The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-06-15


tor Wilson and delegates from the Union
League Clubs intervened TO prevent disrup-
don which would have thrown the inhuenOe
of Virginia against reconstruction, and a call
for State Convention has been issued under
auspices which apparently insure the defeat
Of the Hunnicutt ANARCHISTS. rTrr vvnv1
In Louisiana Che same good sense and mode
ration have been averted in circumstances Of
yet greater difficulty. There party unity was
in immense jeopardy. Local jealousies and
differences had led TO the organization of CON
ficting interests, and these again TO the moral
weakness of the party. Gradually, however,
wiser counsels have prevailed, and though ex- 1
tremists still carry on an outside struggle, |
their influence is insignificant. The primary |
elections for members of Convention deve- |
loped both enthusiasm and harmony. "As |
for certain faotious clubs with fancy Names" |
says the New Orleans Republican, a journal |
not open to the charge of exaggerated conser |
vatism:-
"Ifthey choose to rehearse In separate bodies |
their partin the political drama which is 10 !
the time arrives for their public performances
they must come on the stage as regular mem
doom themselves to the fate OF ali schismatics.
They may weaken their friends a little and
strengthen their enemies as much by maintain.
ing at that important moment q separate orga-
nization; themselves they cannot benefit"
The lessons thus taught are at once an en-
couragement and a warning. They exemplify
the controlling power of the more moderate
element in the Republican party And they
convict the ultra faction who camor for con-
fscation and the imposition of other condi-
tions and penalties yet underlined, of pursuing
| a course which, while it ''dooms themselves
| to the fate of all schismatics," must weaken
| their friends little and strengthen their
| enemies as much" .H...i.rr H. .t...n
These facts cannot be too distinctly appre-
| hended by the managers of the Republican
| party movement in the Southern States. They
cannot afford to experimentalize with popular
feeling, to pander to ignorant passion at the
expense of right, or to cucumber the party
with more than its proper burdens. Least of
all can they afford to invest with Importance
| the heads of Certain factioHs clubs with
| fancy names, or to yield to the dictation of
persons whose avowed purpose is to delay the
| restoration of the South to the Union.
The strength of the party at the South is
| derived from its proclaimed desire for speedy
reconstruction and its known ability to effect
it. BY raising the confscation standard it
might indeed succeed in rallying the negro
Y vote, and by dividing the races lay the founda-
tiOn of a contest between them. But such
policy could not possibly confer power. That
| is dependent whelly upon the good faith and
judgment of the party in the working of the
existing law. The plea is that the Republican
party, Notwithstanding its exaction of unpala
table conditions, is the friend of the Southern
the plan matured by Congress, and it declares
through its Congressional Committee that that
plan is designed to be fnality. The party
comes before the South, then as its best friend
AS the agency through which it may regain
the peace and privileges of the Union, and the
prosperity which will attend reestablshed
confidence. There can be no shrinking from
this position without dishonor. There can be
no paltering with its promises, no evasion of
its responsibilities, without destroying the
chance of securing the supremacy of the Union
party in the future politics of the South.
The opportunity, If lost, will not recur. The
tendency among the influential classes of the
South is to gravitate towards the Republican
party. The conviction which animates Gene
raj Longstreet governs the judgment of thou
sands. They consider the Democracy the en-
bodiment of principles which received their
quietus in the war, and they took hopefully
to the Republican party as that by which the
regeneration of the South may be effected.
They take it at its word and declare their ad-
hesion to it as the party Of the future. And
they predicate their estimate upon the honest
aim of the Reconstruction law as a peace
offering whose acceptance will end existing
difficulties. In party as well as in a national
sense, it is essential that these expectations be
fulfilled. They are reasonable and just ex-
pectations, in view of the action of Congress
and the more recent averments of representa-
tive Senators and members, and the party
uuuSJ take care LIldL De C6dIZ6u. II IulS
be done without needless waste of time-if the
con6scatonists and malcontents generally be
} passed by unheeded, or be treated as abettors
of the enemy-the Republican party may OBJ
tain the mastery at the South And with
preponderating strength there, the fault will
be its own if the party be deprived of national
power. sr...r
J To promote party success at the South
however, the Northern Unionists must make
manifest their moderation and fairness by an
! unequivocal Endorsement of the reconstruction
scheme as finality They owe to themselves
and to those whose cooperation they seek, the
repudiation of the disorganizing schemes
which are put forward as pretexts for prolong-
ing the dismemberment of the Union. These
are not trifes which they can tolerate with
impunity. Simply to be suspected of a lean
J ing towards confscation would be to provoke
I the opposition of ninety-nine- -hundredths of
all, North or South, who have aught to lose
For eOnfscation as proposed by Stevens and
! Phillips, or division Of land as suggested by
! Senator Wade, is war upon property, which,
I once begun, would not be confined to the
South. The North has its agrarians and re-
pudiators, who will not be slow in turning to
account any movement for destroying the in-
r volatility Of property rights in the Southern
J States. Hence the Importance of crushing at
the outset every attempt to fasten upon the
+ Republican party either atfiliation with or re-
sponsibility for these projects of the extre-
J mists. The hope of the party's future lies in
: its steadfast adherence to the principles which
conducted il TO victory, and the policy of re-
/ construction with the success of which its for
tunes are identified.