The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-12
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF THE LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT TOPIos--ooMPIbED RvBRY
DAY FOR THE EVENING TELEGRAPH.
The Smell Of SnInlnr.

From He ~. Y. IndepeadenL
1t Is easy to see through the pompOus busi-
ness which R0secraus has just been conducting
at White Sulphur Springs. Harboring against
Grant personal grudge of many years stand
ing, he saw q chance for revenge in deserving
the political party of which Grant is the can
didate; and so, on the eve of battle, he sneaks
over TO the enemy. Had he in like manner
skulked away from Stone River into Bragg's
camp, his act would have been more mis-
chievous, but his motive not more dispicabe.
Nominally the Minister to Mexico he has be-
come the minister to the Southern Confede-
racy. Knowing that Grant, as commander of
The army, had an ineradioable distrust of his
character and judgment, and knowing that
under Grant as President of the United States
he could not remain the plenipotentiary to
Mexico for ten days, previous that his only pos
sible political future is under Seymour aud
the revOlutioDists; and he is therefore dill
gently plotting with the leaders of the Re-
bellion to compass the defeat of the RepubH-
can party.
His letter to Lee has a true smell of sui
phur. II is full of the DEVILS suggestions
Think of once trusted leader of Union army
studiously omittipg from his enumeration of
what he calls ''the people of the South" the
six millions of Southern Unionists, both white
and black. He divides the inhabitants of the
Rebel States into two distinct classes; calling
one ''the people of the South" and calling
the other "the poor, simple, uneducated,
landless freedmen, and the few whites who
against public opinion, are willing to attempt
to lead" Such sentiment-disinheritin
fifth part of the whole population of the
republic = is disgrace to its author
Whether man has land or not whether
he has learning or not, whether he has pow
erty or not, whether he is white or not, he
IS still man; and, if he be an American citi-
zen, he is entitled to every political preroga-
tive which belongs to General Rosecrans. To
the Southern Unionist this Union soldier offers
only insult; bat to General Lee-who was the
ringleader of the Rebel banditti, and who.
without exception, is the greatest criminal of
the nineteenth century-he kneels like a
1aWnlng 1atterer, and says:--"I know you are
representative man in reverence and regard
for the Union, the Constitution, and the vel
fare OF the country" On the contrary, the
plain truth is; General Lee is less a lover of
the Union, the Constitution, and the country
than is the humblest negro who carried a
musket for the national defense
In his reply tue willy VIrginian says:-'The
idea that the Southern people are hostile to
the negroes, and would oppress them, if it
were III their power to do so, is entirely un-
founded" But ask the negroes themselves
whether or not the idea that "the Southern
people" are hostile to them is "entirely un-
founded" Ask the washerwomen whom Lee
mas 1ogged, and the waiter-bo whose ears he
has pinched The ''change,' says Lee. sin
the relations OF the two races has wrought no
change in our feeling towards them.S OF
course, it has not Tue ex-slayehotder looks
now upon the freedmen exactly as he once
looked upon the slave; SO that, when Lee and
MS confederates promise to give the same pro-
lection TO the negro in the future as they have
given IN the past, it is 'such protection as the
Vulture gives the lamb-cOyering and devour-
ing him."
The diplomatic correspondence at White Sui
phur Springs was made public simultaneously
with the news of the expulsion of the colored
members OF the Georgia Legislature. This one
act was the fit commentary on those two epis-
ties. Lee is explicit in saying ''The people of
the South are opposed to any system Of laws
which would place the political power of the
country in the hands of the negro race"
Accordingly, acting ON the Irishman's motto -
wherever you see a head, hit it"-the
Rebels already propose, wherever they see
negro, to strike him. The colored members of
the Georgia Legislature had done no wrong
had violated no usage, had overstepped no
limit OF propriety, had transgressed no rule of
decorum; they had simply committed the
ofense of carrying into the legislative halls the
black skins with which God had chosen to
honor their faces; and for this reason, and for
this only, they were expelled
But we like this expulsion. 1t is exactly
to our minds. Nothing better could have
happened. 1t is the Rebellion cutting off its
own head. 1t is the premonitory madness
of those whom the gods mean to destroy. 1t
is already quickening the pulse of the slug
gish North. 1t has added one more to the
many foretokens of Grants triumphant cleo
tion. In fact, it makes us ready to REUTER-
Mrs. Browning's prayer, "Give us more mad
ness, Lord" -a-tle l
DO they Mean TO Lie?
he ~ "