The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-08-07
The Folly of the Democratic Policy.

The Folly of the Democratic Policy.
RPHRAM being Joined to his idols was never
better exemplifed than by the adoption by
the Democratic State Convention of resolu-
ton in their platform declaring the unaltera-
BILE opposition of the party to the extension of
suffrage to the colored population. The spec
taele thus afforded by the Democrats of the
country is at once amazing and curious.
No longer does the spirit of unity in
huence all sections of that political ring. No
longer can the Democracy boast of the disci-
pline which rendered it impervious to all
assaults in the days of Jackson. There is to-day
as much difference between the wings Of that
organization as there was between it and the
Republicans in 1856. Many different views are
expressed. In the South the entire party has
declared in favor of negro suffrage. Wade
Hampton and all his ooadjutors have gone on
their political pilgrimages, and declared
themselves the undoubted friends of universal
suffrage. By this means a number of the
black votes were secured, as there can be
little doubt but that quite fair proportion of
that class favored Etheridge, in Tennessee,
with their suffrages-so that the Southern
wing of the Democracy is decidedly in favor of
what the Northern wing is as decidedly OPP
posed to. By the declaration of the Democracy
Of Pennsylvania the party is virtually split in
two-one-h halt favoring and the other opposing
one Of the great and foregOne conclusions of
the day.
When we remember of what vital impor-
tanoe ii is for a party about entering on great
Presidential contest to have a record so clear
and unblemished that it will bear the closest
scrutiny, we can imagine the fearful disad-
vantage under which our opponents will
labor when they have to face a division in
their own ranks made within twelvemonth
of the battle. We can imagine the desperation
to which the elegant gentlemen of the South
are reduced when they find all their we'll
conceived efforts, all their sacrifices of prin-
ciple and prejudice, to have been in vain,
and their best efforts to have been blighted
through the stupidity, or, rather, the per-
Verseness, of the Democracy of Pennsylvania.
Nothing could show more clearly to the
people the utter unftness of the Democracy to
rule the country than the action of that party
on the issue of suffrage. Throughout all the
Southern States the question had been settled.
Whether rightly or wrongly, the issue was one
of the past. The ballot had been placed in
the hands of the negro, and it would have
taken a revolution greater than that of 1888
or l776 to roll back the tide, and deprive him
of his newly acquired right. Yet, in the face
of facts, the opposition, in order to cater to the
ignorant prejudice of few foreigners, and to
preserve show of consistency, even at the
expense of common sense, declare in opposi-
ton to the privilege which must in future be
exercised by four millions of men. What
greater proof can we have of the unftness of
such an organization to control the destinies
of great nation, which is taking great strides
in progress, and developing new life day by
dayY Could such men hope to become the
leaders of the nation in her future career-a
career new and unexplored, and which de-
mands life and energy in order to secure ad-
vancementY
What with division in the South, opposition
in Pennsylvania, and neutrality in New York,
the unhappy Democratic party, after bufeting
the waves of defeat, and sustaining load
which even supernatural power could not keep
aAoat, seems now about to die of an internal
disorder The firm hand of Jackson is needed
at the helm in this trying hour.
"One blast upon his bugle horn were worth ten
thousand men,"
The place he occupied cannot be filed by
Vallandigham, the Woods, or that class of
fourth-rate leaders, who now aspire to be the
chiefs Of the Democracy. Without recognized
head, unsettled in policy, weighed down with
its history, that party, once 50 powerful will
enter the Presidential contest with defeat
staring it in the face, and meet that fate which
it so richly merits.