The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-11-08
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
KDTTORIAL oPm1ONs or THE LEADING JOURNALS
UR0N OURRHET rorIcB-oOMPmKD EVERY
DAT FoR EEH EVENING TELEGRAPH.
About Grant clubs.

Loans. they are now busy telling US no"
NAV bo rastored. All we have to do, in their
view. IA 70 say no more of Republican princi-
oles. but 90 it blind for General Grant as next
President
We have an abiding conviction that our
ablest and most worthy statesman is Chief
Justice Salmon P. Chase. And we hold con-
ceded ability, wide civil experience, and emil
nent private worth, qualities that the people
appreciate and take pride in. We deem no
man entitled to the Presidency, and do not
desire Mr.. Chase called to it for his own sake
He has great Office now--one in which he is
eminently useful and honored. The same is
true in equal measure of General Grant. II
either Of them shall be summoned from his
present to the one higher station, it must be
because the place needs him, and not he the
place.
General Grant we esteem by no means a
great man, nor even a very great General
Yet he has, in every position he has filed,
evinced a modest good sense, a practical, un-
ostentatious sagacity, which have justly won
for him a large measure Of public confidence
He is not by training a statesman; yet his
negotiations with General Lee and the terms
OF capitulation conceded by him at Appomat-
tox evinoe wisdom and breadth of view
which few among our statesmen could have
We do profoundly honor and esteem him that
he has never uttered one syllabel that savored
Of exultation over the defeated Rebels, or
called down vengeance on their heads. The
blood Land thunder policy of execution and con-
dsoation, which we intensely loathe, has had
no more effective opponent than this taciturn,
Teticent first soldier of the Union.
Let it be forever understood, then, that our
preference of Governor Chase is based on no
dislike to General Grant, nor even low esti-
mate of his abilities. We presume he has no
judiciOus friend who would pronounce him
equal in capacity or experience, as civilian,
to the Chief Justice; we trust no friend of the
latter will fail to render the General hearty
support shouldhe be made the standard-bearer
of Republican principles in the great struggle
now opening. We, at all events, shall not
hesitate, in that case to do our utmost for his
election.
But eur interest in the success of any oandi-
date will be based upon and measured by his
devotion to impartial liberty and here is
where we think those who are now grooming
General Grant for the Presidential race are
utterly mistaken. We can elect no Republi-
can on the spontaneous combustion principle.
We can only triumph by the systematic and
thorough enlightenment of the masses, who
always vote for what comes to them labelled
Democratic unless good reason is shown
them for voting otherwise. The war being
over we can no longer carry elections by read
ing bulletins of Union victories and exhortiug
the people to ''rally round the flag" And
those who are pushing General Grant for Pre-
sident will land just where the Wings did
with Scott in '52, if they are allowed to have
their own way. They utterly mistake the
time of day.
The Republican party rests under two great
and solemn obligations. The first is to the
freedmen; the second, to the national creditors.
1t is bound, by every consideration of honor
and good faith to go to the very extent of its
power in protecting the blacks in the full
enjoyment of their rights as freemen and citi-
zens and to take care that every one who
loaned his means to the Government to sustain
and prosecute the war for the Union shall be
paid, principal and interest, to the last far
thing. If the blacks are to be reduced again to
vassalage and semi slavery, or if the national
creditors are to be defrauded, that result must
be reached over the Republican party, not
through it. Defeat may be misfortune, but it
is onLg misfortune; while infidelity to the blacks
or to the national creditors would be crime
and immeasurable infamy.
We cannot betray the blacks. To do so is
to compact the entire South in solid phalanx
against us. The moment we assent to recon
struotiOn on any basis which recognizes the
black man as entitled to fewer rights than
the white, we consent that every State shall
be locked and chained to the car of our adver-
saries as Kentucky and Maryland now are.
And to say that we are for manhood suffrage
in the South, but not in the North, is to earn
the lOathing contempt and derisiOn alike OF
friends and foes. We have thus, thank God
no choice but to stand fast by our principles,
our allies, and the inalienable rights of man.
We may be beaten in this position, but defeat
is the worst fate that can befall us; while, il
we recoil, we shall certainly be at once dis
graced and ruined. If we are "between the
devil and the deep sea, " we shall brave with
stout heart the perils of the stormy main.
We object to the Grant movement that it is
Of the nature of the ostrich's simple strategy,
that deceives only himself. There are times
in which personal preference and personal
popularity 60 far; but they are not these
times. Does any one imagine that General
Grant, supported by the Republicans, would
carry Maryland or Kentucky under her pre-
sent Constitution against Seymour or Pendle-
ton He could not carry either State even
against Forrest, Semmes, or Quantrell We
are involved in great struggle, and must
conquer or fall and pass away.
If our principles do not sustain us, we must
go down. And, if we shall attempt evasion OF
concealment, we shall deserve to go down
Any candidate who represents our principles
and glories in avowing them we shall mos
heartily support, whether it be Chase, Of
Grant, or Colfax, or any other. Ii it were
possible that the Republicans should discard
their plain obligations, and start on un
prinoipled race for victory, we should fee
little interest in their success. But this they
will never do.
Congress and the south-whNt Shall b