The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-17

Ysncey, who has been taken 10 his ina
account.
AID it all tends 10 the sams terrible re-
sult--r ckless iDsubordination aud bloody r.
sistance. Though, for want of the siuews Ot
war, this may not, at present take the shap-
of another regular rebellion, Vet the whole
Southern atmosphere will again become im-
prepnatea, as II used to be, with fixed spirit
OF oislOy atty which will mead hut the fsvoring
moment to precipitate itself into sweeping
revolution. Whether the sharp decisive crisis
would he suspended for longer or shorter
period would be Of comparatively little conse-
quence. We have already learned in our ma
iiOnal experience that the very suspense Of
such revolutionary element in the air is an
unreasonable evil. IL is a standing menace
which destroys all that security which civil
government is, first of all, designed to estab-
hsh. 1t invests everything with uncertainty,
making anything like safe calculation impos-
slble in any affairs, public or private. The
great crime OF the Democratic party before the
rebellion was its long course of demoralizng
the Southern mind, year in and year out, to
such a degree that at last rebellion was
made possible, and it is questionable whether
the rebellion itself, even in its most hagrant
days, was a heavier curse than the lingering
agony of doubt and apprehension which pre-
ceded it.
The hope Of making an end forever of all
the old sectional troubles did more than all
things else TO impel the country to fight the
war thoroughly through. The supreme aim
Of the North was to conquer a peace-a peace.
solid and enduring, abolishing alike all dis
turbance and all fear of disturbance thereaf-
ter. If we have not conquered such a peace
the war will go into history as the worst of
failures. 1t will turn out that all the meal
culable blood and treasure which it cost were
worse than wasted. In the last Presidential
canvass the Democratic party declared the
INosecuton of the war a "failure," and boldly
presented that issue to the people. In the
present canvass the real issue is still the
same-whether or not the war shall be turned
into a failure. On the other occasion the
patriotism of the country reused itself, and
inflicted upon the party the most stunning
defeat ever known in our political history.
There is the same call for Just as signal an
overthrow now. The course of peaceful cou-
stitutiOnal government will be Just as effec-
tually promoted by sustaining General Grant
now as it was by sustaining him when at the
head of his armies then. Wade Hampton and
all his Rebel allies will be just as much dis
cOmfted in the one case as they were in the
other.
There is one hope, and only one, for the real
pRcfcation of the country; and that hope is
in such an administration as General Grant
promises us--an administration which shall
unite fidelity to the Con. titution and laws,
d
administration which shall be inspired by a
calm spirit and moderate counsels, which will
follow with cautious but with constantly ad-
vancing steps the progress of the Southern
mind-which by kindness and fairness in all
its dealings with the Southern people, and
promptness to redress all their actual griev-
ances, will entitle itself to their esteem and
confidence, and enable itself to oppose with
authority and effect the instgations OF all the
old pestilent tribe of fire EATERS an administra-
tion which will always prefer solid reality to
untred theory, and Instead of making void
the Reconstruction laws, will most tenaciously
hold on to all that has hitherto been gained
for reconstruction, thankful for its existence,
and intent only upon making the work com
plete.
! This difference between the result of the
| election of Seymour and the result of the elec-
tion of Grant is clearly discerned and keenly
taken to heart by the Union men of the South.
| Joshua Hill, the newly elected Union Senator
in Georgia, who did most heroic battle against
| the Cobbs and Toombses of his State before
! the Rebellion, and held firmly to the old flag
through all the varying fortunes of the strug-
| gle-this clearest-sighted and truest of South.
ern men, in his speech at Atlanta responsive
to his election, in the most emphatic way en-
forced upon his loyal hearers the necessity OF
supporting Grant and Colfax, as the only
means of saving the country from continued
strife. From the beginning of the canvass all
the Union leaders throughout the South, in
their public addresses, have constantly pre-
sented this alternative of repose or tranquility
as the dominant issue of this Presidential
election. Their solemn convictions upon this
matter ought to have a peculiar weight with
all fair Northern minds, for their own patriot.
ism has been proved by the sharpest tests,
and withal they have had the best of all pos
sible opportunities of knowing the present as
well as the past spirit and purposes of the ma.
| tional enemies around them.
Nothing is wanting, nothing Northern OF
Southern, nothing loyal or Rebel, nothing il
the way of internal evidence or of positive
testimony of deduction, confession, inference
or palpable fact-absOlutely nothing is want,
ing to establish the real character of the pre-
sent election issue. That once settled in any
honest mind, go is all else.