Year: 1876

the Black Flag!


1t would be misfortune if our celebra-
tion tomorrow were to begin and end in the
ringing of bells and the thunder of cannon.
That is the attractive view of it, and we
trust that the favoring heavens will give our
people an opportunity for the perfect enjoy
ment of their patriotism. From what We
learn all over the country the celebration
will be one of unusual magniiceace and
enthusiasm. For the first time since the
war the North and South will unite in the
celebration of an event in which they have
a common share. Whatever Northerners and
Southerners may think of Lincoln or Lee,
they have one opinion of Washington.
There is comfort in the idea that, after all
these quarrels these wars. these heartburn
ings, we can gather around the Liberty Tree OF
l776. The practical value of the celebration
tomorrow is its national character. There
is no one thing for which the American
heart has yearned more fervently for ten
years than restoration of fraternal national
feeling For this reason we esteem the
Fort Moultrie celebration as n national
event. The reception extended in
Charleston to our soldiers from Boston and
New York was of the heartiest character,
and we are certain that our Southern friends
will find it reciprocated by ultra-loyal Phila-
delphia. The only point of difference be-
tween North and South is the want of
proper understanding. This was one of the
reasons that led to the war, and it has been
at the bottom of our difficulties about recon-
struction. In the beginning the South un-
derrated the North. Victory has led the
North to underrate the South There can be
no reconstruction that will not begin with an
old fashioned Fourth of July friendliness.
When Northern and Southern men feel as
they felt at Moultrie and Brandywine there
will be true reconstruction. So far, there
fore, as the Centennial is the bringing to-
gether of the two sections it will be q bless
ing to the country.


This is also our centennial canvass for the
Presidency, and, as even the Fourth of July
does not drive that out of our minds, let us
hope that it will be canvass of charity and
good feeling. If it should so result we
shall feel that our anniversary came
opportunely in the heart Of a severe
years we have a revulsion and uprisal of all
kinds of elements defamation, hatred, mis-
representation. The press becomes sewer
The fairest regulations are DETAINED Honest
differences of opinion grow into animogties
All the virtues are with one party and all the
vices with another and what should be an
intelligent, thoughtful discussion of the can
vass and the candidates falls into an inter-
change of passion and hatred If we were
really serious in these recriminations it
would be bad enough; but considering
that we do not mean them, that it is all
pantomime to delude the people, how base it
becomes. One side talks of reform, which
is quackery. The other side talks of the
Pope taking possession of the schools and of
the massacre of the negroes by the white
men, which is also quackery. All sensible
people know that when one swarm of poll
ticians turns out another there is very little
reform. They know, also that there is no
more danger to the school system from the
Pope than from the Metropolitan of the
Greek Church. But these issues are invented
and thrown like firebrands into the canvass.
They are angry issues, and the result is a
bitterness which does harm. Let us trust
that the coming of this centennial day, and
have the effect of giving us peaceful cam
paign. What a comfort it would be to have
one election for the Presidency as tranquil
as the canvass of Disraeli against Gladstone.
Notwithstanding what should be the ameli-
Grating influences of the Centennial we have
no hope that the canvass will be any differ
ent from the others. Governor Tilden does
not intend to have it so, and as he commands
one army his tactics will determine the CAM
paign of his opponent Before we are
through foreign observers will be asking why
ninety-nine out of every hundred of our
public men are not in the Penitentiary.


This centennial canvass will either be one
history. If Governor Tilden's order to raise
the black flag is obeyed there will be retalia-
ton, recrimination, every phase Of bitter
ness. The policy of the Governor is to strike
out every issue but one, and that one the
only issue upon which he can win. This
would be master stroke if the republicans
would be content But war of recrimina-
ton has two sides. Reform is not the only
burning question before the people. We
had reform as an issue four years ago
under Mr.. Greeley, who was conspicuous
reformer. and we see what came of it. Gov
ernor Tilden has three issues, neither of
which he cares to encounter, all of which
will be pressed upon him. There is the
financial question as represented by Cover
nor Hendricks. Already one of our lively
republican contemporaries intimates that