The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-09-29
SOUTHERN POLITICS.
From the N. Y. Tribune

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From the N. Y. Tribune
We have an earnest word for the admins
tration with reference to the military COM
manders and civil aspirants who are continu-
ally boring the White House and the depart
ments, insisting that the President and his
Cabinet shall intermeddle in Southern local
contests in favor of what are termed the re-
gular Republican tickets. We beg that what
we say shall at least be thoughtfully con-
sidered.
We have always understood, but stand
ready to be corrected by the President if In
error, that good general keeps his eye on
the key of the position, determined to be sue
cessful there, though at the cost of temporary
reverses at points of no strategic consequence.
Such seems to us the dictate, if not of mill
tary rule, at all events of common sense.
Now the key of the position in our present
struggle is the fifteenth amendment. If we
carry that, fixing forever in the Constitution
the principle that the rights of all citizens,
whether civil or political, are equal in the eye
of the law, we shall have triumphed, no mat
ter who may be temporarily Governor of
Virginia or of Texas. Let history record that,
under General Grants administration, the
fifteenth amendment was ratified and the
national debt, being in process of rapid re-
duction, was funded in an American consol
at low rate of interest, and that administra-
ton cannot be written down failure. On
the contrary, its wisdom will be vindicated
and its praises resound through coming gene
rations. If, on the other hand we lose the
fifteenth amendment, we are thrown back
upon the old, senseless, bootless, out-of-da
struggle about "White Mans Government
and all the antediluvian jargon that should
have been hushed with the hoarse believing
of the Rebel cannon. We shall initiate the
idolatrous and stiff -necked Israelites who,
after coming in plain sight of the promised
land, turned their backs on it, and wandered
forty years in the stony wilderness
We think that the Dutchman was substan-
TALLY right in regarding as fish all that came
to his net. If Legislature of Texas COM
posed entirely of Rebels would ratify the fif-
teenth amendment, we should make haste to re-
cognize it, and do whatever was necessary to
secure that ratification Mr. Sumner, we in
fer from his last speech, would do nothing
until they had solemnly declared that they
repented of taking partin the Rebellion. This
may be craftsmanship; it strikes us as the
obstinate folly of martinez or child Rati-
flying the fifteenth amendment is the very evl-
dence of loyalty we require, worth any guam
tity of barren professions.
The votes of several States are still needed
for the pending amendments we have stood
by and seen that of Tennessee thrown away,
and will keep silence no longer. 1t was en-
tirely practicable to have saved that State,
even after the insane quarrel which rent the
Republican party; had the administration
been allowed to exert it's influence and power
to that end, it might have secured pledge
from the Rebels enfranchised by Senter that
they would ratify the XVIII amendment. But
it was virtually constrained to favor Stokes
after he was deader than any door nail ever
can be; and the net result of that folly is the
loss of Tennessees vote on the main question
We insist that there be no more of this;
for, as the lean boarder told his landlady
touching her bedbugs, 81 really haven't the
bic cd to spare" We have nothing to say as
to the preference of any Texas voter for
Davis over Hamilton; that is his own affair
altogether. If Davis shall be elected, very
well; but if the administration is made to
remove and appoint Federal officers in his
behalf, and thus exasperate the Hamilton
party so that good part of it shall be set
against the XVIII amendment, and if that
party shall triumph, maugre all the efforts
made at Washington to defeat it (Which are
just as likely to help as to harm), and the
vote Of Texas for the amendment shall thus
be lost, why then we shall protest against the
lmpolicy that finds favor in high places as
little short of idiotic.
We repeat that the decisive triumphs of the
administration, if triumph it shall, must be
the ratification of the fifteenth amendment
and the funding at low interest of the national
debt. Whoever favors the fifteenth amend
ment is virtual supporter of General Grant.
and, without suspicious scrutiny of his motive,
should be welcomed and treated as such. A
government cannot afford to narrow the plat
form ON which it stands, nor to count no one
its friend who does not love it for itself alone
Men rule IN our day by virtue of their common
sense, and cannot long rule in defiance of it