The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-16

the Republican party of New York. He hal
been elected to Congress from the Ohautauqus
District in 1852, as the regular Democratic
candidate, when some of the present Demo
cratic leaders in this State were active Wings
of the Weed and Greeley school. He was the
regular nominee of the Democracy for -elec-
ton in 1854, but was stricken down by the
Know -Nothings-som of the foremost cham
pions of that "dark- lantern faction" as
Governor Wise called it, nov being among
the shining lights of the New York Demo
cracy To see these gentlemen attempt to
prevent the return of Reuben E. Fenton to
the Democratic fold would be a very extraor-
dinary spectacle.
The old Barnburners, now the dominant
element in the New York Democracy, would
welcome Fenton's return. In the famous
canpaign of 1S4S he stood erect on the Buff
falo platform. Well do we remember hun rs
be appeared in the councils of that fiery and
impetuous faction. Throughout the strug-
gle when, in the language of John Van
Buren, the radical Democracy of New York
slaughtered the great Michigander, and sent
his body home by the way of the Upper
Lakes, Fenton did yeoman's service. No
ones voice joined more cheerily than his in
the favorite Free-soil song of that epoch,
whose refrain ram
''Then shout for Van, the noble man,
So WISE and tried, and true,
And Charley Adams, who can lam
The dough face bunker crew."
while Tilden, Cassidy, Church, and Nelson j.
Waterbury carried the tenor, and Dean Rich
mond, Martin Grover, Purser, and Cagger
did the thorough base Prince John, with a
baton cut in the groves Of Lindenwaid, lead
ing the choir.
Strong ties have always existed among this
band of politicians, though the stormy con-
troversies of the last dozen years have Oft
times found them acting in hostile orgauiza-
TONS. But these controversies have passed
away, and we have entered upon new era
where politicians are TO divide upon new
issues. If Fenton should now go over to the
Democracy, his fortunes would probably be
shared by considerable body of his Demo
cratic associates in the Republican ranks.
This sort of exodus has already begun. For
example,: Senator Dooitte, formerly. q New
York Barnburner, left the Republicans in time
to compete for the Democratic nomination for
the Presidency in the Tammany Convention
two years ago; while Frank Blair, who stood
upon the Buffalo platform with Fenton,
abandoned the Republicans ust in
season to be put on the Democratic ticket
for Vice President in 1868. And there is Mar
tin Grover, from FeDton own neighborhood,
one of the Free-Soil leaders of 1913: did he
get any fewer votes rs a Democratic candi-
date for Judge of the Court of Appeals in 1867,
and for Judge of the new court in May last,
because he helped to organize the Republican
party, and for ten years was kept on the
bench of the Supreme Court by the votes of
that party? And if these gentlemen, or
Church, or Tilden. or Cassidy, should insist
that Fenton was late in coming over. he
might well reply that he had proved himslf
more faithful disciple of the Barnburner
creed than they; for the platform of the Buff
falo Convention, after procaiming the most
radical anti-slavery doctriues, wound up with
the declaration that ''in defense of these prin-
ciples We pledge ourselves to fight on and
fight ever till glorious victory shall crown
our exertions." Fenton might as consistently
claim the right to read them out of the De-
mocratic party as they to keep him out.
The simple truth is, that if the Democracy
hope to elect the next President, they must
enlist Republican recruits. They must leave
their doors open to all corners. They must
begin somewhere, and with somebody, and
they might as well commence by taking in
Fenton.
Governor Fenton could elevate the standard
of the Democracy. He might make it con-
dition of his joining their ranks that the
days of peculation should cease, and the era
of proiniscuous stealing come to a perpetual
end. Indeed, should he give in his adhesion
without delay, he might enter the lists as u
competitor Tor the Democratic nomination
for the Presidency, and perhaps drive Hen
bricks, Pendleton, Hoffman, and the other
aspirants off the course. Thus he would not
lower his ambition to merely plotting in
secret for the overthrow of Grant, but, like
Bismarck on the field of Sadowa, bear down
upon him openly, sword in hand, and over
whelm him with signal defeat.
Or there is another field open to Governor
Fenton. The times are ripe for new party,
and he is a remarkable organizer. He might
discard both the old, thoroughly worn, and
badly stained existing parties, and raise a
fresh banner, inscribing thereon as his watch
words, progress, reform, retrenchment, no
stealing, and no small men," Placing him
self at the head of the movement, he could
open glorious epoch in American politics.
Will he try it? Or will that distinction re-
main to be achieved by some other of our
statesmen =?
THE FUNDING BILL AND THE NEW
TAX AND TARIFF BILL.
From the N. Y. Herald.
1t is never point of any certainty who is
to derive the benefit of given law, or
whether law passed with a certain purpose
in view may not in its enforcement secure a
result directly contrary to that contemplated