The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-01-25
sP1Rxx or THE PRESS.
Editorial Opinions OF the Leading Journals
upon Current Topios-Compiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
SENATOR BLAIR.

An accluenJal correspondence IN dates is
seldom worth remarking, and it is not the
habit of men of sense to allude to what are
called remarkable condolences" except for
ridicule. But coincidence happened last
week to which we think it worth while to cali
attention. For aught we know, the two facts
which tally in point of time may be fraught
with important consequences in the politics
of the ensuing two years.
Francis Z. Blair, Jr., was last week elected
a Senator of the United States from Missouri;
and resolution was passed by the Senate
last week. looking to a new extension of
martial law over the Southern States and a
fresh attempt at reconstruction. This is, at
least, a curious dovetailing of facts. General
Blair's sentiments on the reconstruction
question are historical. 1t is in everybody's
recollection that he put forth, in 1868, one
of the boldest utterances ever made by a
public man; an utterance which dismayed
some of his friends, and was caught up with
eager exultation by all the enemies of the
Democratic party. But the fitness of Gen.
eral Blair's election to the Senate at this
present time may perhaps strengthen the be-
lief that
There's divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough hew them how we WILL"
1t will at least be admitted that no man
could be put in the Senate, at the present
time, who is SO bound by his antecedents. or
experiment of reconstruction as General
Blair. He has every kind of courage, moral,
political, and physical; an indomitable, un-
hinching will, untiring activity, and a bold
ness of language which cannot fail to rouse
and fix attention. He will be a constant
thorn in the side of the new reconstruction
ists And, what is more to the purpose, he
will carry the public opinion of the country
with him in his intrepid resistance to q fur
thar Of ha Stata lc 6
the South and renewal of martial law.
Events move swiftly, and public opinion
moves with them. The state of the recon
struction question is very different now from
what it was in 1868. Then the country was
impatient to have it settled and done with,
and judged that acquiescence in what had
been begun by Congress was the shortest
path to that result. With Republican
Senate, fixed for many years in power, there
was no chance of a repeal of the reconstruc-
ton acts while repeal could do any good; and
even many Democrats preferred the speediest
completion of the radical experiment, trust
ing that the people of the South would soon
get control of the new governments. Events
have justified their expectation. In the first
set of elections after the withdrawal of Fede-
raj bayonets, the Democrats have promptly
redeemed most of the Southern States from
radical control, in spite of the negro vote.
If the radicals were content to stand by their
own work, and swallow their disappoint-
ment in silence, General Blair's election to
the Senate would have no particular signif-
cancer His Broadhead letter would, in that
case, have no more interest than year before
lasts almanac. 1t is true that radical men,
bers of the Missouri Legislature tried to bad
ger him with it while the Senatorial election
was pending and he, like the man of spirit
that he is, refused to sit on The stool of peni-
tence, and professed to adhere to every word
of that letter. But if the radicals had the
wisdom to let reconstruction alone, he would
have no occasion to act upon this profession.
The Broadhead letter would be merely a
record of what General Blair's opinion was in
the summer of 1868, and would have only a
biographical interest as part of his per-
sonal history. But the new reconstruction
movement, which has just been started,
transforms personal record into a political
rallying- cry, and puts General Blair into the
foremost rank as leader of the opposition.
The difference between 1868 and the pre-
sent time is, that General Blair will now
carry the country with him. The very same
motives which led the country to acquiesce
in the reconstruction of 1868 will impel il
to resist a new attempt of the same kind.
The country was, even then, tired of agita-
tion, and thought the quicker the question
was got rid of the better for every interest
The revival of the agitation now is just what
the people will not tolerate. They will un-
hesitatingly follow the boldest leaders in op-
position to this scheme of brazen perfidy.
The Republican party cannot hoodwink the
country respecting their motives in inter-
meddllng with the domestic governments of
the South 1t is manifest to everybody that
their sole reason for attempting to unsettIe
and destroy them q second time is their dis
appointment in finding that, even with the
help of the negro vote, they cannot retain
them in the Republican party without a re-
newal of military terror and coercion. A set
of desperate political gamesters are ready to
disturb their own settlement because they
are disappointed in it's party results. The
people, who love peace, and support General
Grant because they trusted in the sincerity
of his famous ''Let us have peace" will not
stand reopening of the same exasperating
controversy. 1t was in the interest of
tranquility and quiet that General Grant
was able to carry the election of 1868,
and the people will make him and his party
suffer if they wantonly attempt to deprive
the South of its freedom of political action
in the election of 1872. If they want to
elevate General Blair, who was of SO much
service to them in the last Presidential cleo
tion, to the rank of a great and successful
political leader, they have only to persist in
their present reckless attempt, aud transmute
the desire for tranquility, which enabled
them to win, into resentful Indignation at
their forfeiture of their pledges. Instead of
vainly stemming the current, as he did in
'GS, General Blair will now be rowing in the
same direction that it runs. ''Let us have
peace will be the Democratic watchword
against this new attempt to upset the State
governments of the South.
There could not ba a mora SionaI ornof of