The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-06
.with What Body do they Gomez"

UeSITP,
Southern Rebels, great aud little high and
low, military and civil, poor and rioh violent
and moderate, shall all return to the full eX-
ercse of the privileges of citizenship and that
there shall be no tabooed class or outeast
pariah race in this country. We are Wiling
that all should come TO the knowledge OF the
truth and be saved. Endless political punish
msnt is no part of our faith or practice. But
show are the dead raised up, and with what
body do they Gomez"
Ever since the downfall OF the Rebellion
there have been two distinct classes of eX-
Rebels, each willing to take part in Southern
politics. Mr.. Reagan, a member OF Jeit. Davis
Cabinet, had certainly been as Jealous Rebel
as need be. He had remained with Davis
until and during his flight, after his navies
had been sunk, his armies had surrendered,
and all who had erst futtered and fawned
around the fallen possessor of little brief
authority" had fled. But Mr.. Reagan came
forth from his Imprisonment in Fort Warren,
and freely and canddly advised the Southern
people at that early stage in the reconstruction
question to give civil and political rights to all,
without distinction of color, race, or condition.
lie recognized the lost cause as lost forever,
and neither saw nor desired to see any half.
way battle-ground between slavery and
equality. General Longstreet, one of
Lees favorite corps commanders, had
attested his devotion to the Rebel
cause by daily stalking his life in its
defense until it was decisively and forever
overthrown. He then, with statesm anlike
candor and soldierly frankness, disdained to
kindle the fires of sectional strife over ques-
tions which had been forever settled, and he,
too, recommended the Southern people to
place civil rights, land, education and the
ballot within the reach Of all. Governor
Holden of North Carolina never had faith in
the Rebellion or its leaders, opposing the
former while opposition was possible, and
criticising the latter until all his predictions
of their failure were verified. Yet he had
yielded to the sentiment of his State and
doubtingly served the cause for whose sue
cess he saw little ground either to hope or to
pray. 1t is natural that such quasi Rebel
should become a thorough Unionist, and
should accept equality in place of Sla-
very. Yet many others whose course during
the war was like that of Holden, fail thus to
accept the inevitable logic of events. Gov.
Joe. Brown of Georgia was one of the most
earnest of Rebels, but he too does not believe
in fighting to restore a slavery which they
were not able to maintain. All these men de-
sire that the blessings of real peace shall be
brought to the South by giving all rights to
all men, and obliterating all wrongs or invi-
dious distinctions which might stimulate any
class Of the Southern people to strife with any
more favored class. During the Rebellion
they gallantly fought for that social and poll
tical inequality between the races, which was
the Confederacy's chief cornerstone. Having
surrendered, they do not seek to save the
cornerstone Of the edifce, whose defense they
have abandoned. No better friends of union
and freedom live than these men who fought
for slavery and disunion.
But of far different type are Governor
Vance, who declares that all that was surren-
dered in the Rebellion will be restored in the
election of Seymour and Blair Governor Wise,
who asserts that the lost cause is about to De
regained; Wade Hampton, who pressed upon
the Democratic Convention that clause of their
platform which declares the Southern State
Governments unconstitutional, revolution
ary and void," and who now avows that this
is as good as promise OF revolution, and
that if the Democratic party return to power,
their President can do no less than revolu-
tionize all the Southern State Governments by
force. We believe that Wise, Vance, and
Hampton express the sentiments only of the
precipitate and reckless portion of the Demo-
cracy even of the South. But 1t is this very
portion who fired the Southern heart in 1850,
and dragged the more sensible OF the Southern
people into the Rebellion, and will do it again
if permitted to do so. We have fought the
Southern people five years to very little pur-
pose if we have not learned that fools can very
easily lure them on to rebellion. Especially
should we know this when We see the most
violent and untamed traitor in the whole
South actually pressing into the Democratic
platform a clause providing for a new rebel
lion. Nne-tenths of the weakened Northern
doughfaces would prudently have left it out
had they dared dispute the dictation of 81
eminent Rebel as Wade Hampton. The
Rebel emissaries in Canada, during the ses
sion of the Democratic Convention in Chicago
in 1864, telegraphed that the "Vioe- President
and platform were satisfactory, speeches very
satisfactory" Why the speeches were salts
factory may be judged from the sample
speech of Dean Richmond. "By Cd W,
must put stop to this id war;" The
i /
make their platform and nominations 'satis
factory to the most ultra Rebels in 1864
They evinced the same desire, and met with
equal success, in 1868. The more virulent tn
Rebel, the more completely and rapturously i
he delighted. Seymour, he knows, will bl
wax in the presence of the Rebels, putty il
the hands OF all public thieves, sharpene
steel towards all black men, and a stencil il
the nostrils of every man not a Blair who eve
voted or fought for the Union. Blair's reck
lessness is we'll known to be fully equal TO hi
courage. Under such leaders they not onl,
hope for revolution but glory in its confden
expectation. The startling difference between
their case now and in 1860 is, that then the,
promised peace in the event of their success
and rebellion and civil war only if they wer
defeated. We might doubtless have avoided
war by electing their candidates. Bnt now they
make no threat of revolution in case of Grant
election. They manifest no desire to confrOn
the hero of DOnelsOn, Vioksburg, Chatta
noogS, and Appomattox in battle. If Grant b
elected they will be dumb as blind mice. 1t i
only in the event of the election of their owl
Io4n AIok B.