The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-13

standing the counsel earnestly given by this
and other journals that course was chosen
-Four years more of Radical misrule, Grants
administration with steadily increasing con-
centration OF power, and a continuance
of burdensome and unjust taxation, are con
sequences which every Democrat can now
trace to the mistaken policy Of 1868. The
taunt of our adversaries that they had once
more won power through Democratic blun-
ders was not needed to impress upon the
minds of sensible men the truth that perty
has no right to throw away the good which
can be achieved in a vain attempt at the i'm
practicable.
The Democracy has ere long to prepare for
the next Presidential contest. 1t is the duty
of the party, therefore, to ask, not whether
this or that declaration may be abstractly
truthful, nor whether this or that measure
may be theoretically desirable, but what
changes in the direction Of good government
public opinion will sustain. To accomplish
anything of practical good there are needed
the votes of some citizens who supported the
Republican tickets in 1866 end 1868. Upon
what terms, consistent with Democratic prin-
eiples, can the support of such citizens be OBJ
tanned?
1t is never easy for men to acknowledge
that what they have done was wrong. Acting
from honest impulses, let us suppose Smith
voted for reconstruction in 1856, for Grant in
1868, and for negro suffrage in 1869. He sees
that reconstruction has not borne the desired
fruit; that ''let us have peace, in the mouth
of Grant, really meant continuance of the
war spirit and war measures; end that negro
ballots by no means bring the millennium.
But If asked to condemn these acts, to de-
nounce them as wicked, unconstitutional, or
unpatriotic, he recalls the honest impulses
under which he acted, and responds:-
''Things have not turned out as expected,
but meant it for good. 1 ana willing to
undo whatever can be or ought to, be undone,
but will not vote to brand myself with dis
honor" Thereupon Smith, who wants every
practical reform which Democrats desire,
might nevertheless feel obliged 10 vote the
Republican ticket. i @
Nor is it the sole practical duty of a party
to denounce the misdeeds of yesterday. The
business of practical men is with 5he present
and the future, not alone with the past. No
party can hope to succeed which has no other
ground for appeal to public confidence than
zeal in denouncing the errors of others. Pro-
misses go nearer to the hearts OF men than
criticisms. Place before the people two
parties, OF which one pledges reforms in the
future while the other condemns wrongs of
the past, and the former will have the ad-
vantage. What men want when they vote is
not to lecture somebody for what has been
done, but to secure for the future such
changes as their interests demand.
A large element in the Republican party
stands ready to demand the instant arrest of
those extreme measures which the war spirit
prompted, but which, it is now perceived,
only keep alive ill-feeling at the South, while
they lead to dangerous concentration of
power and departure from constitutional
limits. From this day on, that element de-
sires Just what Democrats desire-amnesty,
peace, respect for local State governments,
return to strict constitutional limitations.
Yet that same element, if asked to, denounce
reconstruction or enforcement acts, would
refuse. In the minds of such men the cir
cumstances and feelings of the past are
sufficient excuse for acts then adopted. A
like element stands ready to vote and work
for q reduction of the tariff to a revenue ba-
sis. AS to the future, it desires just what
Democrats have long demanded. Yet many
of these very men, if called upon to denounce
the adoption of extreme tariffs during the
last decade, under the mistaken plea that ne
cessities of war or of public credit required
such duties, might refuse. They desire re-
form. They do not desire to confess any
sins or blunders of the past. This may be
weak, illogical, unreasonable, but it is human
nature. That party wins which estimates hu-
man nature most correctly.
The Democratic party may hope to COM
mand such support as to insure its triumph
II, cOntented That It's cr1tclSm OF the past mas
been by events abundantly vindicated in the
minds of most honest citizens, and having
openly discarded the dead issues upon which
Senator Morton (Grant inan,S,aente) sought to
force it to fight the battle of 1872, it shall
now assert and maintain those living issues,
that wise and practical policy for the present
and the future, which the people have right
to expect from party rising to assume con-
troll of the Government.
| And the Democratic doctrines of the
fathers, of Jefferson and Madison and jack
son, concerning the supremacy of the Con-
stitution of the Union, the indefeasible rights
of States, the vigiant guardianship of civil
| liberty, the narrowing of the area of govern
ment, freedom of industry, and denial of
the power of all to the few monopolists who
with protective tariffs and partial taxes ''take
from the mouth of labor the bread it has
earned" these doctrines will never have had
SO shining an illustration of their truth and
wisdom as when lighting the future pathway
of theIgreat republic neutrality-suspicious. as it
has been on the high road to imperialism
fettered with monstrous debt, oppressive
taxation, and discord- breeding laws.
THE PARTY OF BLUNDERS.