The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-24
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER "a, 1868.
A New Fight on an Old Issue.

"A new F1gnt On au Olu lSsuos
elk order to form more perfect union'' was
the formula of words chosen by our wise fore
fathers to express one Of the strongest i'm
pulses that prompted them TO strengthen
their confederation by a constitutional COM
pact. This union signi6ed firm consolidation
of all parts of the nation into one harmonious
whole, and the Revolutionary fathers gave
ample proof of their belief that the Govern
ment constituted by their hands contained the
elements of progress, and that the seed thus
sown would grow to vigorous msturity-that
the tree of liberty thus planted would offer
shelter to the oppressed of all nations, and
that in the course of time 1t would be possible
and practicable for all classes to become free
members of this great and more perfect Union
of the future. So clearly did they see that
slavery was one of the greatest obstacles to the
work for which they were hazarding life and
liberty, that they not only declared.i 1T inhar
monious with the scheme but contemplated
Its speedy extinction.
But the presence of the insidious foe was
permitted as one Of those evils that must in.
evitably be destroyed by the operations of
free government; while our greatest and best
men protested against it, and those who
dreaded to raise new causes of controversy in
their lifetime, on their death beds, "near
their last silence" uttered their most solemn
denunciation by freeing their souls from the
sinful burden. Death bed emancipations
were the private repentance for the public sin,
and 80 tacitly accepted by the nation, while
the moral sense of the community found
another expression in the colonization
schemes.
So thoroughly inimical to true republican
ism was the slavery power, that as it grsw
into predominance it was popularity styled
"King Cotton" carrying its condemnation in
Its very name.
1t was the assumed duty of our nation to
war against kings and kingcraft at home aud
abroad, yet in utter folly and weakness men
calling themselves by the specious name of
Democrats pledged their lives and sacred
honor to the code that declared that all men
were not created equal and endowed with
the inalienable rights of lite, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness.
This new king, enthroned by those whose
Yroudest title was king haters, soon formed a
court that claimed to be veritable aristoc-
racy, oultivating the graces. aping the follies,
exercising the insolence, and, alas practising
the very crimes of the class they initiated.
Immunities, privileges, undue predominance
in legislation was demanded by them as their
right, and enforced by staggering pretension.
When the inevitable hour did at last come,
and slavery and its idol King Cotton found
their supremacy endangered, they flew to
force as the last bad argument of bad cause,
and hastened the approaching overthrow of
the evil. The conflict between the wrong and
the right so disarranged the old party lines
that "War Democrats became new name
to describe those who, in defense of that pro-
missed "more perfect union," washed their
garments of the old sin, and forgot the old
slavery Of partisanship and partisanship of
slavery in defense of the threatened Union.
The issue is the same now as it was when
the cloud burst over Charleston harbor-Re-
publicanism and the Union as it was formed
and fought for by Washington, Jefferson, and
Franklin, against the miscalled Democracy
and disunion as preached and practised by
Jefferson Davis, Raphael Semmes, N. B. For
rest, Wade Hampton, and Horatio Seymour.
A Democratic triumph now would restore to
power not only the enemies Of the Republican
party but the sworn foes of the republic, of
the Union, of liberty, OF progress, of human
rights, and Of the loyal and patriotic portion
of the American people.