The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-12

principles are really the Virginia and Ken
tucky resolutions of nearly eighty years ago
resolutions which assert State sovereignty
to q point which is incompatible with Ma
tional supremacy-that is to say, the South
ern Democratic chiefs insist upon the
right of secession. They declare that the
'lost cause" is traditional Democracy, and
that, when you abandon the constitutional
principle upon which that cause is justified,
Democracy, as party name, Is meaning
less. Indeed, there are q large number of
those who we're the sincerest Rebels, who lost
everything in the war, and who now insist
that, the Democratic principle having been
overpowered, there shoHld be no hesitation in
abolishing the State Legislatures, and in
establishing Zone right one government, one
law" The ablest Of the Southern leaders
and papers insist upon the lost cause as the
only rational Democratic platform. And jeff.
Davis the best beloved Democratic leader in
the Southern States, declares in reply to the
''new departure" that little patient waiting
only is necessary to secure the victory for
which he and his friends contended.
This was the spirit and these were the chiefs
who controlled the Democratic party at the
last Presidential election. They propose to
contest the mastery again next year. They
deride and denounce the Northern acdui-
escers as men of no faith in principle, as
mere temporizers and Laodiceans. And this
position is SO strongly taken, and the censure
is SO free, that the Northern leaders are
already angry. The very warmth of their
tones shows their alarm. For while they are
profoundly persuaded that there is no other
chance of Democratic success than express ac-
ceptance of the situation, they are as pro-
foundly convinced of the tenacity of their
late masters at the South. A few weeks ago
the Southern views. were described by the
Northern managers as the eccentricities of
''our gallant and chivalrous friends" who
would, as good Democrats, gracefully
yield when 1--WE" knocked them on
the head in the convention. But all
this is changed. The Albany Argus
now disposes of our gallant and chivalrous
friends in this manner:-"The boisterous
Montgomery Mail is dead. The senile Mobile
Register has changed its coat and fallen into
line, an humble, and, we trust, repentant fol-
lower of those whom it tried to browbeat into
its waved-up folly. The Memphis Appeal
alone remains as a vociferator of nonsense
and gabbler of platitudes." And the New
York IFSrId, the friend of the Erie agent,
says of the other great statesman of its party:
'"Ihe truth is that Jefferson Davis is not only
a badly beaten general, failure as an execu-
tive head of a resisting people, thoroughly
whipped Rebel, but politician who stupidity,
criminally Ito use the mildest phrase) blum
dered." And these be brethren!
From all this it is plain, first, that the
Northern Democratic leaders are convinced
that the Southern voice must be silenced or
the party is already defeated; and second,
that they feel much stronger than they did
In 1868, and propose not to wheedle but to
lash the recusants into submission. But the
fact is none the less evident and significant
that the support of the Southern wing is
indispensable to Democratic success. There
fore if, in the National Convention of the
party, Mr.. Vallandigham, who in 1864 made
the Chicago platform of surrender to the
rebels, should in 1872 make another platform
of surrender to the Republicans, it would
certainly be an occasion of satisf action to
every patriot that the party did not take an
openly revolutionary position, but it would as
certainly be no ground for supporting party
which contains every revolutionary and dis
turbing element. The question, as we stated
last week, would then be whether purer
administration or greater fidelity to the new
order could be more reasonably expected
from the Democratic than from the Republi-
can party. There can be little doubt that the
Yallandigham platform would help the Demo-
cratic party in the Northern States, but it
would as surely exasperate the stanchest
Southern Democrats. Meanwhile those who
are disposed to think that the Democratic
party is always handled with admirable saga
city, and that it can rely upon its stern disci-
pline, may refresh their memories with the
history of its last three National Conventions
in 1860, 1864, and 1868. of which it may be
said that each surpassed the other in political
laundering.