The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1869-07-31
The Political Situation.

j. w. Forney i'll one of his "Occasional''
letters to the Press this graphically sketches
the political situation of the Republican
and copperhead parties.
The Republican party having routed the
Democracy on every issue, beginning with
the rebellion and ending with the defeat of
Mr.. Seymour, the struggle in Pennsylvania
simple choice between the candidates of
successful Freedom on the one hand and
vanquished Faction on the other. The lat
ter can make no point against the admins
tration of Governor Geary, of Pennsylva-
MIA, or Governor Hayes, of Ohio. No two
public servants can show a better civil re-
cord, rs none have shown better military
record. They have displayed an executive
aptitude and devotion that has made oppo-
sition to them on official grounds an impos-
sibility. They have been faithful to their
duties personally, and have reduced alike
expenditures and debt and have left moth
proved by the election of men like Judge
Packer or General Rosecrans.
In this dilemma the Democrats of Penn
sylvania and Ohio had to choose between
accepting the situation or fighting out on
the 'dead line of the past. And they
chose the latter. They offer nothing to the
voters but a kind-hearted man of wealth
like Judge Packer, and soldier like Gen
eral Rosecrans, whose most notable appear
ance in politics was when he denounced his
present supporters as "traitors." They
cannot better the finances of the two States.
They talk in their platforms about national
burdens and taxes but the only thing Sc
rious in their financial craftsmanship is the
Pendleton remedy of semi-repudiation, and
the British remedy of free trade
But their favorite card is hostility to uni
ment. How characteristic of men who
would not abandon sympathy with rebel
lion after they saw that it was doomed, and
who, so late IS last year, 1865 absolutely
refused to yield to what they could not re-
sist, but chung to the extinct heresies of
the war even after the most of the old Con-
federates were ready to give them up!
l have already referred to the manlier
attitude of the late Southern Democracy.
They are now not only in dead earnest for
universal suffrage and the fifteenth amend
ment in Virginia and Mississippi, but
even in Kentucky they submit to it, and
sensibly prepare for the new relations it
imposes. am now fully convinced that
Colonel Walkers course since the election
in Virginia has committed the rank and file
of his party to these fundamental reforms,
and that his example will be irresistible in
its influence upon the Confederates'' OF
other Southern States. Do not be misled
by the allegation of some of our sensitive
friends that this sanction is given unde,
"duress' of the conditions of the acts o.
reconstruction. These laws cannot reacl
Kentucky !; and yet see how the amendment
is accepted by the leading organ of the De
mocracy of that unconquerable Democratic
Commonwealth. copy from the Louis
vile Courier-Journal:
There is a certainty that the elections
of the coming fall will be the last that vii
ever take place in Kentucky with negro
suffrage excluded. This is a fact that WI
had better look squarely in the face, mucl
rs we may loathe its viSage. Everybod,
knows that, Immediately after the reassem
bling of Congress, the fifteenth amendment
will be declared to have been ratified b,
the requisite number of States and be par
of the Constitution and then all the lie
grocs of this State will be voters, and moth
ing can exclude them from the polls excep
successful war against the United States
and that whether it would be righteous O
unrlShteous, Will hot no attempted.
These views are held by Prominent Dem
ocrats of Kentucky now in WASHINGTON
and are clearly the sentiment of the mart
in the State at large. The sane saeaciou
course is being taken in Marylal,d nv Den,
ocratic papers, and will not J -..-z,-ise
to see even Delaware yieldil TO the cui
rent.
But the Boarbon Democracy of Pennsy,
vania and Ohio plaHt themselves athwal
, the track, and declare that the locomotiv
of enlightened Freedom shall not pass
They are resolved to maintain their consi'
tency. Though the suffrage will inure
= only few thousands of colored men
!, either State, if they can do nothing ell:
u they can make these men their enemies.
MY old friend Asa Packer is said to |
worth ten millions of dollars, and there a
Z many Democratic palms itching for h
greenbacks but if his ten were hundrt
> millions they would not be enough to I
deem party so utterly lost to reason. Ii
= best course, now that his friends ha
4 made fools of themselves another time,
to button up his pockets, take throu!
IL ticket on the Pacific Railroad, and in t
~ :, glorious valley of Yo Semitic contempla
"a the grandeur of nature and the folly
III man. If he stays till October he will he
We some thunder. OCCASIONAL
. For The Cecil Whis