truth to the people in a con-
vinciDg light.
We come now TO the question of co opera
ton with the President. The country cannot
be redeemed by him, nor by anybody whom he
can put into or turn out of Office. 1t is to be
redeemed, if at all, by the people through the
elections; OF, in other words, by the Democratic
party recruited by the few thousand votes re-
quired to make it a majority. The President
can nationally expect the restoration of the
Constitution in no other way. Now how can
he best assist it Would the Democrats be
any more staunch, resolute, or united, in
coalition which would lower the tone OF the
party, than they will be fighting independently
under their own colors Nobody who knows
anything of the upright and downright char
acter of the Democratic party can suppose
it. A coalition, then, is an unpromlsing ex-
pedient for keeping up the spirit yigor,
zeal unity, and pride OF the Democratic
party. The only remaining question is
that of new recruits, a question which it
IS difficult TO handle with the requisite
plainness without seeming violation of
delcaoy. But (the question lies in our way,
and we must ask ID what body Of supporters
! has President Johnson in the Republican party