The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-10-08
The Field and the Champions.

The Field and the Champions.
From The Petersburg (Va.) Inds1
The Index has opposed from the first the
childish timidity which would put the
gag upon all the eloquent genius Of the South
and hush up the uiterance of the truth by
those lips which are most able to proclaim II.
IL any man has anything to say why this
nation shall not submit to the embrace of
foul despotism, let him now speak.
In one month it may be too late. We en-
dorse every word of the Louisville Journal
when it says:- W1
ave are rich in fit champions, though one
champion differeth from another champion in
fitness and, next in fitness to our conserva-
tive Republican champions, we do not hesitate
to place those at whom the radicals, with un-
erring instinct, have set up their loudest
howls. We mean the eX-Confederates. In
dealing with the ex-C Confederate element of the
canvass, our friends at the North, it appears
TO us, have not shown their usual sagacity.
They have seemed to regard that element as
something to be kept in the background-to
be screened rather than displayed; when in
reality, if judioiously managed, it is the great
est as well as the proudest element of our
strength
For in this conflict what is the avowed end
of both parties 1t is, we need not say, the
pacifcation of the South; the radicals propos-
ing to pacify the South by trampling upon the
rights Of her people and the Constitution
together, and the. Democrats proposing to
pacify her by respecting the Constitution and
the rights of her people under it. Now, in
view Of these conflicting propositions, where
does the South herself stand She stands as
unit with the Democratic party. She in
good faith accepts the Constitution as the terms
of peace. The unconstitutional, oppressive,
and degrading terms of the radical party she
at the same time spurns. 1t is thus made
manifest that the avowed end of both parties
the radical party cannot accomplish aud that
the Democratic party can. 1t is demonstrated
that the Democratic party can give us peace
and that the radical party cannot. This fact is
the capital fact of the canvass. Its realization
by the Northern people would alone extinguish
the last hope of the radicals.
And to make the Northern people realize it,
who are so tit as the representative men of the
South Nobody, it seems clear to us; and if
those men, instead of having been left to ad-
dress their fellow sufferers at home, where the
narrowing details of the situation are but too
familiar, and the temptation to intemperate
language is all but irresistible, had been called
to the North, and appointed to lay before the
Northern people the true situation of the South
and the true sentiments of her people, the
radicals, we verify believe, would now be
howlipg at Southern oratory out of the other
side of their mouths. We have no shadow of
doubt of it. The truth is, the Northern people
could not meet the representative men of the
South face to face, and learn from their lips
not only the tale of Southern woe and desola-
tion, but the assurance of Southern allegiance,
and still credit the radical calumnies. They
would thoroughly realize the calumniousness
of the whole brood. And they would repu-
diate alike the calumnies and the calum-
niators.
In neglecting to call to the North the repre-
sentative men of the South, therefore, we feel
that our Northern friends have committed a
grave mistake. They have shrunk from a
mastery expedient as if it were big with ruin.
But it is not yet too late to correct the mis-
take. We hope that it will be promptly cor
rected. We commend its prompt correction
to the attention of the Democratic State Com
mittees OF Ohio aud Indiana and Pennsylvania.
Let our ex-Confederate champions join our
conservative Republican champions in the
field of conflict, and fight with them side by
side. Let Wade Hampton, for example, speak
in Pennsylvania with Edgar Cowan; let
General Gordon speak in Indiana with Senator
Doolittle and let B. H. Hill speak in Ohio
with James Dixon. 1t would not merely dis
arm the radicals but disable them. Our true
policy is, and has been, to manifest the cou-
rage of our opinions. Let us take the bull by
the horns, and he cannot be made to gore us.
Let us firmly grasp the nettle in our hands,
and 1t will not sting us.