The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-25
SPIRIT or THE PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF THE LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT ToPICs-ooMPIIED EVERY
DAY FOR THE EVENING TELEGRAPH
THE RHETORIC OF RECONSTRUCTION.


Nont the NJ J.. World.
The politics of Tennessee, as they are now
conducted, furnish beautiful testlmonlai TO
The merits of that policy OF radical recon
struction of which they are the ripest fruits
With the view of enlightening persons not
exposed to the blessings OF reconstruction
upon the practical workings OF that boon OF
benion Congress, the World yesterday pub
lished n report of the canvassing which is now
in nrooress between the rival candidates for
the succession to the courteous and Christian
Mr. Brownlow in the Governorship of Ten
nessee. 1t is a melancholy pleasure to ascer-
tain. from the manner in which Stokes and
Senter carry on their oratorical projection of
mutual mud, that, whichever of them succeeds,
the Office will be filled with all the gentleness
and all the dignity with which Mr.. Brownlow
illustrated its incumbency.
There does not seem to be anything to
choose between the persons of Messrs. Stokes
and Senter, and quite as little between their
politics For, as in Paris in the height of the
French revolution, as its greatest historian
has described it to us, 50 now in Tennessee,
there is no distinction of patriot and unpatri-
otic, but only of the limited patriot and the un-
limited Both candidates lay claim to bound
less locally, and the endeavor of each is
to discredit the loyalty of the other, with
nearly equal success Both these spotless
loyalists have disgraced the service of the late
Confederacy-Stokes in a military and Senter
in civil capacity--and the aim of each now
is to establish what is almost self
evident proposition, that his adherence was
of very small benefit to the Confederate cause,
as well as to show forth the loil works by
which he has proved his repentance of that
political sin. We blush to say that Senter is
at present the more conservative of the two,
although, if their positions were reversed, we
would be forced equally to blush In saying
the same of Stokes. But Senter is conserva-
tive in wishing to exclude negroes not only
from the polls, but from the witness-box
The arguments which he adduces for this lat
ter deprivation can only be fifty weighed
when It is given in his own lofty language:-
"What have we come to when 1t is gravey pro-
white man. Think of it A buck Niger, with his
as apancake, and his heels running so far behind
that they would hold bolt OF calico; such thing
coming up to swear away the life OF a white man!
Why, it's too preposterous to talk about"
From this fragment the rest of Senter's
speech can be conjectured. 1t devotes itself
to great deal of scurrility about Stokes
what the papers friendly to Senter call
''scathing exposure" of Stokes-a great deal
of clumsy but heartfelt panegyric upon Sen
ter, and touching compliment to the audi
ence upon the prevalence of clean linen and
shaven faces which the orator remarked
length, although not exactly with extreme
JUNCTION, on the bald head of Mr.. Stokes, the
badness of which appears to the mind of Mr..
Senter to be conclusive reason why MIR.
Stokes should not be elected Governor of
Tennessee.
1t would be impossible to excel Mr.. Senter
in the peculiar rhetoric in which he enwraps
his thoughts; but what man could do in
that direction Mr.. Stokes undoubtedly did.
Before beginning his remarks, he picked up
the pitcher from which his predecessor had
been imbibing what purported to be water,
but what the disgusted shifting of Stokes pro-
claimed to be spirits, and nobly cried
''Take this away Take it away! 1 want
water!" The heat of his subsequent criticism
of Senter betokened that he did. Stokes ad-
mtted that he had bought and sold the
colored brothers whose votes he was then
having the honor to supplcate; but he hurled
back with scorn the charge of Senter that
he had sold the last negro sold in Tennessee,
and proved how, although he had offered
him for sale, the market was so dull or the
negro so essentially unmarketable that sale
of him could not be effected and he was
therefore left on Stokes hands to receive the
blood-bought boon of freedom. And if he
had been Confederate officer, was it not q
notorious fact that Senter had been Confed-
crate legislator? And if he was bald, was it
not fagrantly obvious that Senter was
fat -? Without assuming to decide, in the
abstract upon the relative degree of his dis
qualification wrought by badness and by
pinguitude, Stokes continued to affix a
special stigma to the pinguitude of Senter:-
"How came he fat? Why, he had set back on his
sofa during the war; and done nothing. Why didn't
ne go into the army and relieve himself OF his fat
ness? The army was good place to get fat off,"
We have given this outline of the great
questions in dispute between the two parties
which divide the State of Tennessee, as stated
by the chosen champions of those parties, foI
the purpose of showing what state of things
that reconstruction which has had
longer and fairer trial there than in any
other State, and which was to inaugurat(
a reign of higher and purer politics
to the South and to the counry-ha
actually resulted in. What a descent it il
from the politicians of an earlier era
from Andrew jackson and John Bell-nay
from Andrew Johnson-to this blackguar(
Stokes and this blackguard Senter From
the decent discussion of national measures
which prevailed in that era to the nasty SQUAD
bles, the low buffoonery, and the sickeninG
demagogy OF those hungry camp-followers o
Congress, how vast an interval it is Ye
Stokes and Senter are the ripe consummatt
flowers of the same rank vegetation which is
in the blade or in the germ, throughout tn
South, and what we now see in Tennessee w
may look in the fulness of time to see wher
ever the seed of Congressional folly has bee
sowp. A6sH omen.
AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES.
From the NJ Y. Sum-
The controversy carried on in our column