The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-01

~. =.
The ~ Y. EUening Post after two weeks
heditation, finds that it is dissatisfied win inc
Srounds of encouragement for the Democratic
Sarty set forth by The World, and thinks any
party is in a bad way for whose prospects noun
ing better can be said. We copy rev lines
from thePOStS long article
ssBut the eprospects Of the Democratic party deserve
to be considered on broader ana % uet gaU1s gau
cations which divide the suffrages OF the countryi
maintain t no matter what changes may come over
our politics. and desire to win power not as parts OF
some new political combination put as asa the ne od
Iectyeness of their system Of organization, make
their prospects Of success OF interest to the country
All that the World professed to do in the
article to which the Post takes exception, was
to enumerate some of the recent signs of the
times favorable to the Democratic party. mer-
chant may employ himself usefully in looking
into his books to ascertain the gains OF the pre-
ceding month; and it would be ridiculous to
represent the result of such an examination rs a
complete statement of his assets and the soidity
of his credit. For the first two or three months
after the Presidential election there was luu, a
sort of political torpor; both parties waiting and
watching with bafied curiosity speculating
upon the policy of General Grant and the
composition of his Cabinet. The President
elect was such an lnscrutable sphinx, and
the politics of the immediate future depended
80 much upon what sort of bird might be
Matched from the unchipped egg, that the public
Judgment was kept in n state of suspense until
after the Inauguration. 1t is absurd TO pretend
that the Republican party had not a heavy stake
in the success of the new administration. When
the first two months had developed nothing but
q succession of blunders-blunders so egregiOus
that honest Republican journals, like the Chicago
Tribune were constrained to cry aloud in tones
of depreciation and warning-it seemed natural
TO post the new entries into the political ledger
and estimate their effect on the balance as IL
Stood at the date of the last settlement. The
World accordingly collected and summed up
several of the new items, and made it apparent
enough that they were favorable to the future
Success of the Democratic party. Thus far, General
Grant has disappointed the hopes and belied all
promises and predictions of those who advO-
Gated his election. His mistakes and weakness
are fatally damaging the party by which he was
chosen The discredit into which the new ad-
ministration is falling is an advantage to the
Democratic party, because it will cure multi
tudes of honest citizens of the hallncnaton
under which they have been labOring, and open
their minds for a candid examination of Democra-
tic principles. 1t is, of course on the sOundness
and value of its principles that the party rests all
its hopes. But the Evening Post has the assu-
rance to assert that the Democratic party has no
positive principles 1t winds up its arragnment
and invective in the following strain:-
"The misfortune Of the Democratic party is that it
has fallen to be party of negations 1t hates the
ngger' it hates the Republicans, it hated the war;
it hates the debit and the summit Of statesman
ship in the Democratic party nowadays consists of
abuse of the Republicans and decrying the blacks
They have been doing this ever since the Republican
power by this policy for some years; but we do not
believe they will ever be again trusted by the Amer-
can people, unless they show themselves capable of
something better than this.
'Before they are likely to carry the country in
general election with their war record and their
history since the war; they will have to grow first
Into formidable and respectable opposition. AT
present the Democrats have not able debaters
enough in Congress even to put the Republicans on
their mettle; they have not the means to attract at
tentiOn to their principes-even if they had any
principles and so far as can see, they agreed
upon no political principles or poicy-even if they
had orators to state them"
The Democratic party is not party of mere
negatons; and even If it were, that would not
necessarily be reproach. 1t is the chief func-
tion of an opposition party to take the negative
side and bring into clear exposure the mistakes
and mismanagement of the party in power. All
parties which assail abuses, uproot errors, eX-
pose dishonesty, or act as checks on nsolent
and usurping authority, are, so far, parties of
negation. The Bible itself is perhaps the most
negative and denunciatory book in the world.
The ten commandments are a series OF prohibi
tiOns, containing eight ''thou-shalt-nots" and
only two 'thou -shalts" Magma Charta was a
bundle of restraints upon the abuse of authority.
The American Revolution was, in its origin, a
movement of pure negation and denial. All
the great humanitarian and benevolent
reformers from WilberfOrce down to Mr..
Bergh, have been mere negationists and assail-
ants. Government, it has been smartly said, is,
like clothing, badge of lost innocence Its
object is to hold human rapacity and violence in
check; and rulers are also human beings,
with far greater powers to plunder and oppress,
politicalNactivty is opposition. 1t is the con-
stant tendency of power to encroach upon
liberty; and while the world lasts the most i'm
portant service which patriots render TO
their country will consist in restraining gov
ernments within proper bounds. 1t is an
old Democratic motto that 1.-THE world is
governed too much;" and the Eoening Post
ITSELF when a disingenuous partisanship does
not get the better of its judgment, gives its prac
tical assent to this maxim. The greater part of
Its editorial writing is habitually on the mega
tive side; its opposition to Government inter-
ference with trade and industry being the most
conspicuous example. For such paper to OBJ
Ject to the Democratic party that 1t freely prac-
tses negative criticism is self-stultifying. For
any journal to find fault with strenuous mega
tive in politics evinces misconception of the
proper sphere of governmental action. When
governments become so sef-restrained that
there is no need of political opposition, the
world will be in the millennium, and govern
ments no longer be necessary.
In the Democratic organization, there is as
much unanimity in leading principles and as
much fidelity to long-cherished convictions as
is ever possible among large bodies of men
when the freedom of individual judgment is re-
spected. The Democratic party is the strenuous
advocate of local self-government; and under
our mixed political system, it has always been
the champion of the right of the States TO con-
troll their internal affairs. The Post cannot say
that this principle is unimportant, or that it does
not form aconspicuous and perfectly well-marked
dividing line between the two great political
parties in this country. In the great battle
that is yet to be fought between the advocates of
State rights and the abettors of Federal en-
croachment, nobody can doubt that the success
of the former will be great Dem
ocratic victory. The Democratic party has, in
recent years, been unfortunate in the fact that
tbe inst abhOrrence of African slavery strength