The Portland daily press., 1867-09-13
D, FRIDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER Is, 1867.
DAILY PRESS.
Friday Nor. ing, September l3, 1867.

PORTLAND.

Giving np the I,repressibIe Conflict.
There is bad news from Pennsylvania and
bad news from Ohio. In the former State
the Radical party has commenced wrong by
abandoning its best principles. We have al
ready chronicled the fact that Hon. Edward
McPherson, at the State Convention, success
fully opposed the proposition TO make impair
tial suffrage the leading principle of the party
in the present campaign. One would think
that his position as Clerk of the House of
Representatives at Washington for several
years would have enabled him to observe the
effect of an abandonment of principle suf1ici-
emily to preclude the possibility OF his becom-
ing mere "expediency man." But the pre-
vailing political madness OF this year has at
tackled him, and he has had infuerce enough
to make others partakers of his madness
In Ohio the battle was commenced bravely
and well. Impartial suffrage was embodied
in the Republican platform, and proclaimed
from one end of the State TO the other by Re
publican orators. At last accounts none OF
the prominent public speakers had announced
their disaffection. But there appears just
now little paragraph in the papers, travel
ing with the industry and persistence with
which dsagreeable newspaper paragraph
,cilt travel, stating that majority of perhaps
fifty thousand votes will be thrown against
the proposed amendment to the constitution
of the State allowing negroes to vote. It
sounds very much like COpperhead prognos-
tication; but If it is indeed the deliberate
conclusion of the Radicals of Ohio that they
cannot carry the State for so eminently just
measure, it is hnniliating fact. More evil
dence is required to establish it, and not un-
til the predicted result is announced ON the
eighth Of October shall we be convinced that
it is true. e.t"ioft .'h a''l ~
But the case of Ohio is not by any means
so lamentable as that of Pennsylvania. The
difference is the same as that between two
soldiers, both of whom are killed, but one
falls as he calamity presses forward toward
the foe, and the other is shot in the back as
he is Fastening to the rear.
Better suffer defeat than to triumph through
a cowardly abandonment OF principle. The
Republican party cannot afford to win vic
tory on such terms, for a success attained
through wrong is sure to be followed ulti-
mately by Overwhelming disaster. Even SC
brief a history as that of the party has been
has yet been long enough to show that this is
true. The Republicans in 1852 were AFRAID
to commit themselves to the advocacy Of
emancipation, and suffered defeat; but in
1863, having learned that justice pays, they
triumphed In Connecticut last year they al
lowed a supposed eapediency to control their
action, and the result was unfavorable
enough. it may be hoped to teach them bet
ter. J'nl
The Republican party is nothing, il not rad.
ical. Those who attempt to adapt the idea of
golden mean, which is true enough mIphy-
sizes, to morals and to politics, blunder stupid
ly and fatally There is no wisdom in trying
to be half jrst and half unjust. Most truly
has the party thus far been one of great moral
ideas-a truth which its enemies have felt
most deeply in their hearts, when they have
sneered at it most bitterly with q cir lips. IL
is possible that the prevailing conservative
epidemic may go out with the cholera, yellow
fever and the other disagreeable accompani-
ments of warm weather. 1t it is to become
chronic, the Republican party will have no
stronger hold upon the people than any polit-
ical organization that is actuated solely by a
desire to retain place and power. The relin-
quishment of the purpose ofenfranchising the
negro would be of all things the most fatal to
It's futare rrosreetss-ieEs would weaken
most seriously the moral force OF ito olnorishod
plan for the reconstruction of the Southern
States. Il would stamp with insincerity its
protestations of regard for the welfare of the
negro. 1t will compel Congress to hesitate
before attempting to force upon Kentucky
and Maryland what Ohio and Pennsylvania
will not accept.