The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-07-09

honestly or wisely, by DISTINGUISHING and
excluding from public life thou san Is in
whom the whites reposed confidence. Indig-
nation against such an instrument was not un-
natural or unreasonable; but TO be polite or
just it shoald have been discriminating.
The Virginians for time allowed pas
sion and prejudice the mastery over
judgment Not content with resisting
prescription, they also resisted negro suf-
trage, and denounced the policy of which it
is an essential part. They were confirmed
in this course by the Seymour and Blair
canvass, and a belief that the national ver-
dict would decree a reversal of the Congress
sional rule. The election of Grant dissipatel
the delusion, and brought the Virginians to
their senses. They discerned the blunder of
resistance to the Constitution as a whole, and
the expedency of concentrating effort upon
an attempt to purge it of its most obnoxious
features. The ranks of the anti-reconstruc-
tionists were broken, and the more moderate
and practical of the leaders addressed them
selves to General Grant and the Congressional
Committee in behalf of separate submission
of the disability and disfranchising clauses
The President aided the movement, and Con-
gress promptly responded by enabling him to
ascertain the will of the people on the points
involved in reconstruction.
The action both of the President and of
Congress has been amply justified by events
The party represented by Walker accepted
the great facts of the reconstruction policy,
negro suffrage included, as cordially as the
party led by Wells They not only accepted
negro suffrage, but bid for the support of the
colored voters. They not only allowed the
dead past to bury it's dead, but pledged them
selves to the ratification of the fifteenth
amendment as a means of preventing the
revival of old issues They placed at the
head of their ticket respectable and consist
ent Republican, and restricted their choice
of candidates to men available under Fede-
raj and local law. Never were old party
affiliations so utterly destroyed as in this
canvass. Men long famous in the history of
the State as Wings and Democrats, as Union
lists and Rebels, as reconstructionists and
malcontents, were arTayed side by side in
support of Wells or Walker. For the first
time since the war, service to the Rebellion
YVES not pressed as claim for Office, and the
rivalry of party was confined to devotion to
the Union and the administration of Presi-
dent Grant. SO emphatic were the decara-
tions of the public men of Virginia during
the canvass, and so distinct were the utter
ances of the press, that the whole State is
now irrevocably committed to the support of
the new order of things.
The triumph of one set of men or the de-
feat of another set is important chiefly in
relation to the affairs of the State. To the
country the result has a broader and deeper
significance. 1t is marked by the ascendancy
of liberal and conciliatory views, and by the
defeat with the help of colored votes, of
those who counselled prescription and hate.
And it is promise that in due time Missis-
sippi and Texas will tread the path marked
out by the President and join Virginia in
finishing the work laid down by Congress.