The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-07-31
THE GREAT WANT.


tbe state. is eliciting much useful thought.
Tt is unite evident from the expressions of
oninion which we from day to day reproduce
that tbe causes of party demoralization and
defeat in this city are at length understood,
and that the necessity of reorganization be-
gins to be appreciated by those who alone
have power to effect it. The Republican
marty in New York will receive fresh impe-
tus from the moment when the city shall be
freed from the domination of the present
committees; and this reform will not be eff
fected until our country friends take matters
into their own hands, and organize with q
view to the success of great principles rather
than the continued authority of unscrupulous
men.
"What we want, as a party, above every
thing else, both in the city and the country"
remarks the Newburg journal, ''is a little
more honesty among leaders and liberation
everywhere" The truth could not be more
tersely stated. The party in this city has
been run in the interest of combinations of
individuals, who by sheer impudence and
pertinacity, have secured from successive
conventions an Endorsement of their preten-
sions. Of bona .fde title to leadership they
have not particle. Neither by ability nor
character. neither by service nor by the pos
session of popular respect, are they justified
in claiming the prominent positions they
have held. BY persistent bullying and
Intriguing, however, they have contrived,
vear after year. to be intrusted with the party
management, and this power they have used
for corrupt personal purposes. The welfare
of the party has not entered into their calcu-
Iations, The effect of their actions upon the
reputable members of the party and upon the
popular vote, they have not cared to consider.
II has been enough that, invested with the
symbols of party authority they have carried
on a system of bargain and sale; so that while
the CITY Republican vote has steadily de-
clned, their opportunities for carrying on the
traffic in offices and plunder have continued
undiminished.
Now. the ability of these schemers and job
bers to manipulate conventions and promote
their own ends has been in good part derived
from the prevalence of an intolerRnt spirit
They have profted by an inclination to Judge
harshly of the motives and conduct Of every
man who saw passing questions from some
other angle of vision than their own. The
possibility of reconciling varying shades of
opinion with fidelity to the same governing
standard of right and duty, they studlously
ignored. There were differences, and all
who differed with them were wrong-not SIM
ply wrong as matter of speculation or judg-
ment, but wrong in principle and aim.
fashion at once so unfortunate and unjust
had been impossible but for the excitement
of the war period. Nothing, however, could
have been more favorable to the game of
worthless aspirants for leadership, who, by
constantly acting on Horne Tookes definition
of orthodoxy, contrived to fix the stigma of
heresy on every Republican who refused to do
homage to their pretensions. Thus the terms
e'radical" and conservative" in themselves
harmless, were made to signify adherence or
opposition-not to the principles or policy OF
the Republican party, but-to the preten'
Sions of the ruling ring.
The Newburg Journal, therefore, is right
The great want of the party, aside from the
practical details of local organization, is "a
little more honesty among leaders, and tolera
tion everywhere" And there must be greater
liberation or the best guarantee of create
honesty will be wanting. The latter will b,
possible only when the intelligence and char
acter of the whole party are made available
and these will not be available until the i'm
pudent wire-pullers who would constitute
their behests the dogmas of the party, to bC
implicitly accepted and obeyed, without refer
ence to their bearing upon the principles anC
fortunes of the party, are formally deposed
We have seen in this city the most trust
worthy Republicans branded as enemies, and
their accommodation demanded, simply be
cause they refused compliance with the sin
lister requirements of ward politicians, who
care nothing for the party except as an agency
for distributing offices. And the evil will
again and again recur until good sense over
comes knavery, and Republicans arejudged by
their relation to the understood principles
and the legitimate objects of the party-no
by the praise or censure of those who at thi
moment have the management of it's organi
cation in this city.
The time is propitious for a change whicl
is essential to the usefulness of the part
here With the completion of reconstruC
lion, the causes OF many troubles Will dlsar
pear The nomination of Grant made Re
pubhcans unit on national questions, an
the happy progress of the policy he wa
elected to execute is an assurance Of its cor
tinued harmony. Events have obliterate
all that was real in the distinction betwee
radical and conservative" Controversie
which once divided them have eliminated
measures that are satisfactory to all Pr
vailing habits of thought and expression hay
experienced corresponding improvement
The toleratlon that is required locally, alreaC
reigns on national topics. For the first tin
since the war, the main body of the Repub
can press is laboring to Iachieve sectional +
Cancellation by the cultivation of lust al
magnanimous spirit. Among newspaper
the bigots and proscriptionists are a feel
minority. The great maj ority, who have 6
cepted the result in Virginia as satisfacto
and are prepared to welcome similar resu
in Mississippi and Texas, are now disposed
cultivate the most liberal relations. Tole
tion in the largest sense promises to be in
ascendant.
THE QUESTION OF FUNDING II
DEBT AT LOWER INTEREST.
From the NJ Y. Herald
The statement made that great fnan
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