The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-15

Someumes d1spleaSe them, so that they show
their disapproval by letting an election go by
default, the moment the enemy reveals his
spirit and purpose, they spring to their feet.
In 1S65-66 Andrew johnson was apparently
seriously demoralzing the Republican party.
But the massacres in New Orleans and Men,
phis distinctly revealed the character of the
opposition, and the consequence of Demo-
cratic success and from that moment the
Republican dominance was substantially
assured.
There has been a corresponding situation
within the last few months. There is, in
deed, fortunately, no Andrew Johnson; but
there have been difficulties and dvergences
of many kinds, and jealousies and embittered
feelings, until there seemed to be serious dis
order among Republicans. There we're doubts
and questions and gloomy anticipations, and
the New Hampshire election occurring in the
midst of them all was hailed by the Democra-
tic party as the sign of a fatal breach, or the
rising of 'tidal wave" We ventured to say
of it, however, that it might prove to be an
advantage, by leading Republicans to better
mutual understanding. And that this will be
its result we have now no doubt. For the
same general restlessness and uncertainty
which lost that election to the friends
of the Union and good government,
quickened the spirit of the Southern Demo-
cracy, which has naturally always been the
controlling element of the Democratic party,
and within a month the country has had
prophetic vision of the inevitable results of
renewed Democratic ascendency.
1t has seen in the Southern States men and
women, whose offense is their color, or their
fidelity to the Union and to the Government,
barried and murdered. This disorder, occa-
sianed by Democrats and leveled at Repub-
lcans, has swelled to the proportions of insur-
rection, so that Congress and the country
could not be deaf to the cries of citizens out
ragged and slain that others might be kept
from the polls, and Democratic ma jorities
assured by reign of terror. In the midst
of these events the country has also seen
Jefferson Davis suddenly conspicuous, and
in a public speech declaring that the
Stephens, brother of Alexander FL.
Stephens, and a respected Democratic
leader in his section, demands at Augusta the
overthrow of all the reconstruction acts, and
"a Teadjustment of our institutions upon re-
newed constitutions" Leading Democratic
newspapers in the Southern States loudly echo
and applaud the demand, and accept the New
Hampshire election as sign that the work of
the war may be undone. The most represen-
tstive of these papers remind their readers
that the last National Democratic Convention
declared the reconstruction acts ''unconstitu-
tional, revolutionary, and void" and claim
that they are not less so now; and that they
must, of course, be the issue in 1872.
| While thus the country sees that the de-
claration of the Democratic party in the
Southern States is for overthrowing the great
settlements of the war, it perceives also that
the Tammany Ring, supreme in the Demo-
cratic party of New York, and aiming to
| grasp the National Government, confirms
| the monstrous fraud of the Erie bill, which
strikes at the most vital right of the control
of property; repeals the Registry law, to make
cheating at the polls more practicable; and
in the city of New York assumes powers so
imperially absolute that the better men even
of its own party protest.
Meanwhile the Democratic declaration that
the reconstruction acts are unconstitutional,
revolutionary, and void remains No State
| convention has withdrawn assent to such
statements no authoritative leader of the De-
mocratic party has yet announced his entire
acquiescence in reconstruction. The World,
indeed, quotes Mr.. Fernando Wood! But
Mr.. Woods declarations carry no weight, and
! inspire no respect. 1t Itquotes Mr.. John Quincy
| Adams. But MIR. Adams sneeringly says of
the party which he has lately joined, that il
must begin by being Democratio-that is to
say, il must discard all its policy and all its
leaders. The Mobile Register is a much
sounder and more generally accepted authority
in the Democratic party than Mr.. Adams, and
the Register insists that reconstruction is the
issue. Nor can the World be accepted as an
authority in its party. 1t opposed repudia-
tion in 1868, but reputation was put into
the Democratic platform. 1t favored Mr..
Chase, but Mr.. Seymour was nominated. 1t
advised the abandonment of General Blair,
and it was heartily cursed by its party. 1t
opposed the Erie bill, and its Governor
signed it, and its party has adopted it. 1t
declared war against the ring, and the ring
silenced it. The World has advocated the
policy which its party has steadily rejected;
and the deprecatory tone of it's article upon
General Blairs position, and its confession
that ''the Southern Democracy is seriously
divided upon the substantial issue for 1872,
reveal its consciousness that the issue is q
foregone conclusion.
Nor will any one who observes closely
doubt it. If the Democratic party had car
ried Connecticut, as it did New Hampshire,
it could not long have concealed that its
national policy is reaction. Its convention
would have been more absolutely mastered
by the Southern Democracy than it was in
1868. The Democratic success would have
been interpreted as a reputation of the Re-
publican settlement of the war. The facts,
therefore, apon which good citizens must de-
eide their action in 1872 are already evident
The Democratic party is the organization of all
the elements of reaction, disorder, discomfort,
and revolution. The same spirit which COM
PEELED even its first convention after the war
to deneunce reconstruction, and to declare
stealthily for reputation, and which now
ravages loyal sections with the Ku-klux, and
demands an active reconsideration of all that
has been accomplished, would certainly refuse
to pay the pensions of loyal soldiers, or would
demand an equal payment of Rebel claims.
The prospect of Democratic success is one OF