The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-18
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EpIroB1AL OPINIONS OF THE LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CuRBBNT TOPl0s-coMPILED BvERY
BAY PoR THB EVENING TELEGRAPH.
0DemocrncY is Revolution"

did not understand his platform. He Is a asnreWu
than ordinary political sagtoity; ne kn.W
perfectly well, when be declared hlmseil IN
favor of military interfeien with the southern
States that he was appearing } the con Vtctious
of the Democratic parry, ls came " 2 tnen nts
rendering IL, snd Offering 70 join n dishOnOred
conspiracy, that he could tiud welcome aud
adygu cement We have seen wnat u resO-
lutte but pu rposeless man like Johnson could
do IN distTacting the nation. with Blair
as President, or rather with the party he
represents in power, with friends in Congress-
and Senators like Fessendeu and Trum'
bull and Henderson, 10 the perpetual agony
of pleas and statutes, he could WIN impdnliy
assail the Work OF reconstruction ana oruer uIs
military cOmmanders to dlsperse the Leglsia-
here? We remember that the restoration OF
the Bourbons brought worse feature OF B lur-
fiou of Democracy means the reSuscitatinn OF
the slave power with the strength OF anger ana
fuences of property. There is nothing 'sittve
in the Democratic policy but vengeance and
tative of that feeling, The party has no BY M
patby with any iment OF progress sret It 3Ss fSs
every tTiumph.-N Y Tribune.
The Tribune permits its partisan heat to
carry it beyond the limits of can1Or. Ii what
has been done in the South is right, it ought
TO stand; not otherwise. To prove that it is
not ripht we can cite a witness to which the
Tribune cannot consistently objsct-the Tri-
Dune itself. But it is necessary to 60 back
some eighteen or twenty months.
Shortly before the assembling of the Lsgis-
lature which elected Mr.. Conkling to the
United States Senate, there was good deal of
floating talk which connected the name OF Mr..
Greeley with that position. With the coyness
which marks his conduct on such occasions.
Mr.. Greeley made his preparations to spend
that winter lecturing in the West, and avoid
the appearance OF taking an active part
in pressing his own claims. Shoatly
before leaving he printed in the Iri-
buae a striking and memorable article
which placed him in pronounced autagonism IN
to his own party, and which, he must have
been conscious, extingushe1 whatever chances
he may have had of election to the Senator
ship. We allude to these facts because it is
fair to presume that what was written on
such an occasion, was written with the utmost
deliberation, and expressed the settled con-
Vction of the writer
Mr. Greeley's election to the Senate was
made impossible by his proclaimed dissent
from leading features of the policy of the Re-
publican party. Nor was it merely on that
occasion that he set forth his dissent. The
views he then expressed had been again and
again presented in the Tribune, and part OF
them were su Osequently reiterated on an Oc-
cason even more mem0rable-in rep-ling the
assaults of his party for signing the bail bond
Of Jefferson Davis. We do not see how he
can reasonably object to much of the De-
mocratc platform as comedies with his own
Well-kDown and unrecanted opinions.
His creed, habitually condensed by himself
into the brevity OF a motto, was "Universal
Amnesty and Impartial Suffrage" He
monstrated with great force of argument and
headstrong fervor against the impolicy aud
what he then REGARDED as the futity, of ex-
cluding the leading citizens of the south from
active participation in the politics of their Sec
tion. He did not think it essential that all
the negroes should vote, but only such part
of them as should be found to possess
reasonable qualifications of intelligence. We
need not say that this was quite a different
scheme from the actual Reconstruction policy
which the Republican party now ask the peo-
pie to indorse. 1t condemned not only the
revolutionary reconstruction policy which has
been executed at the point of the bayonet, but
the proposed constitutional amendment which
preceded it; the sO-called fourteenth amend.
ment being inconsistent with Mr.. Greeley s
principle of universal amnesty. We need not
point out in detail how his views clsshed with
the policy Of his party; his sacrifice of his
chances to be Senator, and the bitter obloquy
he encountered, sufficiently attesting the col
lision.
Now, with what consistency can he denounce
as Revolutionary" an attempt to undo what,
in his opinion, ought never to have been
done In his opin on, the disfranchisement
of the leading Southern whites was an unwise
to its reversal 7 ln his opinion, the security
OF the negro race did not require that all o
them should vote, but only those who are
qualified; why then should he regard as
calamity the prospect of restoring things to
the basis which he imself proposed as set
tlement of our difhcultiesH
The success of the Democratic party in thu
coming Presidential election would practically
carry out Mr. Greeleys policy of universe
amnesty. This would indeed be a ''revo
luton in the sense of undOing the pro
scriptive policy of the Republican party; bu
as that proscriptive policy was wrong, VIII.
should Mr.. Greeley regret the triumph OF
principle for which he has SO strenuousl.
contended, and has encountered so much OBJ
loquyY AS, by his own showing, his party
made mistake, why should not the mistake
be rectifed in Obedience to the sovereign wi
of the American people 1t would be a strang
doctrine, indeed, that nothing is ever to b
reversed which an unscrupulous and mpetu
GUS faction, in temporary possession of power
may choose to decree. And If the mistake
proscriptive policy of the Republicans in retei
ence TO the Southern whites may be properl
reversed, why not also its mistake of admittin
all the negroes sat one fell swoOp" to the ele'
tive franchise The care with which the ITlbm
Disseminated between impartial and uaiverst
suffrage, advocating only the former, may /
taken as proof that the reconstruction polio
OF Congress is wrong and the sovereign pei
pie may as freely rectify the errors of the
transient rulers as exercise their sOvereignt
iu any other way. The reconstruction mei
sures have never yet been pronounced upo
by the people; and II the unauthorized acts {
their representatives. are not subject to rev
sion and reversal, the responsibility of repre-
aNaNi