The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-26
The Constitution or Revolution.


Don't be alarmed at this caption, ye who
are afraid to open your mouths SO much as to
chirp, lest radical liars by speech and peu
follow their calling and walow in their insvi-
table mire. This caption is at bottom and
should be boldly pronounced and on top, the
keynote of the struggle for the liberty of the
nation, with usurpers and Constitution
breakers. We say it should be, otherwise the
American people have ceased to deserve to be
free. Tyrants know instinctively when that
period OF emasculation arrives in the history
of people, and the sword and the yoke
are ever at hand to take advantage of
it. Say what you please about taxation,
unheard.of profigaoy in the public expendi-
lures, the infamies of reconstruction, and
that dark catalogue of public sins which will
backen the fame of the radical administrators
of this era on the pages of history, the vital
thread in the tangled web of the times is that
which is resisting the strain of revolutionists
and usurpers upon the liberty of the people.
The Constitution represents that thread, and
all this vast turmoil of energy of mind and
body from one ocean to the other, and from
the lakes to the Gulf, is but the reeling to
and fro of the armies that fight for the liberty
embodied in the Constitution on one side,
and for the power of despotism to annihilate
that Constitution on the other. What sense
is there in fearing to read the word ''revo-
luton" at the head OF Southern Demo-
cratic paper, when for nearly eight years
the nation has been rocking In the throes
OF the greatest revolution OF modern times
Grant and Colfax elected, and the high priests
OF the usurpers assured of power for another
four years, and this revolution against consti-
tutional liberty will have been completed. The
question will then be, shall its hateful fruits
be accepted in perpetuity? win race of
men that has never long submitted to tyranny,
nation made up of the fighting bloods o; the
civilized world, submit to the rule of the sword
in the hands of the Puritan, and agree to have
their rights and liberties measured by the will
of an epauetted soldier aud despotic and law
less Parliament? We trust not and we hope
not. We are not limiting now at another
Southern "rebelliOn;" we are not thinking of
second experiment of secession, and of ar
raging weak section, panoplied only by
just cause, against a stronger oae, armed
with the sword, and strong in numbers and
organized power. We are not dreaming of
making contest upon an issue so false
that one-halt of the friends OF constitutional
liberty will be found fighting against cOnviO-
tion and principle on the side of tyranny. We
speak of the American people, for the cause of
Southern liberty has become the cause of
American liberty. The Constitution which
has been struck down to commit murder on
the States of the South, and TO enslave its
people, cannot survive as divided entity for
the protection of the liberty OF the North
Sweet and bitter water cannot flow from the
same fountain, nor can the same government
dispense the blessings of freedom and the
curses of slavery on the two sides of geo
graphical boundary. It is, therefore, a
common American question. And it is
whether that people will endure any govern
ment that is founded by usurpation upon the
ruins of the political fabric which their fathers
fought for reared, and transmitted TO them as
their most precious Inheritance. That such is
the banquet to which radicalisIn invites them
is too clear for argument. john Quincy Adams
has just fixed the demonstration in the COM
pass OF a nutshell, when he quoted the late
leader of the radical party--ths dead Stevens.
as saying 'there were only two id fools iu
the radical party who held that the recon
struction acts of the Rump Congress we're con
stitutiopal." That Congress has opsuly
cont. ids the Constitution" in the pas
sage Of nearly forty acts. Indeed, it
has become the fashion not only to