The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-01-21

tiuct was the determination of the Northern
people to preserve the Union. There was great
deal of discussion en- almost every other point,
but there never was any room for discussion on
this, The one thing which is now plain is that
the Northern people are determined that there
shall no longer be any such thing as political
inequality on American soil, that all men shall
he equal before the law, and that no legal bar
rier shall stand between any man and any of the
prizes of life. About the cause of this determi-
nation and about its wisdom and about the
means used for carrying il out, there may be a
GOOD deal OF difference of opinion; about its
existence we believe there is none. There
arc people who say that the negro ought not
10 be the equal of the white man before the
law. and there are others who say that
II he is II will ruin the country; but
there are none who deny that the majority
are determined 10 nave MN So ana the
greater the number OF obstacles thrown in the
Wav of the gratidCatton of this desire, the
fercer It seems to burn. IL would not be pos.
sible to point out a single act, either of the
South or Ol the Democratic party az the North,
committed since Lees surrender with the view
of blpdering or delaying or discrediting the
movement Tor equality, which has not had the
effect of Strengthening ana aCceleratng 1t. The
President came out OF the war armed with
almost absolute power, and in possession of
enormous patronage, and at the head of a party
which tour years OF bloody struggle had fami-
liarized with executive usurpation. His deiec-
tion, one would have said, would have scattered
his party like sheep 1t only made it fercerand
more compact. Some of its most gifted and in
huential mem bers, who had borne The heat and
burden of the day, followed hls example, and
were simply overwhelmed by eXecrations and
defiance. The South has been emboldened by
the cOuntenance of the President and of the
Northern Democrats into CHANGING its attitude
from that OF yanqushed enemy into that of
power treating on equal terms, and has found,
In spite OF the largeness of the Northern mInO-
rity, that there was even less to hope from
resistance than from submission. The trade,
the commerce, and the manufactures of the
busiest community in the world are terribly
embarrassed by the prolOngatiOn of the pOlit-
cal disquietude, and yet no man dares to raise
his voice in favor Of the slightest lowering of
the terms Of settlement. In fact, hardly
month passes that something is not added to
make them bitterer and less easy to swallow.
The men who during the past year have been
rising in influence are not the moderate, but
the extreme men, and the sentiments which are
now most loudly Cheered at public meetings are
those which suggest the most desperate rene
dies. In short, after waiting year and half
for the North to cool, 1T has only grown hotter
and hotter
Ought not "Conservativesn by this time to be
satisfied that the measures they have been
opposing are not the result of hasty, halt-hedged
impulses, but of a ripened Judgment and deter
mined VIII? II the events Of the last eighteen
mon sense what win prove it? We think that a
man needs to be neither prophet nor sage to feel
satisfied now that if the South and the Demo
Cracy persist much longer in their opposition to
the policy of the Northern majority, we shall
find ourselves thrust violently upon a stage oi
the struggle which viii be distinctly and unmjs
takably revolutionary, and over which the natior
will hardly pass without serious damage to some
of the most valued and still most revered fea
lures of the Government. the signs OF this arr
now so abundant that only blind man car
tml to perceive them, and we charge those
who continue their senseless opposition tC
the popular will with responsibility Of al
the mischief, be it great or small, which
may result from the resort of the
majority to eXtra-egal courses. The South anC
the Democratic party are led by men who pro
fess to be statesmen, and who talk and write a.
ifthey had read history, but they are acting like
African 'rain-m akers.o There is nothing o
which they profess to be so we'll satisfied as oil
radical unsCrupulousness and disregard of con
sttutiOnal obligations, and yet they act as il
every radical held constitutional obligations tC
be absolutely sacred. For instance, when they
got the Executive on their side, they paved and
neIghed tearfully, and shook the second article
OF the Constitution in everybodys face, as if the
question was now settled. When they found
that the radicals were nothing daunted by this
and that they were disposed, II necessary, to get
rid OF Mr.. Johnson by impeachment, these same
conservatives called the Supreme Court to theil
aid, and having got decision against military
commissions, they are twirling their thumb;
complacently, and assuring the world that it i:
all over, and that the radicals must now submi'
and all this in the same breath In which they
preach upon radical contempt for law.
Now, If there is any lesson which history
teaches clearly, tits that there never has existed
and there never Is likely to exist, nation which
will allow constitutions or forms of any kind OF
paper to stand between it and such change il
It's policy as it deems necessary to its safety
That the popular safety is the highest law is no
mere saw OF the publicists, it is a truth whIcl
every man in free community has buried II
his heart. There is nothing in which politca
sagacity is better displayed, whether in states
mau or IN party, than in the direction of tn
signs which indicate that the nation has reache
the point at which it begins to consider whethe
it will blndly adhere to constitutional form
and perish, or disregard them and live The wis
politician-whether IN monarchy, oligarchy
or democracy-is he who knows when rC
sistance to the popular will has gone ia
enough, and, when the proper momeI
has come, turns his attention to hHdin
out the best mode OF carrying it out without vic
latng the letter of the law. There are a thou
sand signs that we have reached this point here
and that people are fast, thanks TO Mr.. Johnso
and the South, getting into state of mind
which constitutional forms will count for yer
little. One of these, and not the least impol
tant is the way in which the recent decision
the Supreme Court, as well as its dctum, ha
been received. The Court is made the object
the most violent abuse, and the agreement
the judges on point of law OF unusual clea
ness is denounced unsparlngly as 'judic
conspiracy and movements are even tai k6
OF Tor putting the judges on their trial f
it. All this is, of course, very wild aud a
sUrd talk but there is behind it a sent
ment which is neither wild nor absurd, al
that is, that the question of reconstruction
question 100 momentous, too wide
its range, and affecting too vtally the destiI
of the nation, TO allow Of ITS being submitted
any court law or decided upon any technic
rules of interpretation. In other words, it
essentially political question and polite
questions nations and not courts must solv