The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-05-26
SPIRIT or Tzn PRHss.
Editorial Opinions of the Leading Journals
upon Current Topics Compiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
THE CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS THIS
YEAR ....

From the NJ Y. World.
If the Democratic party makes no mistakes
in the issues it presents, it may easily elect
majority of the next Congress. The recent
election encourages us to hope that we can
choose almost the entire delegation from this
State. We may entertain the same hope
respecting the fifteen Southern States. In
the four which have not been RECONSTRUCTED"
this result may be regarded as certain; and
the reconstructed States will have a liberty
of action which they have not enjoyed since
the close of the war. The bayonets by which
they were overawed in the first elections
under their new constitutions have been
withdrawn: the Freedmen's Bureau no
longer exists as a vast engine for
controlling the negro vote; and q little
strategy and energy will enable the Demo-
cratic party of the South to carry almost
every Congressional district. The Southern
whites always excelled as politicians, and they
will probably have no difficulty in managing
the new element which has been introduced
into their voting population. Ia the South
ern cities, where the negroes can be reached
by the Republican electioneering agents, the
colored vote may be controlled by the Radi-
Gals and carpet-baggers; but the greater part
of the negroes are agricultural laborers,
living on plantations, and Inaccessible to
Radical influence. The ascendancy which be-
longs to property, intelligence, and social
standing is all on the Democratic side. The
mass of negroes in the Southern States, like
the mass of white votes everywhere, will
follow political leaders; and if the capable,
knowing negroes who are looked up to by
their race, are enlisted on the right side by
kindness and persuasion, the flock will follow
the bell-wethers. The Democratic party will
gain new members in Pennsylvania, Ohio,
illinois, and all the larger States, and with
scattered gains elsewhere, we shall control
the next House of Representatives. With so
fair prospect of success, the party should
exert all its energy.
The Congress which is elected in the middle
of Presidential term has superadded i'm
portance from the duty that may devolve upon
it of electing the next President. If more
than two candidates are run, and none of
them receives a clear ajority of all the
electoral votes, the President is chosen by the
House of Representatives. Judging from
present indications, the Congressional cleo
tions of this year will be of no Importance in
that respect. There is no reason for supposing
that there will be more than two parties in the
next Presidential canvass. There will be no
division or boiling in the Democratic party;
and the Republican party is not likely to split
when its opponents are formidable enough
to task its whole strength. When it has
little chance of success if united, neither of
tuo b6RlutuIo lutO WulCu IL IulBut DO Cl6Ib
could have any hope of separate triumph.
The Republican party has outlived the issues
on which it was founded; but it has never
theless too many advantages to disband and
dissolve. No political party ever acknow-
lodged that its principles were out of date,
until after the people had taught it that les
son at an election. The Republicans have a
secure hold of the Senate until some time
after the next Presidential election; they
have permanent majority of the Supreme
Court; and they control the vast patronage
of the Federal Government. A party thus
intrenched will never disband until after
prostratipg defeat in Presidential election
Too strong to disband and not strong
enough to split without ruin, the Republican
party will present a united front in the next
national contest, and the Democratic party
will be equally united If this expectation
be we'll founded, the next House of Repre-
sentatives will have nothing to do with the
choice of Presidents and in this view, the
Congressional elections of the coming autumn
have no Importance.
But they are of the highest consequence to
the Democratic party as great preliminary
step towards gaining control of the Federal
Government. If we choose majority of the
next House, the Presidential election will be
virtually decided in advance. The moral
effect Of such victory would be prodigious.
1t would demonstrate to the people that there
was no longer any vitality in the old issues,
and that the only remaining bond of union
among the Republicans was ''the cohesive
force of public plunder."
In our Judgment, the only thing which can
imperil our success would be a consent by
the Democratic party to fight over the old
battles ON the old ground, and thus give the
Republicans the advantage of rallying their
party anew on the negro question. They
have always found that issue potent enough
to stir the passions and rouse the fanaticism
of their followers; and there is nothing which
they so eagerly court as plausible pretext
for infansing the public mind again about
the rights of the negro. The Democracy,
unless they are willing to remain in mi
nority, must not furnish their opponents with
a fail for thrashing over the old straw.
The contest must be very aggressive one,
and conducted mainly by assaults on the in
capacity and imbecility of the present Re.
publican Congress This Congress has done
nothing to relieve the country. Our shipping
interest has been PROSTATE since the war, anC
Congress has taken no steps to restore 1t
Even MIR. Lynch's futile bill, the only mea
sure of pretended relief which has beel
brought forward, was finally shelved on Tues
day, and that great interest, once the prid
and boast of the country, the source of it
commercial and naval greatness, is left t.
languish out of existence. The tariff has beel
dawdled over and discussed for a whole ses
sion, and the very bad bill concocted by MI
Schenck has been consigned to ''the tomb Q
the Capulets The odious income tax, againi
which the whole country protests, has nc
been repealed. There has been a gres
flourish about refunding the debt at a lowe
interest; but, it will either result in nothing
or the adoption of a quixotic and chimerici
scheme which viii be the laughing-stock {
sound fnanciers. On the important sub ie,