The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-03

viragO, and assumes the airs OF master. They
are consequently in a mOrtifying dilemma
They must tone down the Blair letter. or the
North will not allow Seymour to quit his
Utica farm They must interpret the anti
reconstruction features of the platform paci-
fically. or the LOYALTY of the land will sduelch
them as oopperheads. The South, mean
while, cries out that the party is copper
head party; that the Convention was Cop
perhead: that platform and candidates are
copperhead; and that under no other charac-
ter can the party have the favor of usrepent-
ant Rebels. ...........
1t avaieth the party nothing to plead that
the Southern Democracy ought not to be
judged by the indiscreet utterances of few
leaders. The plea would be plausible il the
displays which have attracted attention were
exceptional. But they are not. Wade Hamp-
ton, Toombs, Ben. Hill, Cobb, Semmes, in
their denunoiation of law, and their invocation
of violence as q means of overthrowing the
new Governments, do but reflect the spirit aud
purpose which rule among the Southern oppo-
nents of reconstruction We have reached
this conclusion reluctantly. Up to compare
lively recent period there seemed q desire to
confne opposition within lawful, peaceful,
practical limits. With the holding Of the New
York Convention, this disposition vanished,
and il is new i'm possible to observe the coarse
of the Southern press, or the proceedings OF
ratification meetings, without recognizing evil
dence of the change. Acquiescence is no
longer hinted at; nothing but resistance is
counseled. And the virtue OF resistance is
invariably predicated on the position Of the
Democratic party in the canvass.
Hence springs the feeling, that the party
must be kept up to the mark by its Southern
members They scent bad faith in the dis
tance, and mean to prevent it if possible.
With this view they maintain running fire
upon those of the Northern leaders and jour
Dalists who baud1a tandarlv the CONTINGENCY
to which Blair has distinctly pointed. The
Charleston Mercury has nothing but contempt
for its "weak- kneed' friends at the North.
1t refers to the recent structures Of the Times
on the equivocation of the World and its
friends--or, as the Mercury puts it, con GER
tain individuals and presses that call them
selves Democratic, and declares those strio-
lures perfectly true" Our Charleston con-
temporary proceeds
THE platform OF the Democratic party is
square upon the letter OF General Blair, aud
actual expounding OF The platform It viii avail
little TO deny IL, North South, East. or West.
Any pallalion OF the fact is perversion of the
fact, II is mOre-it IS illfaith to the body Of
the Convention-and 1t is an attempted decep-
tlon OF the voters at the polls. Tue Rich
attempt TO lead the Democratic party, If they
intend TO abandon its platform 'mignt as well
abandon the field, for they are whipped
"The Times is right when 1t says the platform
aSSallS the (S0-called) kScOnSlructlOn acts as
usurpatiops, and unconstitu ional, revolution
ary, and void and General Blair does no more
And we go further with the Times. If there is
'Odium which IL heaped upon General Blair it
does attach TO the Conventon.'
I'VE go further with the Times: The Southern
wing OF the party is in earnest, and we are so
much in earnest that we intend to carry most
OF the Southern States for the Democratic
party"
That there may be no mistake as to whittier
the earnestness of the Southern wing tends,
or the import attached to the propo-
sition of the platform regarding recohstruv-
tion, the same journal resumes its exposi-
tion of Democratic doctrine and duty in this
strain-
"The mongrel meeting in Columbia called a
Legislature, had better adjourn and adjourn
| spec Oily. They need not trouble themselves TO
make laws, for they will not De enforced. They
| will perform no duties They are, az Mr.. But.
| Ter says OF Congress. simply losing time in the
consieeIaucn of legislative measures There.
fore, like Congress, they bad better disperse
Their doom is sealed. Their power with the
reconstruction, as We anticipated from the
first that it would be, is failure. To go on
further with it will only involve danger aud in.
all who attempt TO enforce it, or to exercise
power by its authority, are simply trespassers.
A treSpasser can be su ed In an action for
damages. a treSpdSser mag De juStittubty killed.
With the President of the United States, with
the army OF the United States, supporting the
white population in treating the Reconstruc-
tion laws az unconstitutional and void, what
but trespassers? II they use violence, what are
they out traitors?'
We might fill columns daily with extracts
from the journalism and oratory of the South,
as significant in their menaces as these passages
from the Mercury. The whole Democratic
party in the South is, in fact, so impregnated
with disloyalty, SO implaeable in its hostility
to reconstruction, and so resolved to rule or
ruin the Northern managers in the campaign,
that it cannot fail to produce embarrassment,
and ultimately dissension, among the sup
porters of Seymour.
How long the Northern Democracy will
submit to be dragooned by its friends in the
South, is problem yet to be solved. We
know, however, that ''dough faces" guided it
before the war, and according to present
indications they are still in the ascendant.
| Their efforts at paoifcation only make mat
ters worse. The Richmond Wing returns to
the war talk Of the World with the remark
that ''we have been cheated SO often that we
become accustomed to it," and sneers Of this
sort are common. Being in earnest, Southern
RebeldOm does not intend to be fooled. II
requires Northern Copperheadism to shoulder
its rifle or to come down from the PLATFORM
and whether the one thing or the other be
decided on, the trouble in the family is moi
near the end.
The Revolutionary Stage-The Factions
and the People.
| Dh-os, yboN