The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-27

slavery an invaluable Southern gold mine
and the league of cotton planters the balance
Of power in the Government. The political
power Of this Southern oligarchy was FIRST
made manifest on slavery in the Missouri
Compromise of 1920, and next in the annex
alton of Texas as a concession TO slavery next
in the Fugitive Slave law, as a sop to Cerbe-
rus in the compromise measures of 1850;
next in the repeal Of the Missouri Compro-
mise (1S5D whereby Kansas and Nebraska,
as Territories, were opened to slavery, and
lastly in the bred Scott decision from the
Supreme Court of the United States (856),
declaring that under our Constitution negro
had ''no rights which. white man was bound
to respect"
These suicidal pro-slavery DEGREES Of 1854
and 1856, in general and deeply set Northern
political reaction, finished the Sosthern slave
holding oligarchy; for in 1860 Lincoln was
elected President on the decisive platform of
''no further extensions of slavery" For sixty
years this Southern oligarchy, with remark
able skill, boldness, and tenaoity, had, moro
or less, dictated the course of every depart
ment of the Government and every admins
tration. So imperious and exacting, too, had
these Southern believers in King Cotton and
slavery become that, defeated at the ballot
box, they plunged headlong into an armed
Rebellion for an independent Confederacy
upon the corner stone of negro slavery.
followed-a revolution which has made the
Constitution of the United States of 1870 as
widely different from that of 1860 as that one
differed from the colonial system of England.
Negro slavery, which was the ruling element,
is extinct, and all it's appendages, including
the slaveholding oligarchy, State sovereignty,
and the legally degraded caste of color, are
swept away. BY the thirteenth amendment
of the Constitution slavery is abolished and
interdicted; by the fourteenth equal civil
rights to all colors are established; and by the
| fifteenth, neither the United States nor any
| State can abridge the right of suffrage on
| account of race, color, or previous condition
| of servitude To make sure these provisions,
| Congress is investedwith the power to enforce
| them.
| Such is the condition of things under which
all parties will have to fight the Presidential
battle of 1872. But the issues of the battle
| will be new issues growing out of the money
| question in all its branches, and out of our
| foreign relations and our foreign policy
| General Grant will doubtless be the Repub-
lican candidate, and upon the old issues of
1868 and 1864 he would probably walk over
the course. But they are settled, and he will
| have to stand upon the measures of his ad-
| ministration. So far he has not exhibited
that decision of character and tenacity of pur-
pose in the Cabinet which he displayed so
effectively in the field He appears, indeed
singularly changed to the policy of taking
things quietly, trusting to luck and risking
nothing. The chances are that this ''easy-go-
happy" policy will result in such a fusion of
dissatisfied popular elements in 1872 as will
need only popular Union candidate to turn
the tide of victory.
Here we anticipate new Southern balance
of power. How It's to take shape we have
| seen in the new departure of the old line
Democrats and ex- Rebels Of Virginia. They
accept the new order of things, they frater-
nize with and cultivate the negro vote and
the same policy generally adopted by the
Southern planters and landowners will give
them, as opponents of the dominant party,
the balance of power. even in the elections
for the next Congress, the balance of power
in every Southern State from Virginia to
Texas. This foothold gained, this new South.
ern party will be able, as the new Southern
balance of power, to dictate its candidate and
its policy to the National Democratic Con
vention.
The right candidate will be Southern mar
in high favor in the North as one of the
shining Union lights of the war. Such a can
didate will still be needed to confront the
military glory of General Grant and such
candidate is at hand in that great and sterling
Southern Union soldier, General George III
Thomas. Virginia may well be proud O
him, and it may be truly said of him that hi
merits are only equalleQ by MS mOdeSCY
Such a candidate, we say, is the man for The
opposition elements South and North w,
do not mean, however that he should be pre-
maturely brought into the field; nor that W,
stand committed to any party or any candi
date. We mean that Virginia and the South
in being farther advanced under the new con
stitution than Tammany Hall, can more effec
lively take the lead for the organization of
new opposition party for the succession. w,
mean that the anti-radical elements of tn
South, by conciliating the negro, can secur
his vote; that this, we expect, will be done
and that SO we may look for new Southern
balance of power in 1872 competent to shap
the Democratic Convention to its policy ant
competent to decide the election.
THE SPANISH SITUATION.
From the NJ Y. Times
A traveller once asking his way in the Wes
was told that there were two roads, q very de
tailed account of the bad qualities of whicl
ended with the information that one wa
three or four miles longer than the other
''Why did you not tell me that at first, sal,
the traveller, ''as it settles the choice?
''Why," replied the Hoosier, 81 reckon tn
shorter or longer makes little odds, for N
matter which of the two roads you take, yo
will heartily wish you had taken t'other.
Such has been the experience of poor Spai
ever since her last revolution. Her Who'll
course since she upset her detestable throne
has been distracting choice between dii
|. ferent paths, and a quick repentance ami
7 overpowering mud and rocks. She
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