The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-19
MIR. TALLANDIGHAMS DYING AD-
PICE TO THE DEMOCRACY.


PICE TO THE DEMOCRACY.
Mr.. VALLAND1GHAM on Wednesday was inter-
viewed by one of the editors of the Cincinnati
Times and Chronicle, and expressed his views
on the political situation in very clear and
emphatic language, and his sudden death will
give to these his last utterances, a value they
perhaps would not otherwise have had.
Good advice is always worthy of
consideration, no matter who gives
it; and although it was certainly
strange for Mr.. vallandigham, in the face of
his past record, to SO utterly repudiate all the
most cherished ideas of the party of which he
has for so long been an extreme representa-
tive, it cannot be disputed that he was SUBJ
stantially right in his demand for new de-
parture, no matter what might have been the
motives by which he was prompted. Those
who have been opposed to the Yallandigham
theories in the past cannot but wonder, how
ever, why he did not have prescience to
advocate new departure for the Demo-
cracy several years ago, when a
cordial acceptance of the results of the war
would have saved not only the South but the
nation at large many of the delays that the
l.
required no very profound craftsmanship to
discover that slavery and all the issues that
arose out of it died when Lee surrendered his
army, and if men at the North like Mr.. Val
landigham had cheerfully accepted the condi-
tions of defeat, and devoted their energies
not to the obstruction of the Government
in the difficult task it had
in hand, but to aiding in the
work of restoring the Southern States to their
proper places in the Union, and in convinc-
ing the Southern people that their own in
terests as well as those of the nation de-
manded that the new order of things should
be cordially concurred in, many of the disa-
bilities under which the South now labors
might with comparative ease have been
avoided. 1t was the Democrats of the North
who encouraged the people of the South to
resist reconstruction, as they had encouraged
them during the war to resist the armed
forces sent against them. 1t was
the moral support of the North
ern Democrats that prolonged the
war, and made the final defeat of the South
much more overwhelming and bitter than it
would otherwise have been; and IL was their
evil counsels, and the false hopes that they
held out, that kept alive such organizations
as the Ku-klux, and rendered necessary such
severe enactments as the Ku-klux bill passed
at the last session of Congress. The only
effect of the policy pursued by the Democrats
has been to prolong the unpleasant situation
of the Southern people and to make a Demo-
cratic return to power more than ever prob
lematical. But now when the Democrats of
the North, or at least the leaders of the party,
are convinced that a new departure is impera-
lively necessary, the Southerners are not able
to see the force of their reasoning, and very
justly consider that they are disposed to
abandon principles for pelf. Apart from all
this, however, there can be doubt that great
good would result to the nation at large if the
advice of Mr.. Vallandignam were to be taken.
He said in the interview referred to,
that eff the Democratic party refuses to
move to the front and accept the new
order of things it will simply pass away,
and some other party, made up of the earnest
and progressive elements of the old parties,
will take possession of the Government.
Such q departure as this would Justly be
looked upon with suspicion by those who
have been the opponents of the Democracy
during the last ten years, and it would be
attributed more to desire for Office on the
part of certain politicians than to any pa
triotic motives. If such a reform, however,
were once fairly inaugurated, there
can scarcely be a doubt of its success
in the near future if not in the
immediate present, for it would be impossi-
BILE to revive the old issues, and the old Bour-
bons of the Democracy, North and South,
would either be obliged to join the reform
ers, or else sink out of sight. 1t would be
interesting if we could know exactly what
grand progressive ideas Mr.. Vallandigham
proposed that his regenerated Democratic
party should go before the nation with. His
remarks at the interview recorded in the Gin
cinnati Times and Chronicle indicate that he
was in favor of inaugurating an annexation
policy which would extend our do
minion over the whole continent. Perhaps
a new departure might be made in this direc-
tion. but we scarcely think that it would be
possible to get up any very great amount OF
enthusiasm with regard to the enlargement
of our dominion just at present. If the
Democracy, however, must have policy, this
NAV answer quite as well as anything else,
and il would be relief to have their orators
and organs dilating upon the advantages OF
annexinR Canada, Cuba, Mexico, and Other
outlying territory, rather than expend'ng
their eloouence in denunciations of the nj
teenth amendment and the Reconstruction
iauo of Nono raa6