The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-05-15

w AbnluBlOu lOI ANtW Jersey. mas reallV done
as much travelling as the public had a right
to expect A party of our Congressman are
going to the plains to shoot buffalo-that is
to shoot at buffalo, and MIR. English. of Con-
necticut, last month";, by dint of labors hardly
equaled by the pedestrian who made a thou
sand miles in q thousand hours. actually
travelled all the way from his mills to the
State capital. General Grant has not been
very exclusive lately, having had enough of
travel when he went with the President to
Springfield but is not likely to spend the
summer in idleness and, indeed the only
great man who has not been iournevtng of
late is Mr.. Davis, and even he can now 90
where he pleases.
Rumor, which is sometimes truth and some
times calumny, intimates that all these iour-
neys, to whatever point of the COMPASS thev
pretend are really meant to be roundabout
ways to ashington-pilgrimage of Presiden
tial candidates, who, after long toll. finally
hope to rest in the White House March 4
1869.
"Sleep after toll, port after stormy seas"
And though no one was ever known to rest in
that poorly defended citadel, forever besieged
by armies of oflice-seekers, these gentlemen
may not be dismayed by the fate of its present
occupant. If travelling could secure an cleo
ton TO the great office, there are few Ameri
cans who would not cheerfully walk to Jeru
salem on foot, with peas in their Shoes or re-
peat the voyages of Captain Cook, or M. Du
Chaillu's eight years in Africa. But railroads
have made this method of canvassing for votes
easy. great man in these days can show
himself to the people of every State in the
Union with more ease than Henry Clay, forty
years ago, could canvass the hunting grounds
of Kentucky.
The great man spoke in Boston on Monday
spoke in New York yesterday, and speaks in
Philadelphia to-day, and may reach New
Orleans by the end of the week. Regulations
which formerly were local are now universal
and national fame, or at least national noto-
riety, is no longer the slow growth of years
but the immediate creation of the locomotive,
the newspaper, and the telegraph. No man
can speak one emphatic word that is not in
stantly repeated by innumerable echoes from
Maine to Louisiana. The South sends her
orators to Connecticut, the North pays the
debt by sending Henry Wilson to Charleston.
1t is natural, then, that the Presidential condi-
date should be like George Francis Train or
Colorado Jewett-a man with the world for his
home, spending his life in steamboats, and
cars. No candidate will stay at home if he can
help it. The candidates are all fitting, fitting,
and every day adds to the number.
We do not know that all the gentlemen we
have mentioned are Presidential candidates,
but Rumor will have it that they are. Yet
Of trip to the Holy Land; what votes can
the ambitious Congressman hope to secure by
shooting at buffalo, and being shot at by
Sioux and Cheyennes what good will it do
Mr.. Jack Rogers to go to Trenton, or Mr..
Seward to Auburn, or where shall Mr.. john
son travel to find himself popular? We do
not see satisfactory answers to these questions,
but Rumor in every mans pilgrimage finds
profound mystery, and will have it that no.
body can pack his trunk and buy a railroad
ticket without having designs ON the Presi-
dental succession.
Some of the distinguished gentlemen we
have mentioned, who exchange the safety OF
home for the perils of the railroad, have indeed
about one chance of the Presidency to ninety
nine of collision or an explosion, and travel
may teach them this truth. A far better result
than the mere making of President may come
from these journeyings. If the people learn
to know the leaders, the leaders are taught by
the people. No man can travel far and intelli-
gently observe without discovering that the
almost universal sentiment demands the
speedy reconstruction of the Southern States
The responsibility of success is weghty, and
it rests upon the North. We have placed ter
States under military rule; we have prescribed
the qualifications of voters, and given the
ballot to hundreds of thousands who never
before possessed it. We have begun the ex
pertinent, and must watch it till the end
Upon all our public men, therefore, we urge
cooperation in the work of reconstruction, anC
securing all rights for all men. Whether it il
to the East, West, North, or South that they
turn their steps, let them not forget that tn
great work before us is not the making of
President, but the restoration of the country
Let us all join hands in that work, and TIN
Presidential question will come soon enough.