The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-07
SPIRIT OF THE PRHss.
Editorial Opinions ofthe Leading Journals
upon Current Topics s-Compied Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
THE REPUBLIeAN APATHY.

From the ~ Y. Nation
We are having just now good deal of dis
cussion of the condition and prospects of the
Republican party, and it has derived fresh
impetus from the result of the late New York
election, which, while it revealed some rather
startling results in the way of frauds on the
part of the Democrats, revealed others nearly
as startling in the way Of ''apathy" on the
part of the Republicans. The vote of the
latter on the judicial ticket was just about
half what was cast for Grant in 1868. There
has been faling-off in the Democratic vote
in the State also, but very much smaller
one. All the indications one can get at with
regard to the state of feeling in other parts
of the country, lead us to look for somewhat
similar displays of indifference at the coming
fall elections. Neither party is much excited
or Interested Just now in politics. but, un-
questionably whatever energy or activity Is
to be found in either is to be found amongst
the Democrats. Republicans have, there
fore, begun to ask themselves with some
an xiety how long this is' going to last, and
whether there is no means of getting up a
revival of enthusiasm, or, at least, of vig-
lance, before the next Presidential election.
Hd9per'S Weekly, which is perhaps the
most hopeful of the Republican papers which
make any claim to independence, in its last
number pointed out, by the aid of citations
from Democratic articles and speeches, the
great danger to the highest interests of the
country of allowing the present apathy and
dissension to pervade the Republican ranks
between now and the choice of the next Pre-
sident; and in doing SO really said nearly
everything as we hinted last week, that eau
be said just now by way of justifying the
claims of the party to continuance of the
popular support 1t is, no doubt, quite true
that the only legal result of the war which the
Democrats have accepted with good grace is
emancipation. Of every other they are ready,
or at least considerable portion of them, to
get rid if they can; and it is also true that
their success in getting rid of them would be
tremendous calamity But then it is
great mistake, we think to suppose that
they hope all they wish, or that the policy
with which they will go before the country in
the next campaign will contain all, or indeed
more than very small part, of their aspra-
tions. They know perfectly well tnat to win
they must either secure division of the Re-
publican party or draw off O considerable
number of Republican votes, or frame plat
form that will contain nothing to rouse Re-
publicans from their present lethargy; and
there is not particle of reason for believing
that any Republican has the slightest desire
to see anything undone that the war has done
by way of legislation, or believes in the pos
sibility of undoing it. In fact, if the Demo
Gratis wanted to hit upon plan of rousing
the old war enthusiasm and ensuring their
utter and irretrievable defeat, they could not
do better thing than get up and declare their
intention of opening up all the questions
which Congress and the army have, during the
last ten years, been engaged in settling and they
know this as well as anybody. They know
that the country is sick of the reconstruction
business and wants to have done with il, and
that the attempt of the Republican maj ority
in Congress to prolong the controversy over
it has, perhaps, injured the party as much as
anything; that what the people Graves is
s'new issues" and that therefore, any party
which took the field with nothing better to
offer than bundle of old ones would be
beaten before it got into line. The rant of
Mr.. Richard O'Gorman, at the Judiciary
Convention, about the need of political
judges and the acceptance by the World of
the ring candidates, on which HQrperS
Weekly comments are one thing; platform
drawn up by Mr.. O'Gorman and the editor of
the World for adoption by national conven-
ton would be another thing, as we shall see
If they should ever be called on to frame one.
What has brought the Republican party
into its present difficulties and has made its
future look SO doubtful, is this tendency to
rely on the badness of the Democratic party
as sufficient substitute for a positive policy
of its own There could not be a greater
mistake. No party, no matter what its past
services, can hope to remain longer in power
on the ground that it is the less of two evils,
or that if it is turned out something dreadful
will happen. The country will bear with this
for while; but an attempt is sure to be
made before long to discover a middle way
out of the difficulty-that is, to create party
which, while supplying security, will also
supply progress In other words, if the Re-
publican party can do nothing more than
keep the Democrats out of Office, the country
will look about for somebody that can keep
the Democrats out of Office and do few odd
jobs of reform besides. A majority in power
cannot confine itself to standing guard over
its conquests; it must march aud make
orders. People do not believe that every
thing that needs be done to secure the fruits
of the war has been done by the three amend
ments to the Constitution, or that the war
besides doing much good, has left behind nC
evils which need immediate removal The
condition of the currency is an evil; tn,
condition of the public debt is an evil; tht
weight of taxation is an evil; the state of tn,
civil service is an evil the tariff is an evil
and all are evils resulting directly or indi
rectly from the war; and they affect not only
the comfort and happiness of every man
woman, and child in the community, but the
honor and purity and efficiency of the Gov
ernment. 1.-THE revenue of the State, say,
Burke sis the State In effect, ali depend
on it, whether for support or for reformation
AS all great qualities of mind whicl
operate in public and are not merely suffering
and passive require force for their display
had almost said, for the unequivocal exist
ence-the revenue, which is the spring of al
power, becomes in its administration tn
sphere of every active virtue Throug
the revenue alone can the body polite ever ac
in 10 tYua oaniuS and oharacfar opd tharafor