The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-10-17


II an elephant is to pass a river on ice not
quite heavy enough to bear him, he had better
lose tusk than be drowned in the stream.
If we had been badly beaten in the October
elections, we should not think of making these
suggestions. But, in point of fact, we have
grszed the mark which we meant to hit. We
have probably carried Indiana; the Republican
majority in Pennsylvania is bat a few paltry
thousands made up of fraudulent votes, and
even in Ohio the majority of our opponents is
less than sixth part of what it was when
their power was at its height. We feel like a
person who, in lottery, has drawn the next
to the winning number, or the owner of
horse that failed to win the race by half
neck in consequences OF having slightly too
heavy a rider. The vexation of defeat is never
so keenly felt as when success was Just within
grasp.
We have not been beaten in these elections
on the proper issues of the canvass, but by
things quite extraEeous to the public ques-
tions. The military prestige OF the Republi-
can candidate has really nothing to do with
the questions of policy involved, and yet that
has deprived us of more votes than were
necessary for our success in every State. But
this is an element which We cannot eliminate
Another thing which has arrested the tide of
our gains, and has done us far more injury
than the military popularity of General
Grant, is the use that has been made of
some inconsiderate expressions Of General
Blair previous to his nomination. The Re-
publican leaders, who are doubtless good
judges of the kind Of appeals best calculated to
prevent desertions from their party, have
harped upon those expression more than upon
! all other topics put together. They have suo-
ceeded in filling timid or credulous minds with
apprehensions that the election of the Demo-
cratic candidates would be followed by the en-
ployment of the army for the forcible election
| of the negro governments, in a rough Crom-
| vi n ha No nuh thatf fha
American people yearn for peace, and that
nothing could be so fatal to the success of the
Democratic party as belief that it would at
tempt to cut the gordian knot of Southern
politics with the sword. The use made of
General Blar's letter has Of course, been un-
candid and unfair; but what care the unsoru-
pulous radicals for fairness or candorY Enough
has been said to give color to their perver
sions, and in point of fact they have deluded
thousands of weak minds into the absurd be-
lief that the Democratic party is asking the
country to indorse Revolutionary programme.
The mischief of such representations does not
depend upon their being true, but upon their
being believed. They carry an imputation
which the party cannot stand under, and uu-
less they can be in seme way effectually re-
butted we shall again come just near enough
to success to wonder that We failed
This calumny needs to be met by something
more efectual than mere argumentative
ponents slur over or ignore the exposure, and
rehearse again their quotations from the Brod-
head letter. asserting that it was on account
of that letter, and of those particular passages
in it, that General B!air.was nominated. Now
we suppose that any body can easily conceive
of ways by which this damaging libel upon the
Democratic party could be summariy ex-
ploded-so exploded that no more would be
left of it than heap of exploded gunpow-
der. OF the two or three ways ia which this
may effectualy be done, we do not feel called
upon to particularze any; for the indi-
viduals are very few in whose hands the re-
medies lie, and the remedies themselves are
not so recondite as to need any ghost from the
other world to reveal what they are. 1t is
obvious enough what they are not. There is
nothing to be gained by the incessant and
endless contradiction by our party organs of a
cslumny which the Republican organs will
repeat faster than we can priHt the contradic-
tions, which never reach their readers. The
public mind is educated quickly by events,
slowly by arguments. What is needed is
some event, of such nature that no voter
in the United States can ignore it; of such
significance that it can, by no possibility be
misinterpreted. This requires something of
the boldness of great soul, equal to the de-
mands OF great emergency.
A bold maneuvre, after repulse on the
field of battle, has two good effects: it places
the men where they fight to better advantage,
and it keeps up their courage by showing
that their commanders are competent to deal
with new features of the situation. But to
go on charging in the same way against the
same obstacles, as Burnside did at Fredericks-
burg, discovers poverty of resources which
impairs the confidence of the men. repulse
with nearly equal numbers is nothing serious,
so long as they see that the resources Of
their officers are not exhausted.
No Democrat admits that the success OF the
party binds it to use the army to disperse the
new State governments. And as the party
has no such intention, why should it bear the
odium of the damaging imputation3 AS it
contemplates only peaceful and legal modes OF
redress, it is simple justice to the party that
its skirts should be cleared of aspersions
which, so far as they are believed, repel
voters from its ranks. The party, as body,
has no other means of clearing itself of this
injurious imputation than by futile contradic-
tions in its public journals. But there are
individuals who can extinguish this calumny
in moment, and silence it forever. And this
must be done, if We are to win the election.
This is a time for plain talk, and we trust we
have spoken intelligibly enough for those
whom it most concerns to take our meaning.