The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-06-12
The DcmOcra cy Declare its Principles
of the CamDaign.


of the Campaign.
AS WE anticipated yesterday, the Democratic
Convention at Harrisburg selected Judge
Sharswood as its candidate for the Supreme
Judgeship, and declared its principles. There
was a time when we could have anticipated
the views of such body, by comparison
with the expressed platform of the party in
other States. But that day is past. The New
York World and the delegates to the Consti-
tutional Convention of the Empire State boldly
announce that the question of giving suffrage
to the blacks will not be an issue, and the
organ of the New York Democracy favors such
an extension. So do the Boston Post
and Chicago Times, and many of the
leading journals of our opponents. But
the Democracy of Pennsylvania is bound to its
idols. Under the lead of such men as Frede-
rick W. Hughes, jeremiah Black, John d.
Stiles, and A. j. Glossbrenner, it found itself
incapable of grasping any of the progressive
ideas of the age, and fought for principles ex-
ploded by the war, and on issues settled by
the bayonet. They have had the sense to
select good candidate, but have declared a
platform SO thoroughly weak that we doubt if
it can support their Standard bearer, much
less the swarm of prescribed semi-Rebels who
throng around him. Let us look at the planks
on which they stand.
The preamble and first three resolutions are
not to be disputed. They may mean anything,
and do mean nothing. The fourth resolution
declares that
I'VE proclaim as usurpation and outrage the
establishments suffrage
States by the coercive exercise of the Fede
raj power and we sea resist Is 70 5he last
the Republican party TO interfere by acts OF
Congress win the reguiaClons OF Ine elective
franchise in the State OF Pennsylvania"
Now this is ma liciously unkind. 1t is bad
enough for the Southern Democracy to have to
abandon all its declared principles, to have to
embrace the black man, and swear that it has
always been his friend, to have to insist that
he is a brother, and that the Democracy is in
favor of giving him the right of suffrage. All
this is bad enough for the unhappy members of
the party south of Mason and Dixon's line, but
it is adding the last straw to break the camel's
back when the allies of the sufferers quietly
undo all that their brethren have done, by
declaring themselves opposed to the very thing
which the Southern Democracy is pretending
to favor. Why, half the good effect of Wade
Hampton's fraternal Grafton will be nullifed
when the black hears that the Democracy hold
his right of suffrage as "usurpation and
an outrage" In fact, the question of
negro suffrage is the rock on which
the Democracy has split, and in
order to defeat them in all sections, all that is
needed is to read William A. Wallace and
William B. Reed to the Southern blacks, and
Wade Hampton and General Longstreet to the
Northern Irish. No man can serve two mas
ters, and no party can curry favor with two
diametrically opposite elements. So much
for negro suffrage in the South. The state
ment that Congress contemplates enforcing 1t
in the North is maliciously false. There is
not a corporal's guard of the Republican party
who believe in such doctrine. There is no
idea entertained by them in favor of prescri-
bing whether or no a negro shall vote in Penn
sylvania; and when the Democratic Conven-
ton states such is the intention, it wilfully and
knowingly declares a lalsehood.
"Flnh. That we are opposed to any amend
ment of the Constitul ion of this State giving
TO negroes the right Of suffrage"
This shows that the opposition of the De-
mocracy to negro suffrage is not due to the
alleged illegal manner in which it was secured,
but they are opposed to the idea per Sc. So
that, even if the proper steps were taken in
our State to secure it, they would be opposed
to it on principle. Yet the New York Demo
cracy does not oppose the extension, but is
rather inclined to favor it. Ii it is one of the
cardinal principles of the days of Jefferson,
how is it that only fragment of the party
| adhere to it
"sixth, That the failure of the Tariff bill In
he last session of the late Congress, more than
three-fourths of the members of which belonged
10 the Republican party, is an illustration OF
their intideity TO their pledges, and neglect of
their professions In relation TO the great indus
trial and financial interests of the country"
To defeat a stringent Tariff bill was the labor
of all the Democratic delegations in the House
Of Representatives, and when final vote was
reached, nearly all the members of that party
from Pennsylvania lodged the question, while
all the Democrats from other States voted
solid against the bill. Yet the Republican
party is exclusively responsible for the defeat