The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-12
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EDrToR1AL OPINIONS OF THE LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT ToPIos-ooMPILED EVERY
DAY FOR THE EVENING TELEGRAPH.
CESARISM.

CHbAhlSM.
From the NJ Y. World.
Morton. Butler. Chandler, Conkling, and
Cameron are new illustrations of the old truth
about the madness of the foredoomed. The
Republican party, falling into the hands of
such men, has suffered injuries from which
nothing can now redeem it. Recently so pow
erful, enjoying peculiar advantages, boasting
o splendid organization, it goes to pieces as
swiftly and surely as wooden ship dashed
against storm beaten rocks. And yet the
crazy men who hold command insist upon
driving it again and again against the same
fatal barrier. WELDING with merciless severity
the lash of party discipline, crushing down
with scorn and insult every Sumner, Schurz,
or Farnsworth who dares to stand up Tor JUS
tice and constitutional obligations, and rely
ing solely upon blind partisanship to secure
immunity for offenses such as no free people
has ever yet forgiven, these desperate leaders
seem resolved to force every nan who re-
spects the Constitution, every man who de-
sires true reform of any kind, to ally him
self with the Democratic party. Partisan
ship is still powerful. But there are abun-
dant proofs that patriotism has yet more
power.
Let Republicans say what they will of the
Democratic party, the great truth still re-
mains, and forces itself every day upon the
convictions of reasonable men, that the mad
career upon which extreme radicals have en-
tered can be arrested only by the power of
the Democrats. Thoughtful men see with
undisguised alarm that the Constitution,
strained to the utmost during the war, is
now in immediate danger of such an over
throw that the will of one man. or of party
caucus, shall be our only supreme law. AS
Republican Senator recently admitted, the
Constitution has already been so shingled
over with amendments and precedents that
its original form can scarcely be discovered
H. IAx,A ,1ar 1.anl
hands, all the power of an amendment; each
amendment is strained and magnifed into
revolution in our form of government. To-
day, with the assent of a MAJ ority of the
Senate, the President grasps and uses at his
pleasure the war-making power. Without
even the poor pretext that a treaty is still
pending involving inchoate rights he die
tates with his guns to one foreign
power, interferes actively in the internal
affairs of another, and, at the risk of war
with any civilized nation, pushes q corrupt
scheme in defiance of public censure. Even
while the Executive thus usurps power in
dealing with foreign nations, and grossly
abuses the power thus usurped, his party
adherepts are demanding for him q new
and almost unlimited extension of power in
domestic affairs. Give to him the right to
send troops into any State without appica-
tion from any local authority, with none of
those restraints which the Constitution wisely
interposes between despotic Capitalization
and local self-government, and of his own
mere motion, upon information known only
to himself, and of which he is the sole Judge,
to proclaim martial law wherever he likes,
and what farther step toward the subversion
of our liberties will remain? Only one if
indeed that is farther step. 1t will remain
only for American freemen to copy the ex-
ample of Rome and decree that one man shall
''take care of the republic"
1t is not strange that Republicans by the
ten thousands begin to feel that they cannot
honestly sustain any party by which the
liberty of the people is thus assailed. How
ever strong their attachment to their party
may be, they realize that duty to the country
may require its defeat. Intense hostility TO
Democracy does not blind everybody to the
fact that the Democrats have both predicted
and consistently resisted this progressive en-
croachment upon the Constitution, and they
alone have the power to make effective resist.
ance in time to save free government from
the impending overthrow. Hence it is that
few Republicans in Congress begin to as
sert more boldly their independence of caucus
or Executive dictation. They are forced to
speak out by an overwhelming public senti
ment.
The Democratic party owes it to the coun-
try and to the cause of self-governlnent not
to repress this rising independence of parti-
sanship and returning attachment to the Con
stitution by any revival of questions which
have passed from the arena of practical work
1t is the duty of every sincere patriot to save
the country from Cesarism. To that end it is
duty to meet with hearty welcome all men,
of whatever faith or association in the past
who are ready to work for the overthrow OF
the corrupt combination by which we are nov
ruled and cursed, for the success of genuine
reforms affecting practical questions of the
present and future, and for the restoration
of the Constitution to its rightful supre
macy. Let men like Morton and Butler
Cameron and Chandler, go on laboring tC
revive old issues, and to force upon the De
mocrats the same controversies wherein the
Republicans have hitherto prevailed. This il
manifesily the only policy which gives then
a chance to retain their grasp upon the Gov
ernment and to flch the liberties and tn,
earnings of the people. But no true Demo
crat should help them in their scheme. TIL,
conspirators cannot ask more effective allie
than those who persist in forcing obsolete o
irrelevant questions upon public attention
or by acts or deeds of violence help to ia,
once more into fame the dying embers O
civil strife. With Grant and his coadiutor
war is a necessity Every Democrat, on tn
contrary, may ardently pray, LET us hav
peace"
TAX REFORM BY ABSTRACT PRINCIPLE
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