The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-10-31
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 81, 1868.
Horatio Seymour Now and Then.


masses of this city last evening. He is an
orator of no mean ability, and his speech was
MS calm and fair an apology for his principles
rs could we'll be presented. In truth, it was
characterized by a degree OF calmness for
which we were totally unprepared. Else
where and heretofore, Horatio Seymour has
used the bitterest Of invectives in alluding to
the policy and record Of his opponents. He
has polluted his lips with the most oppro-
brious epithets, and branded the party of the
war and the Union as false to every instinct
of patriotism and humanity. But as the
solemn hour at which the fate of the nation is
to be decided approaches, his rampant spirit
is awed into supernatural calmness, and,
inspired by the great weight Of foreshadowed
defeat, his fire and energy are completely sub
dued. So, instead Of again launching forth
torrent of mere partisan abuse; instead OF
blowing upon his bugle blast that will arouse
his followers to heroic contest over the last
inch Of ground which stands between the
enemy in front and the ditch in the rear, he
mildly insinuates that he has ever stood upon
this same sober-minded platform, and depre-
oates further advance Of the foe. 81 do not"
he says, "oharge on the Republican party that
It designed to do wrong. do not stand here
to teach it. God forbid that should say or
that should think that this great organiza-
tion, dividing with us the population Of the
United States, did not design the welfare of
our country
Very mild words are these from the lips Of
Horatio Seymour, and spoken with deep de-
81 fro, tba fao orI
possess the one who gives them utterance. But
they come too late to avail him in this the
hour of his extremity. The Tammany plat
form, upon which he stands with the most un-
qualified endorsement, is but string of un-
measured calumnies, direct arraignment of
the loyal North upon the charge Of treason,
high-handed and outrageous beyond all mea-
sure when compared with the petty treason Of
Arnold, and Davis, and Lee. The previous
utterances Of Mr.. Seymour himself, from his
speech accepting the nomination which Val
landigham so unceremOniously thrust upon
him, down to his advent upon the soil of Penn
sylvania, are mere echoes OF its pervading
sentiment. Blair, the blatant demagogue and
renegade, with whom Seymour has lnclsAd
arms, and with whom he must stand or fall,
has plainly announced the revolutionary
programme which Horatio Seymour,
man with the highest sense OF honor, is
bound in all honor to inaugurate in case Of
success. 'There is but one way" says Blair,
in his Brodhead letter, "to restore the Govern
ment and the Constitution, and that is for the
President elect to declare the Reconstruction
acts null and void, compel the army to undo
its usurpations at the South, disperse the
oarpet-bag State governments, and allow the
white (Rebe) people to reorganize their own
governments, and elect Senators and Repre-
sentatives." The Democratic press Of the
South, from the New York World all the way
down to the Mobile Register, have re.echoed the
charge of disloyalty embraced in the Tam
many platform, and endorsed the new Rebel
lion proclaimed with such display OF honest
bluster by Frank Blair. The Rebel orators of
the South and the Democratic orators of the
North, from Wade Hampton the unrepentant
traitor who dictated the Tammany platform,
down to Lewis c. Cassidy, the pettifogging
lawyer who dragged the corpse of Mary MOhr-
man into the Presidential canvass, have en-
dorsed the full measure of all that has been
written and printed in support of the resur-
reotion of the "Lost Cause.' And now, in
the faoe of all this, Horatio Seymour pleads
gentle and concliatory spirit, and is willing to
share with the Republican party the claim of
honesty of purpose and the desire to promote
the best interests of our common country. If
Mr.. Seymour fancies that such dull platitude
will save him from the last pointed thrust,
will cause the party of peace and Union to
abate its earnestness and grant him quarter
at the moment of final triumph, we fear-we
know-that he is sadly mistaken.
On one point, more especially, does Mr..
Seymour cry out in his extremity for forbear-
anoe. He holds up the past and points
with pride to his record during the war in this
fashion,
"We implored them to unite the whole North
IN spirit and in policy, by making us all feel we
were Datlllng for The Constitution of our couu.
Try and Tor The U mon which We love. We gave
Them, on the Democratic side, q generous
earnest support In all their measures. Even
when we could not agree with them, some of
as VINO held official positions-eVen when we
thought that policy was Wrong-admltted they
had the right to mark out their policy; and zoe
chee1JUity gaze up our convictions TO e course
hat should 6e taken, and rendered them q generous
support at all periods IN The conduct Of that War."
Now, when We read this paragraph we lose
all patience with the man who has the un-
blushing impudence thus to pervert the truth.
Forced to abandon his old platform of unmea-
sured abuse, he has the audacity to attempt
to make stand upon platform every plank
of which Is rotten with falsehood. The man