The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-05
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EDITORIAL oPIEIoNs OF THR LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT ToPTos-CoMPmRD EVERY
DAT PoR THE EVENING TRLRGRAPH.
The Presidential Campaign-FOlly of the
Old Rebel Leaders.

The Presidential Campaign-FOlly OF the
Old Rebel Leaders.
From 1te ~. Y. Herald
With the opening of the Presidential cam
paign, and as the hopes OF the Democratic
politicians of the South begin to revive, the
old Rebel leaders show their hands. Wade
Hampton at Charleston, Robert ToOmbs at
Atlanta, and Others among the most prominent
Rebels at other places, have been making most
foolish and injurious speeches on the issues OF
the past and present. They appeal to the
Rebel sympathies and memories of the South
ern people and haunt the Rebel flag as the
emblem OF all that is heroic and noble While
pretending to denounce the radicals of the
North, they in reality denOunce the whole OF
the Northern people, Democrats as well as
Republicans, who entered into or favored the
war for the Union. They make their lost
cause holy one and boast of the part they
took in it. They claim admiration when they
should sue for forgiveness for the bloodshed,
debt, and innumerabe evils they have brought
upon the country. However disposed gene
rous-minded people OF the North may be to
sympathize with them for their suftering5 and
disabilities, though brought upon themselves,
and however ready they may be to accord to
these Southerners the merit of bravery, they
cannot forget the bloodshed and horrors of a
great civil war, with the enormous burden OF
debt now weighing heavily upon the North,
through the madness and crime of these same
Rebel leaders. There is noble disposition to
bury the hatchet OF war, and, for the welfare
of both sections in the future, to cultivate har-
mony; but this cannot be while such foolish
men as Hampton and Toombs haunt the Rebel
flag in the face of the Northern people.
The radical organs and leaders are de-
lighted, of course with these bombastic and
foolish speeches OF the old Rebels. They eau
find nothing better to use in the political cam
paign, and they are using them with great
off, Nnfh htrnu will tAnd On fn nnfaa
the Democratic nominees both on the Presi-
dental ticket and tor Congress-. They will
neutralze all the effect of the reaction which
had set i'll against radical misrule, usurpa-
tion, and extravaganza, for the war is yet
alive in the memory of the people, and the
consequences are yet felt too keenly to tole-
rate such assumption and folly. We have all
along pleaded Tor mercy to the South, have
opposed the proscrptive policy of our radical
Congress, and have argued in favor of re-
storation and harmony as best for both
sections Of the country; but our efforts
become paralyzed by the foolish
conduct Of the Southern fireeat There
was reason for long time to commend the
moderation and reticence of the Southerners.
They seemed to realize their subjugated and
helpless condition. More than once we had
occasion to speak of their prudence and mod
esty, and OF Wade Hampton's discreet conduct
in particular. Even at the Democratic Con-
vention in this city they wisely remained in
the background. But the sudden burst of
rebel and sectional feeling to which we have
referred must tend to destroy the good effect
of all this. Not that there is any fear of
another rebellion. The war was too terrible
and the subjugation of the rebels too complete
to admit of such thought. Nor can the conse-
quences of the war in the destruction of
slavery, in the non-recognitiOn Of the Rebel
debt and in the recognition and payment OF
the Federal debt ever be reversed. All this
has been fixed by the Constitutional amend
ment But we want political peace and har-
mony between the North and the South. We
want the bitterness and evils of the war to be
buried in oblivion. Foreign wars may be re-
membered and commemoTated with satisac-
tion and even to good purpose, like that of
our war with Great Britain, or the war of Inde-
pendence, but not civil wars, and least of all
by the vanquished and those who cause them.
Should the Southern leaders continue in
their imprudent and suicidal course, the first
effect will be not only the election Of the radi-
cal Presidential ticket, but another radical
Congress also. Then the South will lose the
sympathy and aid of a large portion of the
conservative people of the North. Capitalists
will be more afraid of investing their money
in the South than they were before the war
and while slavery existed, and as a conse-
quence that productive and beautiful section
will remain comparative waste. Sectional
1ll-leenng VIII De kept allVe ana increase. IN
all probability local troubles may arise that
will call for or be made the pretext of military
rule, and though the Southern States may be
nominay reconstructed and restored, they
will be virtually under military authority.
Such are few of the evils which must spring
from attempts on the part of the Rebel leaders
to keep up the old spirit of sectional hostility.
The Southerners are not out of the woods yet,
and we advise them to keep quiet. They have
nothing to gain and much to lose by impru-
IDENTIFY keeping alive the memory and feeling
of the war. If Wade Hampton, ToOmbs, and
other Rebel chiefs have not more sense, We
hope the people may show that they have and
will repudiate such blind and dangerous
leaders.
War lnmOcrnts Snenking Ont.