The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-11


erners. They say nothing about it. II is not
the negroes. As far as they have spoken their
minds about IL at all, they have given every
reason TO believe that IT, at least has nothing
to fear from them. 1t is not the Democrats
1t is true, large portion Of the Democrats
are in favor of Reputation in disguised form,
and just now are putting this idea in the fore
front of their battle, and abuse the "rascally
bOndholdeTs' a good deal. But then this is
after ALL rather harmless work. for two rea
sons: one is that the Democrats ara not in
power; the other is that they are not likely
to be- What Pendleton says on this subject
is not much needed in the money markets of
the world, because Pendleton is well known TO
be a private gentleman, and to be likely to
remain so. Nor are the utterances of the De-
mOcrats in Congress of much consequence; be-
cause they a very insignificant minority.
Who is it, then, that is filling the world
with alarm about the national good faith aud
disgusting and disheartening every body who
looks to the United States for the display, not
simply Of greater material prosperity, but of a
higher moral tone than older nationsl Why,
knot OF arch radicals-men who have bsen
the chief supporters of negro suffrage who
have had more than most men to do with
putting the war through" aud getting peo-
pie to advance money TO carry it On-nOne of
your weak-kneed, weak backed, millz-and-
water brethren but regular "whOle- e-souled,
reliable statesmen, educated up" to the
highest attainable point of ardOr and enthu-
friends of mankind - too, whose per-
fOrmances, could he behold them, would kill
Anacharsis Clootz with envy. There is
Mr.. Benjamin +. Butler at the head
of them; there-we were going to print list
of the names of his followers-but our daily
contemporaries have done il much more eifec-
lively than we could do it. Suffice it to say,
that amongst the names of those who voted
with him last week to cheat the public creditor
of the tenth part Of his interest will be found
those of few men whose ''sOundness" has ever
been doubtful, or who have ever allowed
themselves to lag in the rear when any ''leap-
ing ahead" was to be done. Having exhausted
nearly every extreme except the extreme of
dishonesty, they have fallen back on repuda-
tiOn. The imprscticable and unreasonable
they have begun to find intolerably stupid and
mOnOtOnous, so they are now trying the kna-
wish i'll search of a new sensation.
Moreover, there was an argument in very
common use during the war; which B+ntham
in his "Booll OF Falacies" calls ;the uosci1r u
SOciiS fallacy, and which consists in alleging
that what you say cannot be sound, because
certain persons known to be bad agree with
you in it. This played a very prominent part
in the augmentation of the New York Iri-
buae, and of all that peculiar school of logcians
of which it is the head, and has been constantly
used by them to retute the plainest aud most
sensible opinions upon the questions of
the day. There is no fallacy by which
the voice OF reason is so often drowned, for
it has the great recommendation of being
within the reach OF the meanest capa.
citp. 1t is one of the first weapons which
your thoroughbred blatherskjte clutches when
| he finds himself hard pressed. Daring the
| last three years-though we are glad to see it
is rapidly losing its effeot-it has been con-
| stantly employed to frighten timid or sensitive
men into scquiescence in all sorts of follies.
] HID or bas Crlyy
to concur in your opinions or to take up
! position beside you, i'll order to cover you with
| confusion and destroy all confidence in you
| For instance, when we were arguing against
the return of 2. 7. Barnum to Congress, we
were informed that none of the reasons we
gave for desiring his defeat were worth atten-
! tOn, iuasmuch as they gave satisfaction to the
Copperheads of the Fourth Connecticut Dis
trict.
This being the accepted orthodox logic
however, we hardly expected to see prominent
Republicans ranging themselves with Copper
heads in the House of Representatives in as
saults on the public credit aud yet that is the
spectacle we now witness. 1t is, to say the
least, singular that in the various attacks Mr.
Butler and his followers have been making on
the Tax bill, he has had the hearty co-opera-
tiOn of the Democrats; but what is more sim
gular is that the same persons who did not
think there was time for Mr.. Schenck's tax
| Dill 10 pass, also tulnR JldL the interest
on the national bonds should be ia Xed ten
per cent. What is most singular is, however,
that such doctor in the law as Mr.. Butler
should now make light of the great nOsCitur a
SOcjtS argument as a foolish argument which
has no weight, and impudently persevere in
his evil courses. We trust that some of the
Organs which admire this gentleman, and
consider him pillar of the Church, will take
note OF his heresies, and put in force whatever
course of discipline may be necessary to pre-
vent his giving further scandal, and to correct
his manners and eXcssses.
There is one other argument about which
the present course Of events causes US seriO US
anxiety. We have found no proper name for
it in he ordinary works ON logic, but it on ght
to have one and a good One and we have
cOntrived one ourselves, which We offer with
great ditidence, but which, we trust, will not
be found unsuitable. We propose to call it the
drguue ntum gdudio iHfdtiium-the argument
that you cannot be an honest or good man be-
cause what you say or do reiOices the Copper
heads. This TOO, was fayOTite one with the
Tribune until Mr.. Greeley baed Jefferson
Davis, when it was used against him by
the New York Times in cruel and
indecent manner, and it fell out of use
in Mr.. Greeley's paper. It's ordinary form is
this:-"On Mr.. Is motives we cast no inn
putation; they may be good, or they may be-
bad; but this we do know, that there is not
Copperhead from Maine to California who is
not made happier by what he did last Mon
day." or Tuesday, or Wednesday, as the case
may be. Now, we do not ourselves think
much of this argument. We have known it
to fail and We ourselves never use it, 1t is
too delicate for ordinary political discussion,