The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-11-03

majority Of the States have made platforms
which are only verbose amplifcatiOns OF the
maxim that "honesty is the best policy"
The great question ia, What do you mean by
good faith" and what do you mean by ere
pudiation H"-and the fact is that the Repub-
lcan conventions have not generally dared to
say what they do mean. Individual Republi-
cans, like Secretary Stanton, hsve no obiec-
tion to say what they think. Bat neither has
General Butler. The conduct of Senator Nor
ton shows his prevailing uusteadu5ss upon
this and kindred points. Six months ago
he said he was Gin favor of one currency for
all, - and used other expressions from which
the public derived the impression that he
thought the 5-20s should be paid in green
backs, and that the currency should be- paper.
He has recently said that by sons curreuoyr
he meant "gold aud silver" aud that as for
the payment of the Dos in green backs
why, gentlemen, breathes there man
with soul so DEAL" etc. etc. And what
will he say six months hence? There never
was time when it was so curiously easy to
misunderstood the plainest English words,
and to misconceive wholly the political objects
of the statesmen. In the ordinary affairs Of
life, people generally know when other pie
mean gold and when they mean papsr--or
iron pyrites, as Mr.. Atkinson would say-but
in the present position of public afIirs, the
only thing one can find out, at least from con-
ventions, which are the constituted organs of
party expression, the organs Of speech, the
very tongues of their constituents, is that
the love of "honesty," and 'good faith"
and 'honor," and equity" and "national
integrity" and hatred of "baseness," "repu.
diation," and let us say, Of all other forms of
crime, has reached development that, in any
nation so young as this, must be regarded as
highly gratifying, of course, but perhaps too
precociOus. When great party, by its au
thorized agents, finds itself able to say nothing
about the most important question which will
| agitate the country for the next generation
| but this, that it hates "vice," we cannot be-
| lieve that there is any real union, any settled
| determination as to the particular form of
| ''vice" which is necessary to attack, Now,
| has the Republican party irrevooaby made up
| its mind that the $40 bonds are to be paid in
| ''god and silver coin,Y" Has the Republican
| party irrevocably made up its mind that the
bonds are not to be taxed? Twenty Rspubli-
cans voted to adopt the report OF the commit
| tee to which this subject was referred, and
this was after the making of the Chicago plat
form and that manly denuncation of the
cIiminality of such proceedings, of which we
hear so much. We believe that in the inco-
herent mass which will compose the Rspubli-
can party after the election of Grant, num-
ber of men, sufficiently large to exercise i'm
| portant influence, will be found ready to pay
| the debt in greenbacks, if only they can find
leader who calls himself Republican. If
| General Butler goes back to Congress, these
men will reason in this way: The convention
| did not declare in favor of "gold and
| silver coin," except in few cases; and in Mas
| sachusetts, where the strongest kind of re-
solutions were passed, they care so little in re-
| ality about it, that the chief repudiater of
them all, the man who gave reputation all
| it's energy and living force, is sent back here,
after a most active canvass-atter canvass
| which had its origin in the determination of
| the best men in the district that the five
twenty question should be made a plain one,
| and which was headed by one of the ablest
| men in the country. 1t is evident that the
real power for the next two years is in Mr..
| Buffers hands to q most dangerous extent
| The next Congress will contain more Demo-
Gratis than the last, and they will vote solidly
for repudiation in any form, as they did to
tax the bonds in July.
We have discussed the question only as it
bears upon the 5-20s but there are thousand
| other ways of bringing about what General
| Butler has so long advocated and apparently
advocates now. For example, sudden cry
may be raised that we are 0ver-taxed, that the
corrupt native and the selfish foreign bond
holder are forcing us to tax ourselves for
their benefit and running the country. Under
| this plea we might 'pass" the semi annual
interest once or twice. Railroads managed by
the smaller Buffers do such things with their
dividends; why not governments And surely
no one, however inclined he is to suppose
that the ive-twenty question is really set
tied, will say that all other schemes of re-
pudiaton have been SO thoroughly discussed
as to preclude the possibility of swindle.
| Let us repeat that the Republican party has
no settled policy for the years to come after
the election of Grant, that both parties are
in loose, disorganized state; that at such
moments unscrupulous men have double
power; and that if General Butler goes back
to Congress, the party which sends him
there will find itself split by the question OF
the debt into two factions which may never
reunits. Harpers Weekly said the other day
that if the Republican party threw moral
principle overheard, the party and the coun-
try are doomed We do not agree as to the
country, but we feel very sure about the
| party.