The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-05
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
Editorial Opinions Of the Leading Journals
upon Current Topics Compiled Every
OaY for the Evening Telegraph.
TIE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND THE
WAR.
From, the NJ Y. World.

WAX.
Prcns the NJ Y. World.
Drowning men catch at straws. The radi-
Gals Of the United States, conscious that upon
every vital question concerning the interests.
the hopes, or the honor of the American peo-
pie they have lost all title to the confidence
of the nation, made haste, upon the outbreak
of the dreadful war which now desolates
Europe, to clutch at the chance of buoying
themselves up yet little longer aba the
waves of the deluge by proclaiming sudden
and passionate sympathy with one of the two
great nationalities involved in that war. 1t
was monstrous proclamation from lips yet
warm with denouncing all that the Germans of
the United States held dearest or most sacred.
The liberal Germans of America have been
denied 10y these radicals oil the social rights
which they so highly, yet not too highly,
prize They have been subjected by fauati-
cal majority to the most tyrannical restric-
tions upon their personal habits. Their
aesthetic tastes have been denounced by the
Puritans as an abomination, and their love of
harmless recreation upon the only day left at
their disposal by that industry and devotion
to duty which are such honorable character
istics of their race, has been mathematical
as both licentious and impious The Catholic
Germans of America, on the other hand
have Jared no better at the hands
of these radical makers of mischief
of all other nations, this great section of our
German fellow-citizens has been openly and
persistently insulted by radical attempts to
infuse the spirit of Protestant sectarianism
into our laws When, therefore, these same
radicals suddenly announced themselves to
be more Teutonic than the Teutons. and
began in their journals and their party eau
cuses to halloo the armies of King Will
liam upon their formidable way, it
fnla ,N1a, 20 h.
most simple-minded Swabian or the
most newly landed Pomeranian in the land
that his personal services at the polls were
more clearly in the vision of these extempo-
rized lovers of his land than either the honor
of the Teutonic arms or the hopes of German
nationality. What the folly of the radicals
has thus revealed of the true nature and
meaning of their German sympathies the
good sense and the reticence of the Democratic
party have by mere force of contrast made
tenfold palmer
The Democratic party has taken no sides in
this European war; nor will it take any sides
in this European war until, high above the
tumult of battle and the roar of cannon, and
the Iamentable outcry of strong men
stricken to death and the wall of the
countless poor in desolated homes. there
shall arise that one only clarion note which
rouses the Democratic heart-the note of
freedom summoning the people to possess
their own. The radicals Of America are to-
day the party of place, of expediency and
of corruption. The Democrats of America
are to-day the party of principle, of convic-
ton, and of reform. What the Democrats
of America seek for their own country, that
also, and that alone, can they seek for all
other countries. In the existing European
war, and in all other wars, the Democrats of
America can never sympathize with war sim
ply az war; for war simply as war they hold
everywhere and always to be deplorable and
criminal thing. They hate it as condemua-
tion of the millions to misery and death for
the ACKNOWLEDGMENT of the few, when it is
not the terrible necessity of the millions
emancipating themselves from the despotism
of the few.
''When the news came to Berlin, 8"
wrote Humboldt to his noble friend Varnha-
gen, ''of the Partisan coup detat, the King
and the Court were at first full of rejoicing
These persons saw nothing offensive in the
crime perpetrated against the people, the
Legislature, the law, and the sanctity of
oaths. But when the machinery came to be
known, that the adventurer should preserve
universal suffrage, rest upon the people, and
practise socialism, that quickly made them
detest him. Humboldt sleeps beneath the
simple monument at Tegel, where but
the other day the King who now
leads German armies in the field refused
to unite with the Germans of America
ard of Europe in honoring his immortal me-
nlory. But his words live, and those words
made men ask themselves whether the King
of Prussia, using the national indignation Of
Germany to strike down the Emperor of the
French, was really bent on humbling the ad-
versary of the Germans or on furnishing the
elect of the French. So far as the French
Emperor was concerned, the first events of
the war made an answer to this grave ques-
tion unnecessary. The unexpected and ter
rible defeats Of the French army de-
livered France, as it were, in day from
the spell of Casarism. The German vic
tories which demonstrated the impotence
of an imperial system for the defense of a
great country, were victories in which Demo-
Gratis of all countries might rejoice with that
tempered Joy which alone freemen can ever
feel in the winning even of the greatest
boons by the slaughter of brave men and
the destruction of the works of human
intelligence and human labor. But the
imperial system once shattered in France, ii
becomes not less important to assure our
selves what are to be the results upon Ger
many and upon Europe of the victories by
which it has been destroyed Upon this point
all true Democrats in America, of whatever
race, must necessarily insist upon satisfying
themselves before they can throw Themselves
blindly, with shouts of triumph, into the
wake of the Prussian advance. The deer
sympathy which even true German Demo
Gratis must feel with the heroic history o
liberty in France, not less than their pro
found conviction of the absolute necessity o.
justice and generosity in the international re
lations of the European peoples to the esta
blishment of freedom in Europe, must MAKE
all suoh Democrats cautious and wary in thei