The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-30
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 80, 1869.
DEMOCRACY ON THE RAMPAGE.

So.fv of the recent conventions of the Repub-
Iican psrty of this city were conducted in such
an unfair, disorderly, and disgraceful manner,
that we supposed the climax of partisan ini-
ouity had been reached But the proceedings at
the various Democratic conventions show
that we were wofully mistaken. There was a
still lower deep, and the representatives of
that organization plunged into it headlong
Nothing but murder was wanting to complete
the carnival of contention, corruption, cheat
ing, and crime. The bad and base elements
of the Democracy were in the ascendant, and
if the demons in the bottomless pit had been
unclaimed and introduced into their council
rooms, they could scarcely have added any
thing to the horrors of the scene.
The reporters give vivid sketch of some
of the more striking spectacles. But while a
few of the knock-downs and drag-outs, the
thefts, the frauds, and the whiskyisms are
duly chronicled, the proceedings, as whole,
beggar description, and they may well cause
every decent Democrat to blush with shame,
and every good citizen to shrink with horror
from the thought that bodies of such char
acter shall WELD commanding influence over
the political destinies of Philadelphia.
In former times nominations had serious
meaning. They indicated that the nominees
had good claim to the confidence of the
parties which placed them in the field, and
that they were at least not below the average
of their fellow-citizens in intelligence, patriot
ism, and integrity. But nominations made
by the material Of which the Democratic con-
ventions were composed, prove only that the
nominees have managed to win the favor of
the worst classes of the community, and they
are more of disgrace than an honor. The
day cannot be far distant when endorsements
of this description will be regarded by the
community at large as much better reason
why the men who receive them should never
be voted for at popular elections, than as an
irresistible title to the support of intelligent
and honest freemen.
In the Senatorial Convention the redoubt-
able Sam Josephs withdrew from the contest
at the eleventh hour, but as he publicly
claimed that the convention was ready to
nominate himself, and as he dictated the
choice of the nominee, Alexander J. Dia-
mond, the Democracy have little reason to
congratulate themselves upon the change in
the programme. From Josephs' man Friday
the public can expect nothing better than
from Josephs himself
In their Representative Conventions the De-
mocracy did no better in the districts in
which they possess decided majority. They
have renominated nearly all the members by
whom they were represented at Harrisburg
last winter, and they have thus shown even
less regard for the popular clamor for the
publication of the Legislature than was
evinced by the Republican Legislative Con-
ventions. Duplicate nominations in few of
their districts afford good sign that the con-
sciences of all the delegates have not been
stihed; but the unanimous denomination of
Sam. Josephs shows how little the leaders in
his district care for the welfare of the people.
But the grand scenes of action were the
County and City Conventions, for in these
bodies the entire Democracy of Philadelphia
were represented, and broad field was
afforded for display of their idiosyncrases.
The County Convention consumed the whole
day in completing its organization. 1t re-
quired nice management, bold manouvring,
hard fighting, and desperate deviltry for the
whisky ring to curb and conquer this body;
but its leaders were equal to the task, and they
remained masters of the field. The defeated
President, Philip Lowry, Jr., condenses his
condemnation of the whole proceedings in
card published this morning, in which he
states that, as he was elected three times and
denied an opportunity 60 preside by mob,
he requests that his friends will give ''no
further Acknowledgement to the convention
until honest delegates be permitted to exer-
else their rights" A fitting counterpart of
this statement is found in the fact that the
Chairman chosen was Isaac Leech, one of the
most adroit of Democratic manipulators, and
that his prominent hackers were men equal to
any emergency
In the City Convention the party spur was
piled more actively, and, amid a succession of
wild scenes of disorder, enlivened by terrific
combats and an incursion of a detective Off
Ger in search of a thief, the good work of
turning out candidates went on so bravely
that Duncan was declared the nominee for
Commissioner and Fry for Treasurer. Mr.
Peirsol, the present Treasurer, requested
his friends to withdraw, because the conven-
J tioI, as conducted, was the ''merest farce; "
but their efforts to obey this request were
prevented by downright violence, and they
we're obliged, by main force, to remain help
less witnesses of the slaughter of their favorite
candidate.
Out of evil good sometimes comes, and
even the disgraceful scenes in the Demo
cratic Conventions will serve useful purpose