The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-05-02

true to the same instinct, the most servile
lackeys of the French Emperor were to be
found in the American Democratic press
Abroad it tosdied to Louis Napoleon and
patronized John Bright, while at home it
steadily ridiculed the unfortunate colored citi-
zens, ,sneered at the Southern leaders who hon
orably accepted the results of the war, and
hesped the aost fulsome sdulation upon those
who did not. The first Democratic National
Convention after the war was controlled by the
same old spirit of hatred of equal popular
rights. Even the earthquake had not shaken
of the dominance of the slave-holding aris-
tocracy. So abject had been the submission
of the party to a spirit utterly antsgonistic to
American principles that it was helpless in the
grasp of Wade Hampton and his Southern
friends, and the Democratic party, therefore,
went into the last Presidential election, as it
bad entered upon the elections of genera
ton, as the party of hostility to equal rights
and aristoorstic distrust of the people.
The latest illustrations of this spirit are not
less significant. Among the most striking is
tho alliance of the Democratic party with the
most despOtic and reactionary school of the
Roman Catholic Church. That Church has
a clearly defined political policy in this coun-
try, which is fatal to the permanence of a free
popular system, and of that policy the Demo-
cratic party is the supple servant. So fearful
is it of offending that Church that the Demo-
cratic press is either silent upon the political
regeneration of Italy or sneers at it, while 1T
is forced by the same fear to fawn upon the
Church by depreciating the Importance of DR..
Dollingers accommodation. So also in the
Democratic Congressional caucus to prepare
an address to the people, Senator Salisbury,
OF Delaware, is reported to have said that the
Democratic party of his State would not con-
sent to acquiescence in the equal rights of
cit and ha - of tba
party from the West has taken the same
ground, and IS sustained by the most infu-
ential Southern Democratic presses and poll
ticians
But in the State of New York, where the
party is thoroughly organized under the
Tammany leadership, the contempt for the
people is most manifest Without permit
ting even the reading of their edicts in the
Legislature, and, of course, without tolerating
debate, the Democratic leaders have applied
the usurpation of the Erie bill to municipal
government. Officers whom the people had
elected for year or for two years are re-
tanned in Office for two and three years more
than their elected term The leaders have
also decreed that four officers in the city, two
of whom only were elected by the people,
and one of whom has had his term ex-
tended after election for two years more,
shall levy and disburse all the city taxes
The details of this imperial system we have
heretofore exposed. It is so ingeniously con-
structed that while, as in Louis Napoleon's 8
in France, there is the form of popular
election, the authority and terms of subse-
quent appointment are such that the whole
power resides in officers who are not elected
by the people, and whose terms are more
than double that of the appointing officer,
who, by the enormous concentration of
patronage in their hands, is necessarily their
puppet and tool. Executive responsibility is
thus annihilated and such is the total disre-
gard of the ordinary safeguards of free
popular system in party which has for more
than generation despised equal rights and
| defended slavery as the foundation of free
| institutions, that il the Democratic leaders
| had decided that the terms OF the appointed
| which are the real-offices in the system
| should be twenty years instead of five, the
decision would have been ratified with the
same utter disregard of the ordinary forms
| of legislation.
In presence of such facts party heat is i'm
| pertinent. The question is of the practicable
| ity and permanence of American institutions.
| Here is q party which has always opposed
| equal liberty which instinctively affiliates
| abroad with the most absolute and reaction
| airy policy, which at no ne is the ally of the
| Roman Church in its assault upon the public
| school system, which includes the Ku-klux
| and every enemy of the Union, and which
now, in the State of New York, strikes with
the Erie bill at the right of property holders
to elect their agents, and by its amended
charter abolishes popular government in the
city. This party is strong, rich, organized,
unscrupulous. 1t is the servant of the COM
bined capital of enormous corporations, and
| its corrupt methods are so notorious that OF
themselves they justly excite anxiety for the
| future of the country. 1t is supported by ig-
norance, by class jealousy, by hatred of race,
| by disaffection to the Government. Is this
a party which can safely obtain control of the
national administration?
1t is patriotic, not party question. II
| appeals to every intelligent Democrat, and il
appeals especially to those Republicans who,
in presence of such a peril, ardently engage
in the quarrel of their party in New York. II
appeals no less to the Republicans of Ohio
and of Missouri who seek to raise the party
standard-an effort in which we cordially
sympathize-that they do it in manner that
will strengthen our own party, and not the
enemy. 1t appeals to the American faith in
the people and in free popular institutions
that it shall defeat those who distrust and de
spise both, and who are leagued fast with the
foes of intelligence and liberty Indeed, the
only doubt of the issue in 1872 springs from
indifference or blindness to the fact that The
paramount question is whether-whateve
the faults of Republican measures and men
the party that we have described, whateve
its professions may be, can safely be intruste(
with the Government.
THE GERMANS IN POLITICS AND PENN
SYLVANIA.
From the N Y. World
One of the worst features of the war car