The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-26
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
Z DIToBIAL OPINIONS OF THE LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT ToPIos-ooMPILED EVERY
DAY FOR THE EVENING TELEGRAPH.
PARTY LEADERS AND THE PEOPLE.


security with regard to the future, might be
more successful if the Southern newspapers
would take the hint and suppress their real
opinions about the lost cause" until after the
election. This, however, they decline to do
They think they see their way to success with
or without the help of the "War Democrats"
Republican dissensions encourage them to
throw aside all disguses They see so many
Republican journals substantially fighting
their battle, that they can afford to disregard
the prudent admonitions of the World and
other Democratic papers. Thus, the Mobile
Register is furious because the World advises
the Southern people to accept the situation"
as they find it. Why should they, it asks
cease to oppose negro suffrage and the if
teenth amendment? care they right? Are
they Radical or Democratic platform panks?
Can you count the tens of thousands of white
men who will spurn your ticket if you taint it
with negro politics2" The Register goes on
as follows
1--WE retort, then, on Northern mpractIcables
like the World who persistently close their eyes to
this great power OF race instinct, who reject law
that God has imprinted on the hearts OF all men,
and prefer to cling to false and gtterlng expe-
diencles as the watchword Of victory. The World
Armies religious military, political, led
to victory by unbellevers like the World 1t is afraid
OF Its own cause afraid OF the very truths it is most
profoundly grounded in. How can there be nspra-
tion-the Jeu Sacye OF triumph--n the counsels or
the leadership OF such journa?'
The Montgomery Mail of the goth inst. also
denounces the policy of acknowledging the
results of the war as settled, and Says
''What if we SO shape public sentiment every
where that the World and its followers will
be in minority in that (the next Presden-
tiaD convention? And that is just what we are
laboring to do-nothing more certainly no
less" 1t continues its argument thus
''The great national objection to the fifteenth
amendment lies in the fact that so long as 1t occu
pies place In the Constitution of the United
states, 1t is standing admission the part of the
used in overthrowIng the 'old landmarks OF popular
and free Government. Can the World see no danger
in that admission not worth, at least, effort to
escape from2 And who is left to make that effort
II not the Democratic party?"
We might multiply such passages to almost
any extent, but the lesson they teach is OBJ
vious. 1t will be we'll for the people at the
North to make up their minds without delay
that these extracts convey the true sentiments
of the Southern Democrats, and that the cleo
tion of a Democratic President in 1872 will
mean surrender of all the pr inciples which
have been contended for since the close of the
war-even if the old question of secession is
not revived in a more dangerous form than
ever. The Democratic vote of the South can
only be obtained upon the terms indicated in
the above quotations. AS the Mobile
Register says, the views expressed
by the World will prove to be those
of only a minority of the party. Republicans
wish to think that the ''war issues" can be
safely left to themselves now, but it will pro-
badly be many years before the South aban-
dons its belief that the objects of the Con
federacy failed through series of accidents
which can never occur again, and that the
next attempt to s'establish nation" will be
successful. Once let Republican rule be
overthrown, and we shall find ourselves deal
ing afresh with the worst of the prob
lens which confronted ten years
NJ ions fn hn mi hat
we can possibly make will reconcile the
people to the destruction of the only political
ideas which ever had any degree of vitalforce
among them. Some of them are kind enough
to tell us so plainly now. Others set guard
upon their lips, but cherish the same sinister
purposes in their hearts. What we gained by
the war we alone can keep. And it is for this
reason that we have always insisted that the
Republican party is as necessary to the coun-
try now as il was in 1861, and that our differ
ences with each other are absurdly unimpor-
tant, compared with the duty which lies be.
fore US of preserving to the nation those
blessings which we were the means of win
ming for it.
Upon these very differences the Southern
Democrats build their hopes. In one State
they see personal quarrels absolutely para
lying the Republican party. contest owe
Offices blinds many excellent men to the peril
before the country, and leads them to b'
almost willing that the Democrats shoul'
once moro obtain the upper hand. The wors
of these differences is that discussion evi
IDENTIFY has only tendency to make them tel
times more difficult of settlement than the
were before, by exasperating the adherent
of both sides. Whether the fight is betweeI
Senators, or rival factions, or office-seeker
and ofice-holders, the slightest refe
renee to it only adds fuel to the fire. L
such a state of affairs, there is nothin
to hope for except that the commo
sense of the people will eventually crust
these discords, and perhaps the authors o
them into the bargain. This is a powe
which the Southern people never did tax
into consideration; and they seem to be no.
more incapable than ever of realizing its 81
istence They suppose that local feuds her
and there between leaders will suffice in tn
hour of trial to break up the Republica
party. 1t is one of their numerous "dream
of delusion." When the real push comes
whom it has to be decided whether the col
tests of the last ten years shall be fought OF
all over again, or whether the Republ
can settlement of past disputes shall b
upheld-the people will take affairs int
their own hands, and the wranglers wh
now occupy the field of politics will
swept away as with whirlwind. We Cal
nothing for factions on one side or the othe
Whether this man or the other gets the mo
offices is matter of no concern to as.
that we are anxious to see is the Republics
party win in the next Presidential election
and the selection of the man who is to
placed in the foreground as our candidate, v
are well content to leave to time and II
Judgment of the people. So that the par
copoueIs the fate of individuals is of lit