The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-12-22

IOrleB Inc bJhJe Oh InlnSS WHICH IL sup
posed to give Il fair chance to every mau,
however humble his position, is really used
for the benefit of his superiors through cum
ningly devised system of log-rolling and wire
pulling. The State is apparently governed
by universal suffrage, and in reality, by
railway company, or two or three overgrown
mllionaires.
HAMILTON FISH KILLING THE RE.
PUBLICAN PARTY.
From the NJ Y. Sun
It seems a singular thing that Hamilton
Fish should be able to kill the Republican
party. He was never a leader in it; has never
influenced its opinions or its policy; could
not command its votes for any office what
ever, either in the ward, the county, or the
State where he lives; has absolutely no stand
ing as a Republican beyond that of any re-
spectacle private citizen; and could never by
any possibility have been elected President:
and yet at this moment he sways the power of
the Presidency, and is using it TO kill the Re
publican party, And if he is allowed to CON
tinue, that party will soon be so dead under
his hands that no miracle can ever bring it to
life again.
OF course General Grant did not intend any
such result as this when, instead of selecting
his Secretary of State from among the known
statesmen of his party, he chose that official
sents, and conferred this great post of autho-
rity and honor upon played-out politician of
q past age, man OF very limited intellect
and much wealth, without influence or follow
ing among the people, and without any claim
whatever to such distinction. Thus if Gene
Ial Grant had not put Hamilton Fish in a
place for which he is utterly unqualified, Fish
could not have destroyed the party by leading
Grant into the black and damnable crime Of
making the United States an active ally of
the basest and cruelest Of European despot-
isms against an American people struggling
to be free. The final deed which destroys
the Republican party is Fish's but the
ability to do 1T was given him by Grant.
If, instead of submitting his mind to the
direction of Hamilton Fish, the President
had chosen for his Secretary of State some
statesman of earnest patriotism, disinterested
wisdom, vigorous character and American
instincts, such as John A. Rawlins, for in
stance-we prefer here to mention the dead
only-his policy would not have been on the
side of Spanish despotism and the slave
trade, but on the side oG freedom and of Cuba
the administration would not have been
placed in the attitude of enforcing the neu-
tralty law when it operates against freedom,
and refusing to enforce it when it would
operate against slavery; the gunboats would
not have been allowed to 60, and Cuba would
be safe. But more than this, the message,
instead of shambling argument in favor of
Spain from the pen of Hamilton Fish, or his
son-in-law, the Spanish lawyer, would have
proposed the recognition Of Cuban indepen-
dence and the formation of an alliance
offensive and defensive with that infant re-
public. This would have electrified the coun-
try, and would have given to the Republican
party new lease of life. The Spaniards and
the Democrats alone would have been dis
appointed; the former because they would
have lost without indemnity the rich colony
they have so long oppressed and plundered;
the latter, because they would have seen the
greatest American question of the day appro-
priated by their opponents, and made the
basis of a generous and noble party policy,
destined to prevail for many years to come.
Such was the opportunity held out to the
Republicans, but Mr.. Fish-this Republican
of favor and accident-has not only crowded
the party away from it, but has even com
PEELED it to enlist in the hateful work of
forcing an odious and disgusting European
despotism upon that fair and friendly island
at our very doors, and of establishing sla-
very and the African slave trade where they
have been effectually abolished! No wonder
that under this revolving and shameful pro-
cess the party whose fate he thus accidentally
dictates is gasping in its death throes, and
unless it is freed from his control must soon
give up tho ghost.