The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-17

can be initiated in other cities. All these
matters, of the utmost importance To the
whole country, would naturally be deliberated
on by national association It is good
thing that the movement for founding such |
society has been supported by SO many gen.
tlemen known throughout the country for
their public spirit, philanthropy, and intell-
gence. 1t already deserves success The |
grand convention in London, which is to be |
the crown of this effort, has already received |
the hearty approval of all the leading Euro |
pean Governments, and its assembling bids |
fair to constitute an era in the history of |
prison reform.
A NoN-DEPARTING NEW DEPARTURE.
From Harper's Weekly, edited by G. w. Curtis
All good citizens will gladly see the Dem
ocratic party desert its revolutionary and
threatening position, and declare its assent
to the benefcent and fundamental changes
which have been effected by the Republican
party. Such declaration, indeed, will be
no reason for restoring the party to power,
not only because it is not made from convic-
ton, and merely for the purpose of attaining
power, but because the party contains the
chief moral and political elements of hos
tility to the Government and its
principles. The only credit due to
MIR. Vallandigham, who has now become
the leader of that part of the Democratic party
which wishes to profess acquiescence in the
situation, is that of perceiving that the sole
chance for his party is at least to assume
virtue. But his platform is not yet that of
his party, and it is not clear that it will be-
come SO. The Northern chiefs insist that it is
senility and insanity to think of anything
else. But the commanding fact in the history
of the Democratic party is that its Southern
element has always controlled it, and for the
reason that it was the element of real convc-
ton; and we have yet to see that the situation
is changed
After the Democratic National Convention
of 1868 had assembled, and before it's nom-
nations were made, Southern Democrat re-
marked that the nomination of Judge Chase
| would be surrender which would dissolve
! the party "General Grant, he said, "would,
! in that case, walk over the course" There
was a very different opinion, however, among
many New York Democrats. Their reason-
| ing was that to nominate man who had
| been conspicuous Republican leader
would inevitably demoralize the Repub-
lican party. But If the reasoning were
correct, it was applicable to their own
friends. Had Judge Chase been the candi-
date, the Democratic traditions would all
have been abandoned; every Democratic
rallying cry would have been silenced; not an
orator would have alluded to the past; slavery
could not have been justified; the "nigger''
not have been denounced; the ''usurpations"
of the Republicans could not have been
condemned; the rescue of the Consti-
tuition could not have been proclaimed
for if the Constitution had been vio-
lated, if the war was unjust, and its conduct
tyrannical usurpation, nobody was more
guilty than the Chief Justice. To sneer at
''the gorilla" and cheer for his colleague, the
Secretary of the Treasury, to spit upon un-
constitutional legislation and vote for the
father of the legal-tenders, was something SO
preposterous that, however plausible as a
party trick, it was impracticable if there were
sLy party conviction. The Southern Demo-
crat and his friends prevailed, and the con
vention appropriately and logically nomi-
mated a candidate who had virtually said, as
Mr.. Dickinson was never weary of repeating
that he would see the Union dissolved rather
than slavery disturbed.
At the present time, when the Ohio leaders
have declared their acquiescence in the amend
ments, three things are observable: that Mr..
Pendleton was president of the convention,
and that the resolutions favor form of repu-
diation; that the party organs of the new de-
parture declare that the acquiescence is not in
the amendments, but in the judicial construc
tion that may be put upon them; and that a
vital element of the party in the Southern
States emphaticslly rejects the movement. If
a party were, what some of the New York
Democratic leaders naturally suppose it to be,
a mere team of draught animals, to be turned
this way or that at the pleasure of the drivers,
such tricks as the nomination OF an old Re-
publican or the sudden abandonment of the
party position might be practicable. But the
very hedging about the new departure, the
bitterness of the attacks upon the Southern
leaders, and the bungling about reputation
which betray the movement, show that the
Vallsndigham leaders do not feel themselves
to be masters of the situation.
The Republicans have their troubles, but
no such fatal gulf as this Democratic diffe-
renee divides them. Kentucky, for instance,
is a model Democratic State. The real prin-
ciples and traditions of the party are there
! most vigorous and most cherished. The
character and promise of Democratic ascen-
. dency can be satisfactorily studied in the
State of Kentucky, as in the city of NewYork.
: Now Mr.. John G.. Carlisle, the Democratic
candidate for Lieutenant Governor in that
State, says that the new-departure platform,
instead of laying the question of the amend.
) ments, merely raises 1t for the whole cam
paign; that the amendments are not dead
: issues, and that the courts" have power to
try their validity. Mr.. Alexander HI. Stephens
announces that the fourteenth and fifteenth
4 amendments are not valid Father Ryan
his discourse over the Confederate
: dead at Mobile, upon which occasion he
was introduced by that active Democrat
admiral" Semmes, remarked that the lost
a cause sis not false cause, but a true ano
a noble one, and ought TO be cherished: it is Q
: cause which remains to be vindicated by sue
: ceeding generations" jefferson Davis
q speeches are already familiar; and Henry s.
r Foote says that he has no doubt of Davis
t mischievous hopes Some of the Southern