The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-07-21
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
Editorial Opinions of the Leading LEADING Jour Journals
Tinon Current Topics Compiled Every
n,y for the Evening Telegraph,

D1FFrCULTIEs OF THE DEMOCRACY.
From the " y. Times
mo Democrats who would adapt the policy
# their party to living Instead of dead
peues have not exhibited much strength in
he State conventions They write sensibly
=, tbe newspapers. In speeches and letters
Ybev declare their conviction that until the
,,artv management be reconstructed by the
Introduction of new blood and new ideas, it
cannot hope for success They insist that
fbe last faint of Copperheadism must be
driven out, the old leaders deposed, and
bosis constructed on which liberal and mode
rate men may honestly cooperate, or con-
tinued defeat will be inevitable. Yet in the
regular party organizations these views are
denied hearing. The dictators crack their
whips. and the advocates of new issues are as
mute as mice. The old wire-pullers touch the
sprinrs and the machinery moves precisely
as when Mcclellan was nominated at Chicago,
or when the Seymour-Blar ticket was manu-
factured at New York.
California Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Iowa
have all had Democratic conventions within
the last few days, and the result in each case
shows that the worst element in the party is
still in the ascendant. The nomination of
Rosecrans proves nothing to the contrary.
The Ohio proceedings must be judged by the
platform adopted-not by the candidate who
dscredits his antecedents by standing upon
it. For the policy enunciated by the four
conventions is substantially identical. And
in nothing is it more decided than in the
avowal of unabated hostility to the general
result which the war and the reconstruction
acts have together brought about. The en-
franchisement of the freedmen is denounced,
and the proposal so to amend the Federal
Constitution as to insure the political
equality of all citizens elicits fierce con-
demnation. BY their propositions on this
subject, the Democrats of these four States
exhibit their adhesion to the 'whte-man's-
government" doctrine. They will not allow
3he negro suffrage question to be settled, if
Jhey can prevent it. They desire to keep it
npen, not only to maintain the old inequality
sn their respective States, but with a view to
Future contingencies in the Southern States.
In Ohio and Iowa the same malign influence
displays itself on the question Of the national
debt 1t is not enough that taxation of the
bonds is demanded, despite the terms of the
contract Their payment in greenbacks is
urged with covert threat that persistence
in any other claim will inevitably force upon
the people the question of reputation"
These items are illustrative Of the general
complexion of the four platforms. They are
not exactly equal in their offensiveness, but
they are nevertheless equally conclusive as
evidence of the unchanged nature of the
Democratic party. Not until the Ethiopian
changes his skin and the leopard his spots,
may we hope for any essential modification or
improvement of the Democratic policy.
How will the young blood of the party
relish this reign of fogydom We cannot
forget the hostility recently manifested to-
wards the latter in many of the States. A
year ago the World reminded its party that it
could not effect victory until the bootless
struggle with fate were abandoned, and new
men, with more liberal opinions, were allowed
to rule the councils. Since then the same
opinion has been expressed in widely sepa-
rated localities. There has been much plain
speaking by Democratic journals In Ohio, In
diana, and Wisconsin touching the stupidity
of the ancient r6giDle and the necessity of re-
Vising the party's creed and. remodelling its
programme Even the Boston Post, whose con-
sistency and ability entitle it to more than a
hearing, has dwelt upon the need of amend
ing the policy to be proclaimed. But re-
monstrauce and suggestion have been equally
in vain. The bigots and blunderers who have
led the Democracy to q succession of defeats
retain the mastery. They have shaped the
action of the conventions to their own ends
They adhere in effect to the ground they
occupied in the Presidential campaigns of
1864 and 1868, and insist that the idols they
have set up shall be blindly worshipped by
the rank and file of the party. Well, the
warning given by the IVOrjd a year ago re-
ground, with the old tactics, and the old
leaders in command, they cannot hope to wiu
Can it be possible that they fight for tradi-
tions merely, not for victory?
The difficulties are complicated by the ten
dency of the course now pursued by the
Northern Democracy to ALLEVIATE Southern
support. Judged by the standards erected
in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and California,
the Democratic party has no longer any
regular allies in the reconstructed States
The negro suffrage to which the Northern
Democrats vo unalterable hostility is being
quietly accepted by the South, regardless OF
former political affiliations. Virginia, which
gave to the Democratic parry whatever
philosophy or principle it ever possessed
has accepted, almost as a unit, the change
which Democratic conventions unanimously
assail, and is, moreover, ready to ratify
the very amendment which the conventions
in question scout as an abominaton. The
same result is already assured in Texas and
Mississippi There, as in Virginia, the De
mocratic party is not heard of and the polio.
which, as party, it here propounds is there
dropped as a rotten and worthless load.
The party, then, has nothing in the future
30 compensate. for present losses. 1t alien
ates support at the North by an obstinate in
rulcation of ideas which had their origin II
5he remote past at the South; and the South
meanwhile, wisely submits to the logic o
events, and unitedly upholds what Democrat
hereabout denounce. For them, as they are
therefore, there would seem to be no resm
Tection.
CRGSUS FOR GOVERNOR.
From the NJ Y. Tribune.
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