The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-29
1S60-lS6S,
From the N. Y. Times.


Presidency bears a suggestive resemblance to
that which animated them in the memorable
canvass Of 1860. They were then contending
for a continuance of their supremacy in the
Government. They are now struggling to
regain ground lost by the Rebellion, and to
reassert the authority in national politics
which once reigned supreme.
The threats now prevalent are reproduc-
ton, with certain necessary notifications, of
those which were in vogue hen Lincoln occu-
pied the place OF Grant on the Republican
ticket. Then the Union was menaced by way
of indicating the resolve of the South never to
recognize an anti-slavery President. Now, the
guarantees of restored Union are assailed
with the declared purpose of annulling the
political result OF emancipation and reviving a
power in local concerns based upon the pride
and prejudice of color. The same arrogant
spirit the same contempt for law, the same
low estimates Of the strength and will of the
loyal masses, are traceable in the course OF the
Southern Democracy in the two elections. III
the North elect Lincoln we will secede,' was
the sum of the Southern argument in 1860.
eff Grants majority be composed of colored
votes, we will put Seymour in the Presidency
in defiance of bayonets," is the saying with
which the Wade Hamptons of to-day express
the purpose OF their class. Now, as then, the
old governing class of the South claim for
| themselves right to regulate the policy Of
the Republic, to be the judges of its measures
and the interpreters OF its Constitution; and
they threaten resort TO force if their preten-
sions be repelled.
The two positions, moreover, are charac-
terzed by the same shallow artifce. The
threatening indulged eight years ago always
wore the pretense of resistance to encEoach-
ments. The embryo Rebels affected airs Of
injured innocence. They colored their case
with the view of concealing the nature of
thpir T1a tha
| aggressors; they, amiable souls, were the
| aggrieved parties. They treated the Republ-
| can policy as an invasion of Southern rights,
and held up secession as measure of selfde-
tense to which they would be driven by the
| ruthless and unconstitutional North. These
were the tactics when Breckenridge ran the
race with Lincoln; and they are employed now
| in support of Seymour against Grant. The
| Republican policy is assailed as that of party
engaged in promoting rebellion; Grant is pic
tured as a candidate whose election will pro-
duce civil war; Congress is denounced as a
body that must be circumvented, and its work
as an outrage that must be OverthroWn. The
Southerners, meanwhile, parade griefs wAich
are but consequences of their own madness,
and complain of penalties provoked by their
own crimes. They attempt to divert atten-
tiOn from their proposed resistance to law by
ch arging upon the Republicans an intent to
create insurrection; SO masking revolutionary
| projects by imputing intended violence TO
their opponents.
! The election of Lincoln was mere pretext
seized to cover the secessionist conspiracy.
The Southern Democrats went into the elec-
| tion prepared to throw off the authority of the
| Union il its Executive passed into Republican
hands. At this moment, the same party is
man@uveripg under the leadership of Sey-
| mour, with the design of making the triumph
| of Grant an excuse for fresh turmoil and fur
flnrh oh Tba cfr Ia han, fnr
the mastery of the Union or for its disruption.
The struggle now is, for restoration to power
and privilege in the Union, regardless of the
| Rebellion; and its prosecution involves the de-
! struction OF the guarantees called for by the
| loyal sentiment of the North. In both in
stances, Southern politicians set themselves
| above the law, and presume to dictate the
conditions of their allegiance to the Union.
They wanted its control, in the interest OF
slavery, in 1860; they demand its control, in
the interest OF Rebels III 1868.
They depend at present, as before, upon the
active sympathies of the Northern Democracy.
The secession movement would have been
| dwaried in its proportions out for the enGour-
| agement it received from the Breckenridge
party in the Northern States. The opposition
to the reconstructed Governments lacked or
ganizatiOn and energy until the New York
| Convention breathed into it the breath of life
Wade Hampton was reasonable, Cobb civil
and even TOombs decent, so long as the spirit
and attitude of the Democratic party, as such
were matter of uncertainty. Frank Blair's
revolutionary prOHuaciamieato awakened de-
sires not before limited at; and the nomination
of Seymour and Blair on a platform which
commits the party to warfare upon recon
struction encouraged the Southern leaders tC
avow boldly programme of resistance to law
They had been in close fellowship with the
representatives of Northern and Western De-
mOcracy, had witnessed the construction of 6
Copperhead platform, and the nomination Of
candidates, one of whom never sympathized
with the Union cause, and the other is known
to contemplate its defeat by treachery and
bloodshed. 1t lis not surprising that in these cir
cumstances, the Southern politicians who came
to New York comparatively rational, returned
to their homes with rebellious aspirations
once more rampant. Wade Hampton was 81
far carried away by the stimulating atmos
phere of Tammany that he preached resistance
to law in Union Square. Others shared his
excitement They mistook Tammany for the
Empire State-the nomination of Seymour fol
his eleetion-and went back South hugginl
the delusion that reaction rules at the North