The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-04-10

their popular leader, the intellect and official
influence of the party were found on the side
of Breokinridge. SO was IL also with the
Democratic Journals The greater number
boisted the Douglas fag the abler and more
powerful-those which to this hour are looked
to as party, y,oracles-ranged under the banner
of his Democratic antagonist. The distinction
was maintained throughout the war. The
Douglas men became good War Democrats,
and rendered most valuable service TO the
Union. The Breckenridge wing, almost to a
man. became Copperhead; and this wing it
is which, by reason of superior ability or
energy or impudence has managed to retain
control of the party organization. It dictated
the war-a-failure resolutions at Chicago; and
il has dictated the demand for the immediate
and unconditional restoration of the South, to
which the party in the North is everywhere
pledged. Hence its succession of defeats in
the Northern and Western States. And
though it has gained an exceptional victory
in Connecticut, the circumstance is attri-
butable to the fact that, though the Copper
heads manipulated the convention and the
platform, they fought the battle with COM
paratively unobjectonable candidates.
The case Of the World is not improved by
its reference to President Buchanan. That in
January, 1861, he called to his councils loyal
men as the successors of the Rebel Secretaries
who had resigned, is indisputable; but this
does not relieve him from the responsibility Of
his course down to that period. He had con-
veyed to Congress his conviction that, under
the Constitution, the right to coerce a State as
against secession did not exist, and the policy
of the Northern Democratic leaders, then and
afterwards rested upon this hypothesis. only
on this ground could he vindicate his reten-
ton of Cobb and Thompson, after their active
participation in the secession conspiracy had
become notorious. And the same plea served
his friends at the North. Even they who OPP
posed the Southern movement qualified their
condemnation with the denial of the right Of
the Government to put down secession by the
use of force. To this extent it is certain that
the leaders of the Northern Democracy en-
oouraged the Rebellion. They did not recon-
mend it per Sc, for they saw that it would tenn
porarily extinguish the chance of regaining
supremacy for the party; but they gave moral
help to the then incipient Rebellion by promis-
ing in behalf of their party that the Govern
ment should not be allowed to march its
armies into the South 1t is well understood
that these assurances emboldened the prime
movers in the Rebellion quite as much as the
promise of immediate recognition which the
British Minister, Lord Lyons, is known to have
given. Both proved false in the hour of trial.
The British Government subsidized into a
treacherous neutrality" And the leaders of
the Northern Democracy quailing before a
storm they had not dreamed Of left the South
to do its own hard fighting, and confined them
selves to the guerilla practice of Copper
headism.
1t is of this cowardly desertion, we presume,
that Governor Orr speaks when he declares
that there are 'accounts to settle'' before the
South can again affiliate with the Democracy.
1t is to this retreat of the Democratic leaders
that the Charlottesville (Va.) Chronicle refers
when it declines to follow into ''the bog of
Democracy" Nor are these exceptional alle-
cations, as the Void would have us believe.
They are reiteration of statements which, in
the course of the last few months, we have
quoted from influential Southern journals. In
truth, with few exceptions, the entire press
of the South has proclaimed its determination
to have nothing more to do with the old
political parties with both of which it has
strong grounds ofquarrel. 1t intends to obey
the law, to retrieve its shattered fortunes,
to get back into the Union as quickly as
possible, and to keep clear of entangling
party alliances-that of the Democracy not
excepted.
The hope has been cherished, no doubt, that
the Connecticut victories would reanimate the
Democratic sympathies of the South. To the
disappointment experienced on this head we
attribute the extreme sensitiveness of our con-
temporary. For the South wisely refuses to be
deceived on the subject. Zone little Demo-
cratic victory in little State no more makes
makes summer" is the saying of a Rich
mond newspaper; therefore, it goes on to
remark, "we must be careful not to be in
duced to take any steps backward by reason
of the Democratic success in Connecticut -
We need not multiply citations. The sentence
we have quoted correctly expresses the pre-
vailing tone of Southern opinion as revealed
by its newspapers.
Another point of equal significance is not
less clear. 1t is, that even Southern Demo
Gratis will not rejoin the Democracy whose gos-
pei is expounded by Mondays World. If
they ever return to the Democratic organiza-
tion it will be as the masters-the guides and
! rulers of the party. They spurn the Douglas
! Democrats as bastards not lawful sons of the
faith; and they will ally themselves only to
the Copperheads. OF this we are enabled to
/ produce ''incontrovertible proofs" from the
| editorial columns of the Charleston Mercury,
| one OF the ablest organs of Southern sentiment
before the war, and one of the few that now
eXult in the Connecticut result. Says the
MerCury;-
beyond all doubt or question, the principles
! OF the Democratic party as laid down by Tho
mas Jefferson, ana elucdated by James Madi-
son In his report on the Virginia and Kentucky
! resolutions, are the principles of the Constitu.
ZION, on which the South has relied, from the
| commencement OF the Government of the
! United states, for protection and liberty. 1t
| was the exponent OF Southern statesman ship
and OF southern rule. The South made the
democratic party; and so long as their counsel
ana control ruled its policy it was the most
useful and glorious party the sun ever shone
upon. IL lifted the United States 10 a state OF
stIength ana power, and gave them a name for
The nations OF the world. But in the course OF
Time corrupt and unprncipled statesmen,
onlehy iton t4e North, got possession of It's