The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-24
rs FRANK BLAIR ORTHODOX?

From the N. L. sun.
The speech of General Blair in the Senate
in reply to MIR. Morton on the general sub
ject of reconstruction excites inquiry all
over the country as to whether or not Blair
has truly expounded the Democratic creed
This is not surprising, for he is still young
man, not excessively cautious, and in the glow
of debate sometimes utters opinions which
require commentaries to bring them into con-
formity with recognized standards of politi-
cal orthodoxy. In this characteristic Gen.
Blair reminds one of the late DIR. Lyman
Beecher, who had to spend about half his
time in explaining what he had written and
said in the other half, and in trying to con-
vince his brethren that he was sound in the
Calvinistic faith.
When analysed, General Blair's speech will
be found more closely in accord with the ideas
of those Democrats who declare the old issues
dead than at first blush appears. He in
Weighed against the means by which the rati-
fcation of the fifteenth amendment had been
secured in what he called the carpet-bag
States; but when closely questioned by Sena-
tor Morton, he admitted that that amend
ment, as well as by implication the four
teenth, was now part of the law of the land.
This, of course, was an abandonment of
everything practical in his opposition to the
mere manner of their ratification.
General Blair denounced the reconstruction
9CtB uuQ6r WHICH tu0 CdTp6t-DdR RON6Tuu6utb
were organized. But these governments
having now been in operation three years,
objections to the mode of their creation are
of no avail, except to make point against
the party which thus initiated them. His
anathemas could not disturb the validity of
the governments, but..could only reflect upon
the political character of their local admins
trations and he insisted that the true mean
ing of the Broadhead letter was that, if the
administrations would fall. The interpreta-
tion of that letter is of no practical conse-
quence now; for the last election in those
States must have convinced General Blair
that General Grants blunders and imbecilities
are undermining the ascendancy of the Re-
publicans therein, showing that an insurrec-
ton through the ballot-boxes is more effective
to this end than any possible Intervention of
bayonets.
The only practical point, therefore, in
General Blair's programme, is his hostility to
such reconstruction legislation, whether ex-
listing or contemplated, as does not touch the
validity either of the Governments in the
late Rebel States or the three recent amend
ments to the Constitution, but which he in
sists intended, under the guise of enforcing
those amendments, to arrest by intimidation
and force the swelling tide of opposition to
the Republican party in the South. On this
subject, no doubt, General Blair is in full
fellowship with the great mass of the Demo
cracy. Upon the whole, then, we think that
the distinguished politician of Missouri, like
the eminent divine of New England, will,
through occasional explanations and some
tribulation, ultimately succeed in making
himself understood, and turn out to be
reasonably sound in the faith Indeed. as
Frank is a progressive politician and a daring
genius, he may yet become a new light, out
shining all the old-fashioned orbs in tn,
Democratic armament.