The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-24

not, keep IL under military rule for four years
mere, II would be rendering the South the
highest service that it can receive through any
human agency. Unless the machinery OF
government the party has set up there, how
ever, can be kept going for some years longer
unless, in short, the South can be governed
by law, and not, as in times past, by the pas
sions and prejudices Of the most passionate
and most prejudced Of the most turbulent
community in the world, reconstruction will
prove complete farce. The South of 1869
will be the South of 1860, minus so many
men killed, 80 much property destroyed, and
the destruction Of legal slavery.
The danger of a Democratic triumph, too,
does not lie in the fact that Seymour is this
kind of man, or Blair that kiAd of man. but
that the party which elects them has ceased
to be party OF progress or reform. This has
been often said of it of late; but it is usually
said and most loudly said, with special refer
ence simply to its opposition to the removal
of negro disabilities, and the charge therefore
makes less impression on the public mind
than it ought. The fact is that it is the
enemy CT all useful changes or ameliorations
in the Government. Judicial purity, admin
istrative efficiency, popular education, the
sense of corporate honor, the strict adminis-
tration OF Justice and, in fact, all restraints
on the evil tendencies Of society, in whatever
direction, have no worse enemy. In fact, the
only principle 1t can be said to hold hrmly
and preach persistently is that liberty is not a
means but an end, and that as long as a man
can do what it pleases him to do is of little or
no consequence "a doctrine as hostile to
social and political progress as any that ever
was preached. II is in this fact, indeed, that
the gravity of the present crisis lies. Usually
an opposition has the other half of political
and social truth in its possession, and while
pursuing the same great ends as the party
in power, advocates the use of different agen-
cies, and has at its head men who, whether
right headed or wrong. headed are sincerely
welded to ideas, and stand as high morally as
their opponents. The popularity Of the
Democratic party is-and the history OF
the last seven years justifes us in
saying this-that its sole principle is
hostility to the men in power, so that if the
Republicans hit on plan of adding twenty
healthy, happy years to human life, the Demo
Gratis would devote themselves to persuading
the public that the boon, coming from such
hands, was worthless. There is probably
nothing in political history equal to the
speeches of the Brookses, Vallandighams and
SeymOurs, since 1861, for emptiness of every
thing but negation and invective; and the
readiness the Democratic members of the House
invariably show to vote en- mdSSe with any Re
publican, on any subject, who sets himself uI
in opposition to the rest of his party, is
striking illustration of their childishness anC
the imbecility of their tactics Their acces
sion to Office, therefore, for the government O
any community, would be great msfortun,
much more for community in SO disturbed
and critical condition as this.