The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-03-07

Editorial Opinions fthe Leading JournsIs
upon Current Topics Compiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
DEPARTED SPIRITS.
From fhe N. Z. Tribune

DEPARTED SPIRITS.
From the NJ Y. Tribune.
MIR. Mark Twain once attended funeral in
Nevada where every one was trying, with in
different success, to say something pleasant
about the late unlamented. The only state
mept that met with universal assent was one
ventured by a conscientious aud Observalt
mourDer that the departed made nice,
quiet corpse 1t is with real grief that we
find ourselves unable to say even this much
for the late Senator from Delaware. After
his Senatorial career had closed ON Saturday.
when his brother and heir had succeeded MIN
in the representation, when the eyes of Della
ware bad been shifted from Willard to Eli,
the defunct lawgiver, disregarding the O)nstl-
tuition aud the laws of matter which forbid
the coexistepce of two bodies III the same
place, rose to object to the Introduction of
petition of loyal Soutberners, and could
scarcely be convinced by his sympathlzing
friends that be no longer existed.
He could not see why he should not sit on.
He was still as full of gross venom as ever
Even in his ashes lived the wouted trewaters
Who could speak for Delaware 50 we'll as
he? And if the entail, binding the little
State in perpetuity to this cormorant family,
is never TO be cut off, there liz little to be
gained by changing the baptismal name of
its Senators. 1t lies III quiet and tranquil
6uCY Vi tu6 uluotochbu nv
current of Improvement reform seems
ever to reach it. Its political creed is
short and sinple, embracing only love
of whisky and hate of the negro. II
has made its selection of a few families
to guard these important interests, aud,
satisfied with Its agents, has abdicated its
sovereignty. There is man in tas State
better fitted to represent it than the late
Senator whose lively ghost so startled the
xs..k Gath
Saturday. His devotion to strong waters has
been frequently evinced IN the sight of the
Senate and the world. He loves the memory
of slavery better than anything which lives.
He il Bourbon all over He has learned
nothing, for he hates light worse than an
owl. He has forgotten nothing, for he never
bad anything to forget. He belongs to
Delaware by every consideration of homo
geneity.
many years to burrow down to the sphere OF
representative fitness where Willard has Sc
long disported himself. He was the delight
of the Senate. The Republicans used hin
as their frigbtful example, and the most iguo
rant and dissolute of them felt a cheerfu
glow of pharisacal content when they com
pared themselves with him. Aud his own
Democratic colleagues positively admired
him. They always said-' ''Sausbury is AL
aUl6 anu dn HOutSG WntC u pity Ut
drinks!" Salisbury never made a speech
above the level of quarresome boy of ten
never did an hours serious work ia commit
tee; never exercised the slightest influence
in advancing or retardiug legislation, OK
cepting in the mere waste of tim,
by incoherept haraugues /; and yet there
was on his side of the chamber, even among
men of some judgment and culture, curious
admiration and respect for the stalwart savage
IA 1. a..l |.
len, unsleeping, vindictive hate of freedom an
progress. He was too slow and dull to cioah
vail his devotion to the dead Idol of slavery
or to disguise, as his compeers tried to do hls
bitter hostility to the large and tolerant
spirit of our recent national life. When nj,
''baIbaric yawp" sounded over the heads OF
more cautious Democrats, they felt their soul,
moved with envy of man who could be 81
frankly and un consciously brutal aud bigoted
In comparison with his loud and vocferou
denunciations of the liberal progress of tn,
nation, their petty quibbles aud sarcasms anC
straw stumbling blocks seemed weak and futil,
enough. He hated better than they, and SO
they saw sort of superiority In him
Perhaps, after all, 1t is better he should go.
1t is possible that the generous contagion OF
ideas may exert some benefcent inhuence
even upon the public sentiment OF Delaware
1t is possible that the light reflected from
ABROAD may Lave DeBun 10 luNauo tne IN
memorial darkness even there, and that tn,
first evidence of consciousness of inferiorit,
is getting rid of their too faithful spokesman
They move slowly in that stagnant neighbor
hood. They have not yet got beyond Sauls
burys; but it shows improvement to have dis
missed Willard p. Perhaps before the cen
tury ends they may get up to the average
AS for the superhuous Senator, his vocation
is plain. His struggle with Pomeroy's gram
mar showed the highest order of scholastic
ambition and civic courage 1t was only IN
successful because the task was one of super
human difficulty. No merely human intellec
has as yet succeeded IN reconciling the sub
jects and predicates of the Kansas orator
But in the peaceful retreats of his nativ
State, with scourge and spelling book, th
exiled Salisbury may retrieve, in the educa
tion of the Delaware youth, the follies of hi
public life, and find, like the yrant-pedagogn
of Syracuse, his last days the best He goo
home with the brightest possibilities. III
may do better-he cannot do worse.