The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-21

From this question we do not propose to be
diverted. Small side issues-eagerly pressed
by opponents anxious to shift the scene of
conttst-as to what may or may not have
been the views of the Republican nominee a.
the outbreak or through the early months Of
the war; deserve very little attention. What
has seemed necessary to refute the ISLANDERS on
the Republican candidate, from time to time
we have published, and we give, this morning,
a careful statement from Democratic authority,
that of itself enectually disposes of them. Aud
now we have done.
The pother on either side in this small CON
troversy is wonderful. We have cards aud
counter cards; statements Of special reporters,
and extracts dug from the musty files OF for
gotten country newspapers. A paper which
believes the war was wrong and boasts that it
so believed all through tue war, objects to the
Republican candidate that he continued for a
few months of its way of thinking a paper
which has consistently advocated the right Of
secession objects to the Republican candidate
that at the outbreak of the war he retained for
little while some of its notions A paper
" hich is committed at once to the financial
follies of Pendleton, the hard money speeches
of Seymours opposition to the war while it
lasted and opposition to peace and recon
structon when it was ended, opposes canti
date in 1865 because it says he agreed with it
for few months in 1861 And over this the
battle RACES.
What momeDtous thing it is, to be sure
Was Stevenson only heathen man and a war
Democrat in October, 1861 hung be the
heevens in black Had he changed to the
Republicans month earlier -
-'Iet the kettle 10 the trumpet speak,
The trumpet to the cdunOneer without,
The cannons TO the heavens, the heavens TO
EaItn,'
Stevenson was Republican in September!
ul,o4 I,
Republican through the war, and that he has
been so ever since, nobody questions or pre-
tends to question. That he was as true to the
Government and to the loyal people who sus-
tanned it in the dark days of Fredericks sburg
and the second Bull Run as in the bright days
of Nicllsburg and Atlanta and Cedar Creek,
nobody questions or pretends to question. That
he has since been faithful while more than one
trusted leader has proved taithless on the issues
arising from the close of the war, nobody ques-
tions or pretends to question.
That is enough Tor us. We ara fighting a
battle for order or chaos at the South for the
reconstruction al-eady accomplished, aud
peace and settlement, or practical revOu-
tiOn. We do not propose to belittle it by fur
ther certificates that some OF our candidates
were little more or a little less prompt in
Joining the Republican party in 1861, than
the great mass OF war Democrats, whose
accession saved the Government.
During that life and death struggle Of the
nation We did not stop to make critical inquiry
as to the antecedents of the men who vOlup-
teered TO help us. Now that by their aid We
have conquered we do not propose to become
suddenly suspicious. We do not go back
over the field peekng about to see whether
our recruits gave sOrle serious thought to
their action and hesitated little before break
ing loose from party ties.
But we do remember some who, under the
pressure OF aroused public sentiment, were
ehamed or frightened into a counterfeit pre-.
tense of devotion to the country, but at the
first convenient opportunity, deserted again to
the enemy in the hour OF the country's sorest
peril. OF such We're the conductors of the
Cincinnati Enquirer. Leprous with the infany
OF that desertiOn, they have no power now t
fasten stigmas upon loyal Democrats who came
to the aid of the nation about the time they
betrayed it.