The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-01
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF TIKI LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT ToPICs-coMP1LED EVERY
DAY FOB THB EVENING TELEGRAPH.
Threatened Schism in the Democratic
Ranks.


Ranks.
From The N. Y. EUentng ost.
The fact that the opposition to the Republi-
cans is not in any proper sense one party be-
comes more prominent and irrepressible every
day. Great efforts are making TO reconcile
the conflicting elements, SO that the discOrd
may not be ruinous to the Convention OF
Saturday next; but the prospect Is certainly
dim, The differences be ween the extreme
factions that are rapidly taking form within
the Democratic organization are too wide to
be comprehended under any platform, how
ever general, and too important to be consis-
tently represented by any candidate, how
ever obscure.
The men with whom policy and the desire
TO win are stronger than the traditional pas
sions of old party warfare, want to bury the
past and take a new start, with view to liv-
ing questions. Confess openly what everybody
knows, they say; that government by the
people in all the States is a fixed fact, and take
up the cry of State rights in practical form,
adapted to the present condition OF the south
as well as the North.
But these who in 1860 led the party, and in
1861 led she Rebellion are everywhere III the
reconstructed States coming TO the surface
again; and are bent on setting up the old
oligarchy which the war destroyed. General
BuckneT in Kentucky, and Edmund Rhett, in
South Carolina, supported by almost every
man of former importance as Democrat
from Mason and Dixon's line to the Gulf, and
by all that is left of the Vsllandigham band of
brothers in the North, demand that the central
idea of the campaign shall be white mans
government. They even threaten that the
Convention shall be repudiated by the rank
and file, which they profess to control, unless
it shall adopt the bred Scott decision as its
platform. And the latest manifesto of the La
Crosse Democrat, which is unquestionably the
most characteristic organ OF what may be
called the "rng and rOwdy" Democrats
throughout the country, looks as if this threat
might mean something
The fight is go complicated with financial
Issues that the result is doubtful. If the poll
tical question stood alone, the moderate men
would doubtless succeed i'll carrying general
resolutions which mean nothing or anything
concerning negro suffrage. But East and
West are at war ON the greenback question
Now the Southern extreme faction are trying
to win by counting the alliance of the Western
repudiators. Denouuce the negroes bitterly,
they cry, and we will join you for universal
greenbacks. On the other hand, those of the
party who care something for the national
good faith are generally the same men who
object to fighting again i'll political campaign
over the questions of the war. Their case
looks hopeless now. The platform seems most
likely to be dictated by the friends of Mr..
Pendleton, whoever the candidate may be.
That is to say, the Democratic doctrines are
to be anarchy and repudation. Anarchy-foi
this is the meaning of the proposition to trea
as unconstitutional and void all that has
been done by Congress in governing and re-
organizing the Southern States for three
years past. Repudation-for no reader of the
Evening Post doubts that this will be tn,
speedy and inevitable result of rcGiing ire
deemable paper legal tender for the public
debt.
What will the thinking men of the party
doY What will the Democratic press of thu
Eastern States do? What course will be take1
by such papers as the World, which have re-
peatedly and urgently advocated as the tive
fundamental principles of public policy at this
time, the acceptance of the suppression of the
Rebellion, and the maintenance of the nationa
honorH Finding as in the result now mos
likely they must find, that on the really i'm
portant and practical issues of the day tn
Republican party stands just where they stant
and the Democratic party stands in direc
opposition to them, what can they do but sup
port General Grant Unless, indeed, they
follow the precedent set by themselves in 1S48
and again by the now ruling faction in 1860
and secede to support say Chase and Adam
upon platform of their own.