The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-03-07
PROPHECY AND HISTORY.

hOl bIiOl hAND AllD lOlhls
From the ~ y. World.
We read at this season in the good book
that prophecies fail and tongues cease,
but charity never does. Under the new radi-
cal dispensation, however, we have a different
rule, and, while charity is postponed or thrust
aside, prophecies are in full force and wicked
tongues wag. Witness what occurred the
other day on the occasion of the negro
''revep in the Senate. Just before the deed
was consummated, Mr.. Cameron, of Penn
sylvania Che whom Lincoln turned out of
his Cabinet). rose in his place and solemnly
announced the important historical fact that
when Jefferson Davis, in 1861, vacated his
seat in the Senate, he (Cameron) told him
(Davis) that, when next filed, il would be by
a negro. And then Cameron, like ancient
Sime0R-not Simon, who was by no means
an exemplary character, and had an eye to
the main chance-uttered a npnc din,ittis
and announced that, in the induction of a
negro, he chad seen his salvation" This is
the Cameronian version of fulfilled prophecy,
and very touching and picturesque it is.
The Newark Daily AdDertiSer-usually a
well-informed and always an intelligent paper
thus describes what we take to DO the same
Incident
''Ten years ago Mr.. Jefferson Davis Senator from
the State OF Mississippi, deserted his seat in the
s, to become the President OF the Confederate
States. AS he passed out OF the chamber he re-
his successor would probably be negro. The pro-
phecy has become fulhlnent. During all the inter-
hg 5e se paoe M
Davis The event Is one OF historical Importance"
Here is what lawyers would call fatal
variance-not between dllegGtG and pr0bGtd,
but among the probdta themselves-and it is
| very far from our design to reconcile it. We
prefer, for a moment, to speculate on it in
| the alternative.
jefferson Davis, on leaving the Senate, as
| every one knows he did, sadly and reluctantly,
looked to the future with that prescience of
misery and evil which all patriotic men had,
| let the contest. end as IL might. He knew
no one better-from his military experience,
| not merely as soldier but as cabinet
minister, what were the inevitabilities
| of war; and however in the heat
of actual conflict, with the light of
occasional victory shining delusively upon
him, he may have chafed himself, as it were
| into confidence, yet, before the contest began
he must have felt and did feel that the cause
to which he honestly sacrificed himself would
be ultimately losing one; and then, shaking
hands with Mr.. Cameron, as we believe he
did, he solemnly said:-"The price of all the
blood that is about to be shed will be, not
any great public or national benefit, but
merely that negro-illiterate and brutal
shall be placed in the seat L now resign.
1
facts Now for the other.
Simon Cameron-a pro-slavery Democrat
| down to 1856, when his personal antipathy to
Mr.. Buchanan drove him to the support of
Fremont; a rich, prosperous, not an un-
amiable man, who in his heart was no senti-
mental Abolitionist, and who did not care
half as much for the negro individually or in
mass, as for the Middletown Bank or the
Northern Central-takes jaunty, exultant
view of the coming strife, and shaking his
farewell finger at the retiring Southron tells
him that ''the penalty of secession will be,
not that slavery shall be abolished, or any
great social or moral or political result ensue,
bnt that Southern pride, and especially his
(Mr. DavisO, shall be humbled by putting a
negro in his place" And that done, he
exults For the sake of human nature we
sincerely hope that the Newark story is the
true one, and that Davis, not Cameron, was
the prophet.
| For our part, we take no stock in the cant
ing sentimentalism that affects to discern the
finger of special Providence in the fact that
Revels sits in the seat of Jefferson Davis.
negro in the Senate of the United States is,
indeed, phenomenon, but not quite so great
a miracle as was the speaking of Balaam
ass. Without q divine interposition the ass
could not have had the gift of human utter
ance in what we presume was goo6
Hebrew but it surely required ne
miracle to elect negro to the Senate
by the aid of bayonets. The machinery
which elected so many carpet-baggert
required no extra oil or new wheel to enable
it to elect Revels, even though he is both &
negro and carpet-bagger. The stupides
plantation hand in Mississippi might hav,
been foisted into the Senate with equal cas-,
by the same military means. If Revels il
well let alone, he will Immediately sink to his
proper level. The social considera
ton due to his position, and tn,
social contempt certain to be paid to hi
color, will make him sore and uncomfortabl,
with the annoying contrast between his pre-
tensions and his treatment. If he receives
any social courtesies, it will be merely t.
spite the Democrats, who will most easil,
thwart such design by not dignifying hin
with any further notice After civil govern
ment is restored and the South enjoys fire.,
elections, it is not probable that any NOR
negroes or any more carpet-baggers will b'
, sent to Congress; and meanwhile poor Revels
if he is a man of any sensibility, will suffer
as any man must in the company of superior
by whom he is slighted and despised.