The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-21
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EDITORIAL oPNtoGS OF TBg LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURBRET TOPICs--CoMPIJED EVERY
PAY POR EHg EyEEIN0 TELEGRAPH.
The Peal Issue.

The Real Issue.
From The ". Y World.
"Few words ave hes, " wrote Sir Philip Sid
ney to a certain Edward Molineux, secretary
to his father, the Lord Deputy, whom he had
reason TO suspect Of falsehood and base con-
duet; "few words are best; 4 will
thrust my dagger into you" We do not pro-
pose to thrust dagger into the radical SLAM
aerers of the Democratic nominee for the Pre-
sidency. Other times bring other manners.
1t is apparently just as fashionable now as it
was in the times of Sir Philip for partisans to
"pay the knave." But it has ceased to be
falhienable to correct them by thrusting dag
gers into them. We may permit the editors
Of the Post, the Tribune, and the Times, there
fore, to drag out a few more years in the prac-
tce of prevarication and sander. But "few
words" are still best in dealing with them
and we therefore make haste to utter these
few words on q theme which they probably
misunderstood, and which they certainly mis-
represent.
1t is not the World which insists that "Gov-
error Seymour put down the New York riot
of 1868" nor is it the World which AYERS
t'that but Tor Governor Seymour's timely and
energetic measures of help Lee would have
beaten Meade at Gettysburg" These points
are made not 10y the Worid but by history.
Mayor Opdyke, of New York. testifes to the
first; President Lincoln and President Lncoln's
War Secretary, Mr. Stanton, testify to the
second. To question either OF them is to fly
in the face Of history, and to challenge the
veracity of Opdyke, Lincoln, and Stanton.
We have other matters to attend to besides
proving that two aud two make four.
That Governor Seymour did his duty, and
more than his duty, as the Executive of the
Empire State during the great Rebellion, no
honest man, no man worth wasting shot and
powder upon, will ever so much as pretend to
question. Our concern just now is to make
candid and inquiriDg persons understand that
the reason why the radical journals would be
glad to induce the Democracy to waste their
time upon questions which are no questions
at all is simply this, that they go in fear of
the actual issues of the hour upon which this
coming Presidential battle is to be fought out
Their nomination of General Grant is itself a
confession of their terror on this point. The
question which the country is to decide in
November next, is not how the Union came
to be victorious in arms, but how that Union
has failed to be consolidated in peace The
civil war, in which General Grant won his
high rark in the army, rank which as
Charles Sumner, citing the ancient Roman
practice, declares, ought to forever preclude
him from demanding high civil rewards from
his countrymen, was brought to an end three
years and more ago. The choice Of the coun-
try between the Presidential candidates now
presented for its suffrages, and the platforms
be determined, not by any reference to the
ancient history of the now ended civil war,
but by full and minute examination of the
modern history of ''recOnstTuctiOn" since the
war. If all that is claimed for General Grant
as general in the war were conceded, it would
still be plain that he has put himself since the
war into the hands of the radical faction to
whom we owe it that three years of peace have
cost us nearly as much four years of war,
and that the prospects of the country are to-
day not better but worse than they were
when Lee laid down his arms at AppOmattox
Court House in April, 1865. We assal the
radical party because it has thrown away our
victories, demoralized our success, and blasted
our hopes, which, three years ago We're so
glorious and so green. We protest against
the election of General Grant to the Pres-
dency, Just as the people of Great Britain pro-
tested against the premiership of the Duke OF
Wellington when the victor of Waterloo
threatened to become the instrument of
domestic discord and despOtism. The radical
claim that General Grant is fit person to be
trusted with the helm of civil power in 1868
because he received the sword of Lee in sur
render some years ago, is only relatively more
absurd than their other claim, that SChu leT
Colfax ought to be made Vice President
because his grandfather belonged to the boiy-
guard of General Washington.
We live in an age in which great events
succeed each other too rapidly for practical
men to worship tradition or be ruled by recol-
loctiOns. The distress, exhaustion, and disgust
of the nation to-day are not to be appeased by
singing songs over the events of 1865. Every
body is glad to remember that Governor Sey-
nour saved Pennsylvania from invasion in
1868, and that General Grant forced Buckner
to surrender Fort Donelson in 1862 But
Pennsylvania having been saved and Fort Don
elsOn taken, the country has now to protect
itself from the Congressional usurpation, folly
and extravaganza represented by the nomina
tion of General Graut at Chicago. And il
therefore prefers to accept the auguries OF re-
folm, economy, and constitutional good faitl
offered to it by the nomination of Horatio Sey
mour at New York,