The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-11-15
sPxRxx OF Tzn PRnss.
editorial Opinions ofthe Leading Journals
upon Current Topios-CompiIed Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.

THE DEMOCRACY UNDERSTAND IT?
From the ~ Y. sun
As we often predicted before the autumnal
campaign opened, so it has turned out; the
ascendancy of the Republicans in the old
free States is not seriously impaired, but it
is severely shaken in the former slave States.
The apparent Democratic gaius in the first
are, in almost every instance, directly due to
uuarrels among the Republicans, rather than
to any substantial augmentation OF Demo-
cratic strength.
The decline of Republican domination in
some of the Southern States Is owing to
causes peculiar to that section of the Union,
as is also the diminution of the Democratic
maiorities in the upper tier of those States.
OF the former class the Republicans have
this year lost North Carolina, West Virginia,
Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, aud probably
Arkansas and Florida, all of which voted for
Grant two years ago; while OF the latter class
they have reduced the Democratic maJorltles
in Delaware, Maryland, and Kentucky, all of
which voted for Seymour.
These results spring from common
source. which is worthy of the careful study
of politicians both at the North and the
South During the nine years that inter-
yened between the adoption of the ordinance
of secession by South Carolina and tho in
corporation of the fifteenth amendment into
the Constitution, the slaveholding States
passed through transformation as radical
in its principles and as potential in its con-
sequences as that which swept over the Ame-
rican colonies from the battle of Lexing-
ton to the surrender at Yorktown. Mere
party hacks at the North were slow to reoog-
nize much less appreciate, the change; and
even now they fail to comprehend q con-
dition of politics in the South in which
their old leaders of opinion, the Davises,
the Masons, the Hunters, the Breckinridges,
and men of that type, are incapable of ex-
erting the slightest influence; nay, more, in
which the whilom serfs of these once power
full maenates now play the leading part. In
a word, it is the dethronement of these
oligarchs, and the advancement to higher po-
sitions of what they stigmatized as ''the poor
white trash, and the admission of the ne
groes to the ballot boxes, which has wrought
this great change below the Potomac and the
Ohio; a change that has not only revolution
lied the politics of sixteen States, but has
gone to the foundations of their social fab
ric, and is beginning to exert an influence all
over the country which no political party can
afford to either ignore OF despise.
The colored population of the United States
now number about five millions. They can
cast nine hundred thousand votes, and prob
ably million, in the next Presidential cleo
ton. According to the new census, the entire
population of the Union is about forty-two
will give the country another apportionment
for members of the House, and consequently
new distribution of Presidential electors
among the States. On basis of 150,0 900 in
habitants to q Representative, the House to
be chosen two years hence would consist OF
two hundred and eighty members. OF these
the colored population would furnish the
basis for thirty-four members, and of course
corresponding number of Presidential
electors Ere the adoption of the thirteenth
amendment only three-ifths of the slaves
were enumerated in fixing basis for Repre-
sentatives in Congress and Presidential eiec-
tors. Now the whole are counted. This
change will increase the number of Repre-
sentatives and electors in the former slave
holding States eleven or twelve beyond what
they would have been under tho old mode OF
enumeration.
These statistics show how important part
the eolored race is destined to play in the
election of the House of Representatives and
of the President in 1872. Furnishing the
basis for thirty-four members of Congress
and of the Electoral College, with a million
of votes in their hands, and, according to the
present aspect of parties, and the results oi
the recent elections, capable of holding the
balance of power in one-fourth of the States
they constitute an element in politics which
no aspirant to the Presidency can afford tt
overlook, much less subject to ridicule.
We therefore advise politicians who arr
ambitious of entering the White Honss two
years hence, and who have not heretofor,
been regarded as thoroughly orthodo,
on the Fifteenth amendment, to at once
make their peace with this one million o.
negro voters, lest perchance, when the Gandi
date attempts to lay hands upon the latch o
the Executive Mansion, they hail him will
the refrain of the old Ethiopian melody,
"Am dat you, Sam? Am dat you Sam?
Den you better stop dat knocking at de door"
Do the Democratic masses of the North
comprehend the character aud consequence
of the political revolution which has swep
over the South during the past ten years
Are the leaders of the Northern and Western
Democracy prepared to mark out line O
policy corresponding to the demands of th
new epoch? While rejoicing over the defea
of the Republicans in some of the old slave
holding States, do they forget that the victor
did not fight their battles under the name o
Democracy, as that term was understood il
the days of James Buchanan! Will they re
member. and take the significant fact int,
serious consideration, that year or more ag
Walker and Senter, calling themselves Repub
licsns, triumphed in Virginia and Tennessee
by rending that party asunder; that in Mort
Carolina the party which prevailed in Angus
last STYLED themselves Conservatives, and o.
pressly repudiated the name of Democrats
that in the recent sharp contest in Sout
Carolina the opponents of the Republican
were known as Reformers that the gloriou
success of Gratz Brown in Missouri was wo
under flag emblazoned with the talismani
word Liberal? And 80 it has been everywheI
in the extreme South, in Alabama, Arkansa
Louisiana, and other hotly contested field