The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-01

His first movements at least indicate that the
tasks given him are not too great for him to
conquer
THREE POLITICAL SPOOKS.
From the NJ p. World
This country is Just now good deal
plagued with ghosts spectres and what the
old Germans called dopple-gangers and the
Scotch doubles" Some of these spparitions
devote themselves to making private homes
unhappy; other some to muddling public mat
tsrs. One of the latter class, under the name
and guise of Andrew johnson, has Just been
making a speech at Knoxville, in Tennessee,
which is just enough like the genuine speeches
of that ex-President to deceive his bitter ene-
mics, while it contains suggestions so peculiar
and original that had they really been made
by Mr.. johnson he would be entitled to rank
with such great inventors in legislation as
Draco, Confucius, Wendell Phillips, and
Felix Pyat. OF course the spook had tact
enough to deceive the telegraph operators by
using Mr.. Johnston's favorite allusion to the
fact that he had ''passed through political
life, enjoying all its honors from the village
alderman to the highest Office within the gift
of the people" He next ventured on q
bolder flight, and observed with much appa-
rent satisfaction ''After running my life
course-a mighty course it has proved-I can
truly say have violated no pledge, sacrificed
no principle" From these harmless obser-
vations in q vein not unlike Mr.. JohnsOn's
the sprits advanced to PROFOUND an astonish-
ing plan for the elevation of mankind, ''phy-
sical, mental, and moral" This plan is as
brief as it is brilliant. Instead of sending
criminals to the penitentiary, where they
become the rivals of honest mechanics, -" this
elvish orator proposes to divide them into
two classes, to be thus summarily dealt with:
-'"rhe first class would hang; the second
1 would deprive of the power of propagating
their species" If this be done, the pixie
coolly says that Gin few centuries man
would become the image of his Creator"
The spook of Andrew johnson is, however,
an innocent brownie in comparison with
sulphur imp which has succeeded
in passing itself off upon s reporter of the
Herald in Georgia as the President of
the Confederate States, and in that charac-
ter has dictated to the reporter discourse on
the 'Iost Cause" which combines the
political sasaeity and practical good
sense of Wendell Phillips with the
unobtrusive modesty of q ZachariaA
Chandler. Doubtless the imp was stimulated
to this exploit by the elaborate prominence
given by Horace Greeley, in a speech re-
Gently delivered by that great agriculturist at
Galveston, Texas, to the person of Mr.. JEFF
ferson Davis as a means of reaching and
soothing the Southern heart. In this Calves
| ton Grafton MIR. Greeley appears explaining
that he gave bail for Mr.. Davis, not because
he thought SO much of Mr.. Davis as the act
would seem to imply, but because he believed
the Southern people to be so much interested
in Mr.. Davis that to set him at liberty and
put him in the way of amusing hlmself by
| playing at speech-making would greatly
| oonciliate the Southern heart and lead
the Southern heart to lean kindly
towards the liberator of the fallen chief In
seizing this opportunity the imp, it must be
confessed, showed a certain amount of artistic
perception. Although the Southern people
have little cause to remember the administra-
ton Of their affairs by Mr.. Davis either with
pride or pleasure, they are much too gallant a
people not to have been tenderly moved to-
wards him by the vicarious humiliations
which he suffered for them at the hands of
Edwin M. Stanton. After the surrender of
Lee and Johnston Mr.. Davis was certainly
the least respected and most unpopular man
in the South. He would have continued SO
to be had not Stanton with calcu-
lating malignity made a martyr of
him, in defiance alike of decency, of JUS
tice, and of sound policy. Since his libera.
tion from Fortress Monroe, therefore, Mr..
Davis has been to the Southern people kind
of concentrated impersonation and symbol OF
that radical spite and rage against them
selves to which Horace Greeley 80 earnestly
attributes all the delay which has occurred IL
re-establishing peace within our borders
The imp, therefore, which took upon itseli
the task of making speeches for Mr.. Davis
in the Herald Immediately upon Mr.. Gree
ley revival of the Confederate President a
Galveston, chose his time we'll. He knew
that the Southern people would be bound, il
only by consideration for Mr.. Greeley, Il
allow anything which Mr.. Davis might say
or be reported to say, to pass unrebuked M
matter how indiscreet or out of taste o.
foreign from the feelings of the Southern
people themselves it might be. OF course
the object of the imp must be supposed to b,
mischieVous; but the time has happily gon,
by when such operations could produce any
deep and abiding effect on any but the mos
thoroughly clod-hopping of fy-gobblers a
the North.
The third political spoek of the momeR
seems to be being of gentler mould, ant
he has certainly taken upon him ito dis
figure or present" more innocuous mortal
He is cobold who turns up in Texas a
Horace Greeley, making the very speeche
to which we have already alluded. The rea
Horace Greeley, We need hardly say, hs
never left New York. He has been, indeed
secluded from the public for short time, a
the Tribune Tuesday morning ingeniousl