The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-10-14

II is not possible that the mighty STRUGGLES of
the last six years should not leave a deep
imprint on succeeding times. The future OF
this country is not to depend on the opinions
Of men who were over forty when the war
broke out but on the opinions of those who
were under thirty. Though built after the
same plan, our older men will say like those
of Israeli that the second temple is not like
the first. We must, nevertheless, recognize
facts. 1t is fact that all the flower of our
young men were engaged in, and educated by,
the war. All the youthful vigor, daring, en-
terprise, love of adventure, thirst for honor
pride of country, marched with our armies.
In the army they lived deeper life than falls
to the lot of ordinary sluggish generations.
Their whole manhood was a hundred times
put to the proof; the experience of four years
was more than the common experience Of a
life. And it came at an age when the char
acter is yet plant and yielding; when OPT
Mons are either not formed, or have not
settled into dOgmatic stiffness. The mould
was applied while the clay was yet soft,
and it will continue to bear the i'm
press. There is an inefiaceable difference
between the generation of men that is going
out and the younger generation that is coming
in; and no party which ignores this difference
will be in sufficient sympathy with the rising
future to guide its politics Our elderly men,
whose habits Of thought became fixed before
the war, will be every year deserting, in obe-
denCe to a summons they cannot resist. AS
between the old epoch and the new, they will
be q constantly dwindling minority; but as
between the living and the dead, they are
'passing over to the majority" Their indu-
rated habits of thought will pass with them,
and the country will be ruled by the genera
ton whose character was shaped in these later
stirring times.
The Democratic party, in its brightest and
| palmiest days, was prominently the party OF
/ progress. In spite of the croakings and fore
| bOdings of its opponents 1t extended the sui
| frage to white citizens till suffrage became
UNIVERSAL it abolished Imprisonment for debt;
removed the property qualification for Office;
made the State Judiciary elective; brought
| new territory into the Union until its original
| area was quadrupled; made vigorous war
| upon the protective system, although many of
| its early leaders had supported it; and until
| the slavery question became predominant, its
| favorite employment was to supply fresh fuel
| to the engine rather than toput on the brakes.
| In cOmplaisance to its Southern wing, it made
mistakes on the slavery question, and lost the
| advantage of leadership. In its attempts to
| prevent opinion advancing too fast, it fell
behind; and there could not be a more fatal
| bunder at present than an attempt to carry
the public opinion of the country back to the
| point where it stood when, to save the train
from destruction in moving down a declivity,
| the Democratic party went from the engine to
the brakes.
The tendency of successful parties is to
| forget that society never stands still; that
opinion is ever advancing; that the policy OF
| past generation can never exactly tally with
| the wants of the present. The eXcesses of the
| ROundheads, who beheaded Charles l. planted
| the seeds of the reaction which restored his
! son. The restored Stuarts, who had not the
| wisdom to discern that they were in new
| epoch, reasserted the royal prerogative in as
| high tone as if the Commonwealth had not
| interviewed, and thereby lost the throne for
| ever. Modern France teaches the same lesson.
| The severity of antecedent oppression caused
! the violent eXcesses of the Revolution, which,
in turn, paved the way for the despotism of
| the First Napoleon. The restored Bourbons,
like the restored Stuarts, learned nothing and
forgot nothing, and a new revolution in 1880
| swept them from the throne.
We admire the old Democratic leaders as
fervently as anybody can whose admiration is
rational. But we trust we do not admire them
in the same stupid spirit in which pedauts
and literary nincOmpOops admire the ancient
classics. We would not servilely copy heir
policy, but rather emulate the spirit, the
| Judgment, the attention to present circum-
stances, the recognition of popular good sense,
| the adaptation of means to ends, which made
them wise in their generation, as we ought to
be in ours. 1t is the very essence of Demo
cracy that the people of every generation are
| Iully competent 10 manage their own aualfS.
Such parts of a former policy as are suited to
| present circumstances we hope we shall have
the wisdom TO adopt and continue; not, how
ever, from mere respect to authority, but
! because we have clear perception of their
fitness. Such parts of an old policy as are
not adapted to the new epoch, we trust we
! shall have the independence to discard thus
/ hOnoring our predecessors by initiating their
selfreliant example, and by bringing fresh
| faculties to bear on actual circumstances. The
emulous artist most truly hOnored his master
| 10y feeling that he, too, was painter.
| The most illustriOus example of far-sighte
| sagacty, and wise moderation in victory, to
be found in the history of political parties,
was perhaps furnished by Jefferson, the father
of the Democratic party. His consummate
wisdom in the hour of triumph so strength
ened and consolidated the party, that it re-
mained in power the greater part of the next
| sixty years. He had the reach of thought to
see that vibrating ascendancy' would give
no stable character TO the policy of the Gov
eminent, and he built for durability. Instead
of attempting to carry the tower to a giddy,
topping height, he broadened it's base and
gave it the solidity of a pyramid. He accepted
some things in the policy of his predecessors
which he and his followers had opposed at the
time of their adoption; he aimed to allay party
bitterness and to cOnciliate the Federalists, in
his eloquent inaugural address, containing
the famous exclamation, owe are all Repub-
licans, we are all Federalists;" he refused
to adopt a proscriptive course in regard
to offices, causing his partisans to grum-
BILE, "Our President lacks energy-it
would have been different if Burr had been
II. g1 Hon,