The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-12-17
sF1R1r OF r1zn PRESS.
Editorial Opinions OF the Leading Journals
Upon Current Topics Compiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph
THE CONGRESSIONAL PASTIME OF
MOOKING THE DEAD.

FT0Hb JHe ~ \ . Tunes.
In our public life custom prevails which
is very little to our credit. 1t has apparently
not been borrowed from any other people,
and, 80 far as we are aware, it has never yet
been borrowed from us. 1t consists, in the
first place. of proclaiming war to the knife
against the man who happens to diverge,
though ever SO slightly, from the regular party
lines. He may have been an eminent leader
of that party, and have rendered it dis
tingushed services in days when enemies we're
powerful and friends but few. He may
have spent long lifetime in contend
ing for the principles which it is the lot
of younger men to embrace only when the
hardest part of the battle is over. But should
he hesitate or refuse to commit himself to
some particular measure of which his judg
ment disapproves, all his past life counts for
nothing. His actions are misrepresented, his
motives blackened, his honor assailed. The
people are called upon to cast him out, and
il becomes dangerous to raise even voice in
his behalf The mark of Cain is set upon him.
Presently he dies and another popularity
of our customs comes into play. We pro
ceed to ''do him Justice" Whenit is too late
to in lure him any further, we magnanimously
resolve to tell the truth. If he happens to
have been in Congress, his colleagues whose
tongues were lately full of venom and gall,
rise in solemn order, one after another, and
honor. Each enc tries to outdo the rest in
praising the man who a few weeks before
was bitterly slandered. There is no trace of
shame in their countenances. There is no
remorse mingled with the mawkish sentimen-
taity of their schoolboy addresses. They
act like performers in show, as if they had
been hired to mock the dead with flattery.
The howlers at an Irish wake are at least in
earnest for the moment. But these funeral
fhn,z ho1 bon
while yet the object of their euloges were
alive, it would be possible to respect their
candor. But first they hunt man into his
grave, and then hypocritically proclaim their
grief at his loss. They defame his life, and
call it PREPARATION to fling few artificial
flowers on his coffin. Surely, of the two, the
incense burnt after death is more offensive
than the dirt cast at the living.
Most of us can Judge for ourselves what
Mr.. Fessenden would have thought of the
speeches made on Tuesday by Senators who
had pursued him to the end with implacable
enmity and rancor. Can we forget the foul
calumnies which were heaped upon him when
he deolined to go step by step with some who
now heap praise upon his memory? He
knew how uni just the accusations were, and
his accusers knew it too-but the barbed
arrows struck, and the poison must have
fingered in the wound. A man of high
principle and feeling is very sensitive of
his honor, and when he is slandered is
it supposed that he does not bleed
inwardly? Is it imagined that the loud
shouts of detraction and malice do not come
laden with sorrow to him in his own cham
ber? Senator Sumner now tells us that Mr..
Fessenden was imam of perfect integrity
and austerest virtue that she was inacces-
sible to those temptations which in various
forms beset the avenues of public life"
Senator Morrill, praises his ''disin-
terested devotion to worthy ends and
aims" Senator Williams declares that
''he was invariably above suspicion" So
runs the chorus of adulation; and it was but
yesterday that shameful reproaches were
pouring from Senators and partisans on the
same man. Is there no conscience remain
ing in politicians? Has it ceased to be dis
honorable to traduce innocent men, and only
to avow that they were traduced after their
deaths2 To plead for justice to the living
would be idle. But is it not an indecent
spectacle to see men, who aspire to be called
statesmen pretending to weep over the
grave of one whom they wilfully and wan
tonly assailed when his estimate of duty diff
fered from their?
A CHANGE IN THE STATE DEPARTMENT
DEMANDED.
From the NJ Y. Sun.
This country, standing in the light of its
experiences during the last ten years, ought
to be tho foremost nation of the earth in the
cause of popular freedom and representative
government Especially should it be the will
ing and courageous champion of these inte-
rests in the Western Hemisphere But, so
far from meeting the public expectations,
and performing its duties in this regard, it
abandons Cuba, and thus falls far short of
emulating the brilliant example set by the
Government forty-five years ago, when the
other colonies of Spain on this continent were
struggling to achieve their independence.
Then James Monroe filed the executive
chair; the Secretary of State was John Quincy
Adams; and the Senate Chamber and House
of Representatives echoed with the logic of
Benton and the eloquence of Clay Then
the United States, though comparatively but
feeble power, assumed an attitude in regard
to these struggles which commanded the re-
speot of all Europe, and finally compelled
Spain to relax her hold upon most of her
Transatlantic possessions.
Now our cowardly aud inconsistent course
on the Cuban question excites the surprise
and will soon evoke the contempt of Euro.
pean powers. Spain no doubt is amazed al
the facility with which a lawyer whom she
hires, and who is only son-in-law of the Sec
retary of State, is able to control General
Grants administration; while England
though gratiied to see us abase ourselves at
the feet of one of the weakest despotisms o
Europe, must wonder at our folly; for sh
knows that the anti American conduct of tn
administration in the matter of Cuba will
enure greatly to her advantage wheneye
General Grant and his Secretary of Stat
shall muster up courage enough to pro
pose to reopen negotiations on the Alabam
question.