The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-13
POLITICAL sUPERANNUAT10N


ATTORNEY GENERAL AKERMAN last night deli
vered an address in Washington, before a
meeting called by the Southern Republican
Association, in which were set forth many
wholesome truths that it would be well for
the people of the Southern States to ponder
over. Abiding to Alexander II. Stephens
constitutional View of the late War between
the States" the object of which is to show
that secession was right and reconstruction
was monstrous, and in which the doctrine is
announced that Capitalization is imperialism,
MIR. Akerman said that there was such thing
as political approximation. This is as COM
plete description of the state of mind not
only of Mr.. Stephens and other seces-
sion leaders, but of the whole Demo-
cratic party, as could be made, and
until men of the Stephens class are reiuve-
mated by the absorption of some new ideas,
or are superseded by younger generation of
public men who will be willing to forget the
doctrines of the Calhoun school of politics
for the sake of pushing their own fortunes,
if for no other reason, the South never will
be able to relieve herself entirely of the dis
abilities imposed upon her by the results of
LD6 WAI. IL pclhdpb OAiJ tudt CQ6
sudden extinction of slavery, and particularly
the manner in which it was extinguished,
should be sore subject with the late slave
owners, but there is no excuse for the way in
which the Northern Democrats have con-
tinued to bemoan the emancipation of the
negroes and to oppose every effort of the
Government to bring the late Rebel
States into their normal relations
to the nation again. The political
approximation of the Democratic party keeps
1t just where it was ten years ago: it clings to
the old ante-war issues just as if no great
political revolution had taken place; and the
utter want of ability to accommodate them
selves to the new state of affairs shown by the
Democrats has enabled the Republican party
to maintain its ascendancy in manner that
it otherwise never could have done. If the
Democratic party should now succeed in OBJ
tanning the control of the Government, it
would be through the vices of its antago-
nists rather than through any merits of its
own. Political skill of the very highest order
enabled the Democrats to keep the manage
ment of the affairs of the nation in their
hands for thirty years, and to demolish oppo-
sition after opposition; but in the course of
events the party and its leaders became afflicted
with political superannuation, and was un-
able to exchange the doctrines of Calhoun
for anything better, SO that here to-day, five
years after the collapse of the rebellion, we
have Alexander FL. Stephens preaching seces-
sion and State rights, just as if the march of
Sherman's army across his State had never
demonstrated the right of the nation to exer-
else supreme authority in every portion of its
dominions
There is not in the North or in the South
a man in his senses who believes that slavery
will ever be revived. There may be some
who hope that the negroes will be deprived
of their right to vote, but any politician who
has the faintest comprehension of the actual
situation knows that this will be impossible,
and the only practical method of dealing with
the situation is to accept the results of the war
candidly and fairly, and to take a fresh de-
parture on the basis of the living issues of
the day. This is what the wisest heads in the
Democratic party have advised again and
again, but the political superannuation of
their associates has been too much for them,
and the Republicans, in spite of many short
comings that wise adversaries would have
been eager to take advantage Of, have been
able to complete the work of reconstruction,
making it more sure, firm, and solid because
of the recalcitrant disposition shown by the
late slave owners and their Northern sympa-
thizers; so that, after all, the political super
annuation of the old pro-slavery party may
prove to have been blessing in disguise to
itself and to the nation.
EDITORIALS and editorial statements in the
English Journals referring to the present. war
should be received with many grains of allow