The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-10-19

| the advice OF the EUenlng Post with the respect
which we believe it to deserve. Bat in times
| of adversely men sometimes come to their
| senses, and it may occur TO some of the Demo
cratic leaders, without an ungraoious reminder
from ourselves, that they began to lose cleo
| tiOn5 as soon as they ceased to regard the ad-
vice of the Evening Post. If they have gone
from bad to worse during the last thirteen
years, it is a singular coincidence, to say the
! least, that during that whole period they have
| persisted in opposition to our ot-repeated aud
| kindly meant counsels.
| Our present advice to the Democratic lead
| ers, then, is that they nominate, in place of
Seymour and Blair, the two best and most
| popular men now before the American people
| OF course we mean Grant and Coliax. Let the
! Democratic Committee meet at once, as is pro-
posed, and let them nominate without delay,
Grant and Colfax. They can elect these can
didates beyond doubt and thus they will be
able to "snatch victory out Of the jaws of
defeat"
OF course, when they nominate Grant and
Colfax they will abandon their present revo-
lutionary platform; for II would be absurd for
them to attempt to put patriotic, law-respect-
ing citizens upon that platform. We were at
first inclined to advise them, while they were
about it, to adopt also the platform on which
Grant and ColtaX at present stand. But it
occurs to us that they can do better. They
are in great straits; they must do something
decisive, TO aVOlQ most Ul3&SJrOuS alu dis
graceful defeat.
We advise the Democratic leaders, then, to
set to work and improve the Grant Colfax
platform. They would do well, we think, to
add to it clause or section insisting upon
impartial suffrage everywhere, and laying
this down as cardinal point of the Demo-
cratic faith in every State. The Republican
platform means this, and is understood TO
mean it; but we believe the Democrats, hard
aa la xuiSa
stroke If they would say it, in the plainest
and most unmistakable words; if they would
put their party upon this ground in every
State.
Nor is this all. They would do well to in
sist upon the payment of the interest and
principal of the national debt in gold and silver
coin. The Republican platform promises this
too; but in words which, while well under
stood, are yet not so forcible as the simple and
upmistakable words "gold and silver"
Of course, in nominating Grant and Colfax,
the Democratic leaders would adopt the Re-
construction acts; they see clearly, now that it
is almost too late, that one of the things which
has brought them to their present ruin is the
| denunciatiOn, in their present platform, of
those acts. The leading Democratic organ
on Saturday morning devoted a column to an
attempt to explain away the reconstruction
| plank in the present platform and the Blair
letter. But such attemp pts are only a waste
| of precious time. 1t will not do to fling away
! even day of the three weeks which still re.
main before the election; and if Blair is to be
| put away as an impediment, it would be alb
surd to retain his pet doctrine of revolution.
Whatever the Democratic leaders do must
| of course be done quickly; we do not mean to
thrust our advice upon them, but if they re-
iect it they will live to repent their blunder.
1t is not too late yet for them to elect their
candidates. but their success will depend
| l., 1t, 4
Colfox. That is the only card left them to play.
Negro Tactics at the South.
From the NJ Y. Nation.
The appeal of the colored members who
have been expelled from the Georgia Legisla-
ture to Congress for redress, the legal aspect
of which we shall discuss at another time,
suggests some considerations touching the
political and social future of the colored popu-
lation at the South which they and their
friends everywhere would do we'll TO mediate.
Nobody, we feel sure, thinks the election of
General Grant more important than we think
it. We feel satisfied that the preservation oi
order and security-that is of the very basis
on which civil society rests-depends upon
it; the maintenance of the public credit
depends upon it, and the extinc-
tion of the revolutionary hopes and
passions bred by the war depends upon it.
But it will not do to count too much on it. 1t
| will do much, as much as the lawless habits
of the Southern population will permit, to
protect the negro from open violence. We
hope and believe that We shall not, after
Grants election, see, as we have seen lately,
sheriffs heading mobs of ''citizens' to break
up radical meetings. or United States military
officers condemned to death for putting down
riots, by judges and juries composed of the
rioters. But Grants election will not protect
the colored population from fraud and chicane
from the partiality of judges, the laxity or
supineness of sherffs or policemen, or the
indifference or contempt of legislators about
interests which happen to be in 6
greater degree those of the black mar
than those of the white man. Fol
tenn furnishes only one remedy, and
that is the ballot. 1t is folly to suppose thai
hereafter, when the social and political ma
chine at the South has resumed its regular
working, it will do for the negroes to run tt
Congress for assistance in rectiiying defects ii
State legislation or the administration of the
State governments, or to hope that Congress
will interfere. The period of possible Con
gTessiOnal interference is rapidly passing away
In another year the chances are that Congress
will be able to do nothing at the South whicl
it could not do in New York or Ohio. Th'
whole Union will once more have fallen unde
the common rule, and any class at the Soutl
which finds the local government oppressive
or Indifferent 10 its interests-as local govern
ments can always be in hundred ways with
out violating any provision of the State o
Federal Constitution-wi have to seek relic
as any class here which thinks itself op
pressed seeks 1.-THE Germans, for in
stance, under the Excise law-by the use of 1t
votes. That it was the intention OF Congress
and of the Republican party that it should b