The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-03-03

peTllled, II not entirely defeated.
Knowing the Conscientious efforts that the
PIesident-eleot has made to inform himself
thoroughly upon the workings OF the revenue
service, we are sure that he will at once reoog.
nize-if he has not already done so-the vital
necessity of so filling all the Offices that have
any direct bearing on the collection of the in
teInal tax as to secure q harmonious oo-ope-
ration of the various officers OF the Govern
meDt, in the interests of energy, honesty, and
the conviction and punishment ofthe wretohes
who have for four years robbed the country
under every pretext that crafty and criminal
Imagination could invent.
The New Administration and the Freedm en-.
From the N. Y. Nation.
1t Is natural enough that those who have
been laboring during the last four years to
secure the deliverance of the freedmen from
all legal disabilities resulting from their color
or previous condition should form In their
own minds, and should communicate to the
minds OF others, an exaggerated notion of the
immediate value of what they have been
seeking to accomplish. When the Recon-
struction acts were under debate, it was the
custom OF Mes srs. Stevens, Boutwell,, and
others to treat as sacred not simply their
great object, but also the particular means
they fixed on for its accomplishments; that is,
they put person who was opposed to the
elevation OF the negro altogether in the same
category with the person who was opposed to
their mode of seeking his elevation. Il was,
therefore, with the greatest reluctance they
allowed any body TO debate their various bills.
Out Of pure courtesy" they used OCCASION
ally to give their opponents five minutes, or
fifteen minutes, or, though very rarely, an
hour, In which to comment on their measures;
but they always made the concession with the
angry and contemptuous air of persons whose
and for
of their fellow-oreatures to try to change, and
who were condemned by the silly ussges OF
q corrupt age to listen to wicked men
twaddliDg against the most valuable and
effective reform human wits had ever devised.
It was, of course, impossible to hope for eff
cient legislation from men in this state of
mind. He is no statesman who does not want
to hear his measure criticized by his oppo-
nents, because he is no statesman who is not
more concerned with the question Of making
his measure work than with the question of
getting it enacted; and there is no way In
which the obstacles to its working can be got
at so readily as by hearing what its enemies
have to say against it. Let them be ever 80
| factious, they are seldom 30 discreet as not to
draw attention to its weak points, and betray
| the devices by which they hope to defeat its
practical operation; but the Uorking of the
Reconstruction measures, provided they could
get the House and Senate to give them three
readings and two-thirds majority to pass
them over the Presidents veto, seemed to
give their promoters no more trouble than if
they had received them directly from the
hands of the Almighty.
In this way Of looking at them, too, they
received, unhappily, plenty of support from
portion Of the press. There was not one OF
their foolish predictions and wild threats and
expectations which the New York Tribune
did not hail as pure wisdom. The immediate
Regeneration" Of the South under the opera
tion OF the Reconstruction acts was talked o
as If it were an accomplished fact. Anybody
who was not convinced by Thaddeus Stevens
reasoning, and was not warmed by Mr.. Bout
| wells rhetoric, was set down as a man in
sympathy with Copperheads and eaten up
! with "the sin OF CASTE" II was, in short,
| impossible that legislation undertaken in such
spirit should be wisely executed, however
sound its fundamental principles might be,
and impossible, too, that utterly unreasona
BILE and extravagant expectations should moi
be formed by the public with regard to its
probable results. OF course these expecta
tions have been moderated under the sterI
teaching Of events. The Tribune and Inde
| pendent do not venture now to sing doub
loaded p9an over the Regeneration" o.
| another State every time the news comes tina
a new constitution abolishing discrimination
based on color has been adopted by "Stat
| lately In r6D6llOn.' Attef all That mas nap
pended in Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, Mis-
sissippi, and Virginia, people are less hopefu
and credulous. They see that the regenera
tion Of States as well as OF men comes slo wly
and that it 10 only in poetry that "old form
Of vice and crime" can be rung out, like tn
dying year, by peal of bells; and that, n
matter how noble the theories you may hav
got hold OF, their application to the practics
regulation OF human conduct is one of th
most intricate and difficult problems to who
the human mind can address itself. Notlrin
is easier than to clothe them in bills and rest
lutions; nothing harder than to make who
communities really respect and obey them
their daily transactions.
What made it all the more desirable thi
great care and deliberation should be 81
ercsed in the framing of the Reconstructio
, measures was that any mistakes made in I'll
work were sure to be irreparable. 1t wa
!. useless to hope for the long continuance
y the North OF the temper towards the Soutl
whether black or white, which carried IL
d elections of 1866. II was useless to hope {
5 peneve that the extreme radical men woul
y retain the hold on public confdanca uhiah ~