The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-03-05

then pending for the establishment IN the
national constitution Of impartial suffrage,
without regard to ''race, color or previous
condition of servitude.
Such were the promises and foreshadowings
of General Grants administration one year
ago What has followed and how stand the
record and the promise of their fulhlment to-
day The laws of Congress for the recon-
struction of the lately Rebel States have been
faithfully carried out, and excepting some
few remaining formalities in reference to
Georgia and Texas, the political work of
Southern restoration is finished. In the inn
portant matters of economy, retrenchment,
and reform the Treasury shows clear gain
of over hundred millions of money (inclu-
ding ninety eight millions reduction of the
debit for the first year of Grant over the last
year of Johnson and the premium on gold
has been reduced from its fluctuations among
the thirties and forties to the narrow gam
bling margin between thirteen and fourteen
cents; the fifteenth amendment has been
ratified by the required threefourths of the
States, and its proclamation as part of the
supreme law of the land we are now expect
ing every day.
In the meantime, so thoroughly has the
doctrine of civil and political equality, re-
gardless of race or color, been the ruling
idea of General Grant, that he has appointed
men of African descent to various responsible
offices, including revenue collecting and diplo-
matte appointments, and has recognized,
with the enthusiasm of a missionary devoted
to the cause, the fitness under the new order
of things of an African representative at
Washington of the African Republic of Hayti.
To crown this edifce of equal civil and politi-
cal rights gentleman of color in 1870 occu-
pies the seat in the United States Senate left
vacant by jeff. Davis in 1861 for the purpose
of assisting in the establishment of an inde-
pendent Southern Confederacy on "the cor
ner-stone of African slavery" 1t was in
1850 that the barracoon, or slave market, in
full view from the National Capitol, was re-
moved with the abolition of the slave trade
in the District of Columbia; and now behold
in the Senate the consummation of the
mighty revolution which has followed that
small beginning by Henry Clay
The first year of General Grants admins
tration thus becomes memorable in history as
marking the complete abolition of the civil
and political disabilities of the African race
in the United States, and as marking the be-
ginning of the new dispensation of impartial
suffrage under the supervision of Congress
On the Fourth of July next the President, it
appears, is to assist at celebration of the
fifteenth amendment in a grand mass meet
ing in Connecticut, which is not a bad idea;
but it further appears that he wishes COM
paratively short session of Congress for the
long term, in order that he may return to the
refreshing drives, surf and sea breezes of
Long Branch in June; and this wish, it may
be said, is suggestive of growing disposition
to drift along quietly in the current of events
and trust to luck for a safe landing.
Here we touch the weak point, the vulner-
able heel of Grants administration With
all the work of reconstruction accomplished,
nothing has been done in the reconstruction
of our foreign relations beyond the policy of
peace for the present. leaving the future to
provide for ITSELF The course which this
administration has pursued and is pursuing in
reference to Cuba is satisfactory only to
Spain; the policy of General Grant in refer
ence to Mexico is apparently that of perfect
indifference touching the never-ending but
still-beginning demoralizations of that beau
tiful but wretched country. He has shown
something of the spirit of manifest des-
tiny in certain proceedings looking to the
annexation of Dominica; and even those
initial proceedings will, most likely, end in
smoke. He has despatched an expedition
for survey of the Isthmus of Darien, in
view of ship canal, which is something;
but he has consented to an indefinite sus-
pension of the prosecution of those Ala
bama claims, from which the opinion is
beginning to spread that they will end in
nothing.
In each and all these things it appears that
while the President has no definite policy tc
suggest to Congress, Congress has no definite
policy to urge upon the President. Hence
upon our foreign affairs nothing is done ant
nothing is promised. The prospect on this
side is not encouraging, while upon the grea
money question it is very good. Upon the
whole, the administration is too quiet, too
dull and inactive, to satisfy the country, ant
accordingly the elements of new political fac
tions are in active process of formation
Hence we expect that in this years elections
for the next Congress we shall have some evi
dences of disintegration of the Republican
party calculated to suggest adoubtful contest
and perhaps even scrub race, for the Presi
| dental succession.
THE ADMINISTRATION AND IT'S WORK
From the NJ Y. Times.
Yesterday the country stepped across tn
threshold of new political year, and enteret
upon the closing scene of a decade destined
to be ever memorable in is history. Tn
nine administrative years which have jus
closed we're crowned with marvellous events
and as we look back upon them and note tn
grand accomplishments which followed il
their wake, it seems difficult to realize tina
we have been such recent actors in scene
which are already permanently engraved ol
the record of the worlds civilization. 1t j
profitess, perhaps, to recall mere incident
which have merged in great results. The
can only serve to revive dead animosities
and mar the work of pacifcation which is S
necessary to the perfection of our grea
political transition. Yet it is profitable, a
well as legitimate, to note the more promi
nent political achievements of the time, an
| to Gather fresh courage. as we'll as directio