The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-10-15


the enthusiasm for him spreads like wildfre,
and is irrepressible. General Cialdini is said
to have reported to the Government that SEN
timents of the most radical nature are finding
the widest circulation in the army. This pro-
motion of liberal sentiments, we are sure, will
be found to be one of the lasting results of the
present revolution.
The Result of the Late ElectIOns-ItS
Causes and Consequences.
From the ". y Times.
The result of the late elections is not due to
any increase of Democratic strength, but
simply to falling off in the Republican vote.
Practically, so far as carrying States and elect
ing candidates are concerned, it comes to the
same thing; but in specializing upon the causes
of the result, and the inferences which it war
rants, a very clear distinction must be made.
The success of the Democrats is not due to
any increased popular support won for their
principles or party. 1t does not show that
any greater number of the voters of the coun-
try approve of their principles or desire to put
them in power. 1t only shows that a good
many Republicans have, for some reason or
other become dissatisfied with the conduct of
the Republican party, and have not voted at
all. There is nothing to indicate that they
have voted with the Democrats, save in excep-
tional cases; they have simply staid at home.
There is evidently enough of them to hold the
balance of power, and if they should finally
decide to go over to the Democrats, they would
give that party fair ohAraee of renr,nlinls
| troll of our national politics. But they have
as yet given no indications of such purpose.
What is it which has thus, for the moment,
| alienated them from the Republican party
Nothing, certainly, in the principles and policy
| of that party, as laid down in its platforms and
! resolutions. Nothing which it did during the
| war for the salvation of the Union. Nothing
| which it did after the war for the restoration
| of the Union, upon the principles which the
| war had established and for the equal civil
rights and immunities of all classes of our
people Not one in ten of the Republicans
| who have not voted at this election, desires
| or would consent to abrogate any of the
measures by which these results have been
brought about. No one would dream of set
ting aside the Emancipation Proclamation,
the Constitutional amendment abolishing
slavery, or the guarantee of equal civil rights
to the negroes of the South. Nor do we
think it by any means clear that they would
| favor the exclusion of the enfranchised slaves
from the ballot-box. They have, it is true,
in Ohio refused to admit negroes to the suf-
frage on equal terms with the whites; but there
are practical reasons for allowing negroes to
vote in the South, which do not prevail in the
NOrth-and in spite of the loud demands
made in the name of universal freedom and
equal justice by the apostles of progress, +"
practical considerations have and always will
have much more weight than abstract princi-
Piles in deciding the result of an election. The
negroes in the South are too numerous to be
subjected to the arbitrary control of the
whites. Their rights of person and of pro.
peTty demand protection, and in this country
we recognize no mode of protection by Gov
ernment, except by participation in it. No
community could long exist in peace where
half the people, more or less depended wholly
on the other half for the enjoyment of their
rights. Political considerations, moreover,
will reinforce this argument. Republicans
everywhere feel anxious to retain the ascend
ancy of the party, and they know that the
South cannot now be made or kept Republican
except by negro votes. In Ohio and other
Northern States none of these motives have
any considerable weight.
We think it is universally recognized by all
Republicans, therefore, as a necessity, that the
right of suffrage should extend to the negroes
in the South. 1t is not because the party has
taken this ground that it has been defeated,
nor would the party be strengthened by aban-
dOning it. 1t is too late in the day for any
party to maintain that this is exclusively "a
white mans Government" And, under ordi-
nary circumstances and apart from other
influences, we do not doubt that in Ohio, as
in every other Northern State, a majority
of the people would vote in favor of negro
suffrage.
But we do not think that the great body of
the people, or of the Republican party, are
satisfied with the manner in which this ques-
tion has been treated. They are not satisfied
that we have the right to force universal
negro suffrage upon the people of the South
ern States at the point of the bayonet, and to
exclude those States from the Union until
they accept it; nor that it would be good
policy to exercise the right if We had it.
Still less are they satisfied that it is either
Just or expedient, while thus admitting the
negroes to the ballot-box, without qualifoa-
lions of any kind, to exclude the great body
Oh the whites-thus handing over the Gov
ment OF those States to the absolute con-
trol OF the negroes within them. The prac-
ucal result of such policy shocks the
public sense OF justice. Every man, no mat
Ter now strong his party feeling may be,
| fair daalinp = " ~"