The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-03
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
RDIToRIAL OPINIONS OF TIN LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT ToPICs-CoMPILED EVERY
DAY FOB THE EVENING TELEGRAPH.
The Democratic Protest. the Platform OF
the Party.

From he Charleston Courier
The great question at issue is the platform
of the Democratic party in the ensuing Presi-
dental election. That of the Republican
party is well ascertained. About this there is
no doubt or cavil. This boldly asserts the
overthrow of the accustomed and constitu-
tional Governments in the Southern States,
and the erection in their place of pretended
Governments, under the influence of negro
rule, and which owe their origin and existence
TO the bayonet and to force.
The question involved is the very existence
of the Constitution ITSELF and of chartered
liberty. Nor can this issue be disguised or
evaded II is the only point of contest. If
the present false and spurious Governments
OF the South are accepted, then there is no
essential point of difference between the two
parties. Both will then have accepted the re-
suits Of radical usurpation and misrule and
on this point both will practically have ac-
cepted the same platform. The South will
then indeed have been turned over, in spite of
her remonstrance and appeal, to the mercy of
her subjugators and to the yoke now about
her neck.
1t is therefore in this crisis as an auspice of
hope that we recur to the protest of the Demo-
cratic members of Congress, against the SINH
lated bills under which these Southern Com
monwealths are sought to be bereft Of their
Stateship and deprived Of their inherent rights
to representation in the common country and
to the control of their internal affairs.
The Democratic members of Congress are
the true and authorized eXponents of Demo-
cratic principles and policy. And this for the
simple reason that they are the only represen-
tatives before the country of Democratic
constituency. They alone, amid the storm of
passion and prejudice which mas swept over
the land, hold their seats by virtue Of Demo
cratic votes. They are therefore, the real re-
presentatiyes of the popular will of their re-
spective districts, aud OF the rank and file of
the Democratic sentiment of the land.
In view both OF the dangers which imperil,
and the importance Of clear exposition of
the principles which are now at stake, and
which demand a positive solution at the hands
of the American people, this protest becomes
at once matter of interest and importance.
1t represents the opinions OF the whole of the
Democratic party in Congress, without eXcep-
tion. 1t is therefore authoritative. The Ma
tiOnal Convention cannot disregard its utter
auces, without surrendering the vital and dis
tinctive opinions of the organization.
The moment the so-cslled members from
Arkansas, the first presented from the illegal
Governments in the South appeared, the forty
four Democratic Representatives in the House
with one voice protested upon the record against
their admission. They would not even by ST.
lenoe admit the validity of their election, or of
their commission. They spread their objections
upon the record.
Nor did they leave in doubt the grounds
upon which these objections rested. 1t was,
among other things that the Supreme Court
of the United States, the judicial authority of
the country, had held that DEMONSTRATION
acts which had created the military govern
ments, of which these delegates were the Off
spring, to be unconstitutional, the public de-
claration of which fact was avoided only by
the extraordinary and strange device of this
Congress in snatohing jurisdiction from the
court in the McArdle case, when such
public decision was to be made"
We need not 60 further. 1t is sufficient that
the supreme judiciary holds that the "bay0net
made and Congress imposed Constitutions are
of no weight, authority, or sanction" And
that upon this decision made, although as yet
withheld by the usurpatiOns of the radical
party, the Democratic members of Congress
have planted their faith and organization.
They stand proudly, and with the courage
OF a true cause and conviction, protesting in
behalf of the free people of the North, West,
and South, against the right of military
oligarchy, to impose upon the now enslaved
States of the South, other than the consttu-
tional taxes, customs, and laws.
In their own eloquent words, eve protest
against going into the now proposed copart
nership of military dictators and negroes, il
the administration of the Government; we de
mand in the name of the fathers of the Con
stitution, and for the sake of posterity, not iti
reconstruction, but the restoration of tha
sacred instrument, which has been to us all
pillar of fire from 1857 to its present over
throw"
The Democratic members of Congress have
thus laid down the platform and principles o
the party in its ensuing contest. Can the Ma
tional Convention ignore these and live
The Oregon Election.
Jbo