The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-28
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF THE LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT ToPIos-CoAIPILED EVERY
DAY FOR THE EVENING TEIEoRAPH.
pEMooRAT1c SIGNS OF THE TIMES.


We have recently more than once pointed
put the evidences of q movement in the ranks
Df the Democracy based upon demand LOT
new leaders and new issues We have SHOWN
by citations from the Democrauc press Oh
California, Wisconsin, and Indiana, ana nota-
bly from the Cincinnati Bnqurer, that there
il discomfort with the management OF the
partv and with the disposition of the leaders
To make tradition the standard of party faith.
THESE manifestations of discomfort are mainly
confned to the West; they are incidents of
tbe vigorous growth which points to the
future. and which chafes under an Eastern
control that lives but in the past.
Evidence now appears to prove that the
echoes of the lusty protestations of the West
have reached the recesses of the Democratic
sanctuary. The oracles here and at Boston
have spoken in terms which indicate the sig
nificance of the Western outcry, and the diff
rulties that will be encountered. by the party
in the preparation of its next programme.
Thus the World revives the mild remon-
strances which it uttered Just twelve months
ago, but which it suddenly laid upon the
shelf when Seymour and Blair were nomi-
mated 1t then insisted that unless the
Democracy recognized reconstruction as an
accomplished fact, they could not hope for
hearing from the country The party lash
Squelched the rebellious suggestion, and for
months past the pen which indited it has
been busy in the opposite direction The
Western revolt has once more inspired the
World with courage to com plain, and now we.
have it delicately limiting TO its party the
expediency of accepting the situation" and
AS we understand it-counselling that re-
construction and negro suffrage be regarded
as settled questions. Again our contemporary
reminds its associates that an extreme policy,
of the kind embodied in the New York plat
Form of July last, involves inevitable defeat,
hnd that it is idle to talk of victory at the
South until negro votes be alienated from the
Republicans.
Still more suggestive is the language of the
Boston Post, time-honored and consistent
champion of Democracy pure and simple.
The World has before now been suspected,
ind its words may carry little weight. But
fhe Post is redoubtable exponent of the
Democratic gospel, and what it proposes will
DE to many law. When the Post, then, de-
rlares that ''the negro is out of the fight, :"
and that all issues relating to him have been
s'swept away by events, we must conclude
That the world of Democracy does move,
after all. "Only the present and the future
remain, saith the same oracle and to profit
by either, the party is assured that it must
30 conduct itself that the suffrages of
"'reasonable and moderate Republicans" shall
be .''won over to the Democratic standard"
The injunction is sweeping. The musty lore
Al. Stephens and the Bourbonism of r. M. T.
Hunter disappear before it as completely as
does the dogma dictated by Blair to the New
York Convention. The party must start
afresh, it is told by the Boston journalist, or
1t may give up the ghost. No more nonsense
about relics or the ancient landmarks;" a
fresh and rational programme, or defeat in
Ohio, Pennsylvania, and wherever the old
game is played.
But will the great men of the party listen
TO these counsels? VIII the influences which
had expression in the nomination of Seymour
quietly yield to the influences which were on
the side of Chase is it probable that they
who have hitherto moulded and managed the
party will make room for newcomers who do
not worship the memory of jefferson or swear
by the Virginia or Kentucky resolutions !?
These queries the Boston Post does not
attempt to answer; it is modest, as is it's wont,
and timid, as well it may be. The World
is bolder and more sanguine. ''All the signs
of the times, it declares, indicate that the
Democratic party, instructed by experience,
sYill not repeat that unfortunate blunder'' to
wit, the blunder of the New York Conven-
fion. But year ago the same newspaper in
sisted that the convention was sure to act
wisely; and after the blunder had been perpe-
Grated our contemporary contended that it
was not blunder at all, but rather display
of political sagacity. A sincere respect, then,
does not hinder us from doubling the inter
probation of ''thesigns of the times ON which
the Worlds prophecy altogether depends
For where are signs of the times indica-
tive of radical change in the policy of the
Democratic party? Where are the signs of
an advance by the party on the questions OF
reconstruction or negro suffrage? Where
the tokens of its acceptance of reconstruc-
tion as finished work, or of political equality
rs a result of the negros citizenship? We
confess that for signs and tokens of this
sort we look in vain There are Democrats
in all the States who say, with the Boston
Post, that ''the negro is out of the fight, an(
would reconstruct their party accordingly
But we have yet to discover the first proof
that in any State the party, as such, so ac
cepts the situation. When the Democratic
Convention of Ohio, or Pennsylvania, o
Wisconsin boldly abolishes the negro as
text, and boldly promulgates platform ol
which any reasonable and moderate Repub
lican" can by any possibility stand, we shal
begin to think that the movement which ha
extorted recognition from the World and tn
Post may ultimately bring the party under tn
dominion of reason. At present, the leader
tyenerally, North and South, worship thei
idols as devoutly as though nothing particula
had happened; and we expect soon to behol
Them re-enacting the unfortunate blunder
of the New York Convention, with all thei
Dldindifference to consequences.
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