The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-03-09

EDITORIAL OpInIons OF the LEADING Journals
Upon Current Topics-Compiied Bvory
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
THE DEMORALIZED DEMOCRACY AND
THE PROSPECT OF PARTIES.

THE DEMORALIzED DEMOCRACY AND
THE PROSPECT OF PARTIES.
From as ~ Y. Herald.
Only the other day a future full of power
and promise seemed possible for the Demo-
cratic party. Its success had spread from the
city over the whole State; and as 1t was ad-
vised with no small sagacity, aud had gene
raj harmony of purpose, it appeared not rash
to forecast its possible triumph in the next
contest for the Presidency But what q
bubble all that promise was! What has be-
come of the hope that the Democracy might
once more act on the nation as great, united,
harmonious, honest, liberal party? AS the
hope was built on the appearance the party
presented in this State, what is left of 1t even
here? Only four or five snarling factions
We have "the ring" or recognized Tammany
leaders, the silk stocking would-be leaders,
under the general direction of MIR. Sammy
Tilden; ''the boys"-that is, the Jimmy
O'Brien and Mike Norton party; the union
Democratic organization and the country
Democracy. The countrymen know and care
all about the jobs in the rural and frontier
districts. Canal jobs, for instance, are their
specially. Only leave them the manipulation
Of all the little bits of profit and plunder to
be made on the canals, and there will be har-
mony so far as relates to them, for they re-
linquish even opinion with regard to the
city. But with the city factions il is quite
another story. They all want everything,
and the simple reason of this is because not
one of them sees anything nobler or better in
success than that it will give the spoils to the
winner. There is no pure motive, no exalted
purpose, no national spirit, and, therefore,
no great mind; no organizing, conquering
brain, for great intellect is not produced in
party whose struggles are always the same
mean, mercenary scramble.
MIR. Sammy Tilden, it is true, in declaring
- lIa al Nfav1 ta hfC
own elegance; but alas for Sammy's argu-
ment, it has been known that men have worn
silk stockings who yet had very empty heads.
1t is the same with his reference to the 'libe-
rality" of the august Belmont. Something
else is necessary to consolidate great people
around party platform beside the habit of
tossing cash to the groundlings, though one
can hardly expect men of Sammys callbre to
understand this. We even think that Sammy
ought not to drag his 'liberal" Democrat of
the past into the arena again; for we do not
doubt that our former Minister to the Hague
would now distinctly concede that ''shent per
shent" has fairly failed in American politics.
AT time when a country is standing in the
very atmosphere of heroic achievements;
when the women still wear Grape for the hun
dreds of thousands of gallant fellows who died
for the flag; when the people have freely
made illimitable sacrifices in their persons,
in their comforts, in their very liberties all
to secure the supremacy of an idea-at such
time it seems to us little less than decent
for party to come forward with financier
as its head man and to announce that this
gentleman is ready to make the most liberal
terms. Cannot they refer us to anybody but
their banker? Before a people pulsating
with reinvigorating sentiment of nationality
it is scarcely handsome to present even the
silk stockings of Sammy Tilden as the finest
things extant. Yet what else does the De-
mocracy proffer !? Is it the noble disdain of
law, order, and honesty that characterizes
''the boys"-that young Democracy which is
sowing its political wild oats in the city by
breaking the windows of the temple of JUS
tice, and presenting the statue of the poor
old goddess standing on her head. Alas for
the Democracy! Is this really all there is of
it in the country?
There were weak points in the Republican
party. 1t presented some signs of decay. Ii
was the instrument through which the nation
asserted its purposes in the recent great con.
test; but its vitality seemed eaten out by the
corrupt traders who had abused it to theil
selfish designs. 1t is still, however, most il
sympathy with the popular heart. 1t has the
advantage of appearing to the country in thu
person Of a man nobly identified with th'
greatest phase of the nations existence
soldier, a hero, patriot; supplemented
pure, without other ambition than to serv,
party to appear only in the person of it
financial man. Grant does not dazzle tn
admiring eye with the brilliancy of his state
craft; but that is not what the American
people want. Who is it that is carrying tn
nation onward in its straight course of peac
and prosperity? Who directs the policy tina
puts money in the peoples pockets? Unde
whose government is gold coming to par, an
the debt growing perceptibly smaller mont
by month Such points as these are the one
that the truest glory and best safety of tn
republic are in the continued supremacy c
the party that governs with men like Grant.
TO LIVE OR DIE?
From the N Y. Times.
The Democrats have at length quite sat
fed themselves of one important fact
namely, that the mission of the Republica
party is fully accomplished, and that her
after it has neither a cause to excite enthv
siasm in its favor, nor principles to give
vitality This is the way in which some pol
ticians are prone to speculate on the chapt
of accidents as affecting their rivals. The
say of man who is stumbling block
their path:-''He is getting old, and cann
last very long. Besides, he has finished Il
work on which he set his heart, and no
there is nothing else left for him to unde
take" When the rival happens to be trl
man, and not a makeshift this kind of pr
phecy always ends in the disappointment
those who indulge in it. A mans life is new
over until he is dead, and political par
never dies except by its own hands.
We are not surprised to find the Domocra
nroclaimino that tha hour haa ooroa 60. ~