The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-07-12

inc lhJJSI buo hbtu OF
"Iron Duke,
"who never lost an English gun,"
have not yet passed from the memory of men
of the world still living and still equal to
their daily dinner and their daily game of
whist.
''NIen have died and worms have eaten
them" for now goodly number of ages.
Peers have wasted their substance and
usurers have devoured them So too, have
mere republican citizens. 1t is childish, and
worse than childish, to make grave questions
of political organization hinge upon aues-
tions of a strictly social origin.
THE VIRGINIA VICTORY-EFFORT TO
MAKE MISCHIEF.
From the NJ Y. Times.
Two classes of mischief makers are busving
themselves with the Virginia election, with
the view of adapting it to their respective pur-
poses. Democrats are claiming it as Demo
cratic victory, and insisting that it is the
result OF Democratic strength and effort.
Partisans of Wells and the defeated ticket are
denouncing it as the product of fraud, and are
invoking Congressional assistance to arrest
and reverse the action of the people and the
law. Both of these representations are dis
honest. Both are false, as matters of fact
and are conceived in the interest of those who
on the one hand, would frustrate reconstruc
ton, and, on the other, would make it the
Iuedub Ol personal aggrandlZement.
National politics really had little to do with
the contest. Old party names were banished
and every attempt to introduce the mere
political element was promptly repeled by
| the supporters of Walker. Whatever interest
| was manifested by Democrats out of the State
was clearly against the movement championed
| by the Walker party The World of this CITY
labored again and again to persuade the Vir-
| ginians to have nothing to do with reconstruc-
And Y1pb,, it'll, 4.
late Virginia on her superb success, we have
but to turn to its files to trace subtle but not
the less malignant hostility to all plans for
bringing the State into harmony with the
law There were also Democratic politicians
in the State who resisted the ratification of
the Constitution, and urged the people to
dare the General Government to do its worst
The pretense that the Democracy gained this
victory is, then, as hollow as it is impudent
So far as they revealed old party afinities,
they were against both Walker and Wells;
they were against every step that seemed to
lead in the direction of reconstruction The
''superb victory" of which the World speaks
was achieved not only in spite of the sugges-
tions of that journal, but in defiance of the
declared will and purpose of the party it
represents.
The absurdity of the Democratic pretense
becomes still more apparent when the nature
and consequences of the victory are consid-
cred. Had the Walker platform been equivo-
cal, or had the triumph of the Walker ticket
been attended with the rejection of the Con-
stltution, we could have understood the at
| tempt to pervert the significance of the popu-
| lar vote. But the election has settled eyery-
thing precisely as the Democrats desired not
to have things settled. 1t has decreed the
| continuance of universal suffrage. 1t has
invested the negro with political equality.
1t has impaired life to the Constitu-
tlon prepared by the convention held
under the Reconstruction acts. 1t has
| created Legislature whose members are eli
g1ble under the law, and of whose readiness
to ratlfy the fifteenth amendment there seems
no doubt. 1t has chosen qualified men for
| Congress, and has vested the chief offices of
the State in hands pledged to the support of
the Republican policy, and prepared to labor
| IN cordial harmony with President Grant
FINALLY, 1t has dispelled the fear that in politi-
cal affairs race would be ranged against race,
| and has demonstrated the mutual willingness
of white and black to cooperate for com
| mon purpose, and that purpose one which
| commends itself to the feeling and iudgment
| of the country.
If there is anything in this result over
| which Democrats can reasonably chuckle.
| we are curious to know where and what il is
The very measures which they denounce
most vehemently in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and
| Indiana have been sustained in Virginia
The policy they approve, Walker and his
| supporters have repudiated The new Con-
stitution which they have described as a
covenant with death, has been ratified by
majority of forty or fifty thousand; and
| the ratification of the pending amendment,
| which they describe as "a league with hell,
has been assured by the same majority A
more complete Republican triumph could
not be desired. For though national politics.
as such, played only slight part in the con-
| test, the Republican character of the victory
is proved by the results it achieves. An cleo
tion which gives effect to the policy of Con-
gress, realizes the objects contemplated by
the President, and places at the head of the
State tried and consistent Unionist, who is
in cordial unison with the principles and aims
of the national administration, cannot be
characterized otherwise than as Republican
success. The battle was fought on Republi-
can ground, and the modification of defeat
| belongs to the national Democracy as well as
to the proscrptionists composing the Wells
| party.
The endeavors of the latter to weaken the
moral force of the victory by describing it as
the product of political profigacy, aided by
fraud at the polls, are not deserving of re-
spectful attention. They are so manifestly
occasioned by disappointment and defeat that
they will obtain little heed from the country
despatch we published recently reports
General Candy to have declared himself
much pleased at the good order in the cleo
ton, which, from the reports of his officers,
he believed to have been 'as fair as could be
held in any State of the Union We do not
doubt that he is right. From not a single
locality have we seen evidence of violence
or rascality at the polls. The contest was