The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-08
Thc Democraiic Conrentions.


"Restorations," says phiosophic observer,
"are the worst of governments" They are
naturally rapacious veUgetul, bitter, tmpla-
cable. The French people of lSl4-l5, who
suddenly discovered that they for twenty wears
had been subjects OF his Majesty Louis xviii
Che DeSred) without knowing it, we're made
profoundly to realize the truth OF the remark
above quoted. When Legitimist writers talked
of the brilliant victories won by his (aforesaid)
Maesty's armies, between the years 1896 aud
1912. under the command of General Bona
parte, their feelings of indignation aud of de-
rision struggled desperately for ascendancy.
The Democratic party quarrellei, divided,
and threw away the Presidency in 1860. No
other party did half so much towards eifsctiug
its overthrow as itself. 1t still held the Su-
preme Court and both Houses of the incoming
Congress- by secession and rebellion, it squan-
dered these also. That secession, that Rebel
lion, were pre-. re.eminenty the work of Demo
cratic politicians. Those of the South deh5d
the authority and sought to destroy the unity
of the republic; those of the North pledged
themselves to resist coercion" unto blood,
but didn't. The split remained willing, but
the flesh was weak. Hence, secession and
rebellion, after a long, desperate, costly,
bloody struggle, were crushed out.
The Republicans were but two-ffths of the
American people in 1860. They elected their
President through the Democratic split, engi-
neered by the Southern Democracy on pur-
pose that they should elect him. Congress was
made over to them by the withdrawal of the
Southern Democrats. The Supreme Court, so
far as it became Republican at all, was like
wise made over to them by the Rebellion.
President Lincoln was eminently man Of
Peace. The Democracy allowed him but this
alternative" Eight or break your inaugural
oath to execute faithfully the duties of the
Presidential office" They backed him to the
wall, and, by the bombardment of Fort sum
ter, compelled him to fight.
Slavery was the melting, overruling cause
of secession. Slavery said to the Union, "One
of us must die - whereupon President Lin
coin, standing for the Union, said, "Then it
shall be Slavery |" and his word was uIti-
mately made good.
Before the war began, Horatio Seymour
assailed the Republicans on suspicion that
they would not tamely submit to disunion as
bitterly as he did yesterday. He accused them
as reoklessly in 1861 as he does in 1868. He
held them then responsible for the cOnse-
quences of Secession and Rebellion; and he
does so to-day. Rivers of blood have been She'd
mountains of debt have been piled up; and he
charges it ALL not to those who assailed, but
to those who upheld, the Union. He de-
clared that we could never subdue what he
called the South; but We did.
He predicted that we would bankrupt the
Treasury and coniscate the property of our
people; but the farms and houses that he pro-
nounced mortgaged for more than their value
by the war debt are worth as much coin to-day
as they were when his party quarreled itself
out of power And every dollar of the debt,
every drop of the blood, he would score up to
our count, is righteously chargeable to the
other. He talks to-day as though he had been
an open instead OF a covert traitor throughout
our great struggle. Ii it was right to main
tain the Union by war, then the cost Of that
war is justly chargeable to those who sought
to destroy the Union.
We never heard of speech by Seymour
during the war that was not chuckled over by
avowed sympathizers at the North with the
Rebels; and he spoke yesterday in the same
vein to the assembled Confederate Congress-
men and Generals in Tammany Hall. As
usual, he blamed the Republicans for every
thing, the Rebels for nothing. 1t is nothing,
or worse than nothing, to him that four mil
lions of our cOuntrymen whom Democracy
left slaves Republican rule has set free. 1t is
nothing, or worse, to him that no slave-chaiu
now clanks in all our broad land. He prates
of the debt; but he lOathes the debt because it
represents the means whereby slavery aud
Democratic Rebellion were overthrown. He
pirates of liberty and equality, but mourns
over broken shackles and the shattered dom-
nation OF caste. For the first time in our
history, every man in our country enjoys the
protection of equal laws; and for this Seymour
regards the Republicans with an implacable
hate. For, If history shall regard the last
seven years as the second heroic age of our
country, what can it say OF Horatio Seymour
that he should not hear with shudderl