THE DAILY EVENING TELEGRAPH PHILADELPHIA, MONDAY, JUNE 17, 18G7. 2 THE NEW YORK mFSS. EDITORIAL OPIKION8 OF TUB LHADIffO JOURHALS BPOBI CDRRKNT TOPICft-WMPU'M' KVBHT DAT FOB THE RVBMNO TKLKOBAPH. presidential Cndlcltit . , From the N. r. Citizen. . The seleotion of the administration for tne next four years is the work of paramount im portance ; before the country. The elements for exploitation by political adventurers have largely increased in the last few years, and we may be sure that the class of noisy, un- joimffiiaa who Hb in wait for opportunities to make capital will not over look them. To begin with, there is the large class of 'negro voters in the reconstructed States, Bomo ' half million in number, . and controlling absolutely some of those States. These voters, as a body, are precisely of the eort that can be reached by the most vulgar arts. Naturally susceptible to delusions of the Imagination, and stimulated by the wonderful changes of the last six years to a pitch of excitement and expectation that sLps at nothing, they are open to any sort of imposition, and those who , bid highest will carry the mass of them in any extravagance. A few , years of education and the self-command acquired In the ex ercise of manhood rights will correct this; but it is an element of present trouble, if not of danger. There Is also, all through, the North, a large class, unsettled as yet in their purposes and pursuits since the war, open to appeals to ap parent self-interest which may lie in the direc tion of disorder, and disposed to extravagance of thought and of action. The entire laboring population of the coun try is in an uneasy condition. The weight of taxation and the high prices of the necessaries of life have- unsettled this class and predis posed it to excitement. Then, again, among men of ardent moral convictions, but unbal anced ia Judgment enthusiasts by constitu tionthere is a readiness for extreme mea Bures, for hazardous experiments, in even a greater degree than usual. Earnest reformers, seeing the wonderful results of the pa3t years, have uecome giddy, and say, "Now is the time to make over the world in conformity to the requirements of divine justice; now is the time to extirpate wrong and to usher in the glorious teign of truth and love;" while all the time the work of individual regeneration, that lies at the foundation of national progress, is neglected or overlooked. These are the circumstances and elements, pr some of them, that predispose to violent political excitements, and that offer opportu nities and inducements for demagogical ap peals. But, in opposition to these, all the necessities of society North and South plead for wise and peaceful measures, and urge the allaying of excitement and passion. At the North, industry must become settled and the relations of society be readjusted. Local affairs must receive attention, and local ad ministration be purified, and burdens of looal taxation be lightened. In the South, there are four millions of blacks, suddenly raised to citizenship, but destitute of all the qualifica tions and requirements for their new situa tion except that of an instinctive devotion to the Union sufficient for great crises like that through which we have just passed, but not good for everyday use. In the same section there is nearly or quite the same number of whites, perhaps more difficult to deal with, because, while equally illiterate with the blacks, they are animated by the inveterate prejudices against the new order of things that belong to ignorant dislike. Then there is the class who have heretofore lived on the proceeds of slave labor in which class is to be found nearly the whole of the education of the South numbering three or four millions more, also prejudiced, natu rally discontented, and unsettled. This is the class active in the Rebellion, but towards whom both mercy and policy dictate a course calculated to soothe and to interest in the ex periment of free society. These bare allusions to the elements of poli tical disturbance and possible convulsion, and to the circumstances which render mode ration desirable, are sufficient to enforce the necessity of prudence and forethought in the Selection of a new Administration. Suppose a man constitutionally an agitator narrow and impracticable and bigoted say like Wade, of Ohio, to be put in nomination ly the Republicans. Ilia nomination would le the signal for a rallying of all the wild, dis orderly, and fanatical elements in the commu nity. Does any man of reflection imagine J:hat the election of such a man would not be the expense of the best interests of the Jotnu'tojl It would mean the indefinite cou tinaan. ce ' tne excitement and restlessness - that no T pervade the body politic the intensi fying of political and sectional animosities. Wade and' bia school of Republicans having declared in fa V0T of tue div'sion of the estates of the late slav ellolder8 as a bid for the negro vote, now, we tee from a recnt speech at . lawrenoe, go furth. er' aud 6&7- "Congress, which U a! don.e so much for the . Blave. cannot quietly earl tne terrible dis tinction which exists be. veen the laborer uuU .the employer. Property l uot fairly divided, and a more equal uWIhIol ,,nu he wrought out. If your dull heads.' ho111'alJ. "cau't understand this, the women , " aud can vassers upon the eve of an cleat. on. will have to tell the laborers wiiat thisy will a,) f oi them. Men should not be compelled U. ' labor i?util life is worn out and being is a ourt e; nor cn v.ia iilvavs hft the nARH liarA. wht.ru K'Venr n.a.. is a capitalist la a certali exteut. 1 hew jQ. equalities ate not feltas they are lu th.e Koat, Kvery man, then, who was subject to a oaiiai 1st, ought to leave him, and get two hours nearer sundown forthwith. He (Wade) pledged himself to advocate boldly and pernisteutly the natural rights of men, and predicted tne most important commercial renulU from the completion of the i'acino Hoad." The report adds "he wa3 frequently ap plauded," and that "Train and Covode made fiery speeches.'1 Wade and his associates and Sympathizers now openly bid for the support .of the laboring element in the North, in a Btyle that can hardly be paralleled in modern political history. "A more equal distribution of property" is the inducement held out. Such demagogues will be rebuked by the very men they appeal to, but the facts illustrate the Statements just made. Butler is another of the Wade stripe of bold, unprincipled dema gogues, BO eager to ride that he don't care on what hobby, bo he 1b mounted. Then there are weak, good-natured, uuiversal favorites, Who are struggling for the nomination, whose success we were about to say would be worse for the oountry than that of the bold, bad demagogues for bad men will do through a weak tool what they shrink from doing openly. We won't wound their feelings by calling names, because we don't think their chances good- . . Chief Justice Chase baa an active party. The Chief Justice has too much dignity to appeal to the low and disorderly elements of society too. mucn sen-respect to ue sreav lavorue with tae average wonung pouuuiu. lie has to recommend him to the radicals the merit of having invented the Reconstruction scheme that ia now in operation throughout the South, having suggested this idiiitioal plan of dealing -with the South in his corres pondence with President Johnson during his tour in 18G5. Mr. Chase has, moreover, acted towards Mr. Johnson with groat courtesy and kindness, and has borne testimony to the uprightness of his character and the purity of his intention, whilo differing from him in rolicy, and thin might recommend him to the Vmoorats and Conservatives, if he were not tainted by connection with the national bank nuieauce. ' : ' ' - Then there is Governor Andrew, who is a rossible candidate on the Republican side, (is nomination would le a rebuke to the Sumner-Wade party, and in 'the event of a machine nomination by the Democrats, would draw the support of a large body of Demo cratic votes. Senator Fcssendon is one of the ablest and most incorruptible and wisest men in the Republican party. He has been abnsed by Wendell Phillips, which is a conclusive cer tificate of political sanity. The Constitutional amendment a moderate and generous scheme of reconstruction was his work, and is evi dence of his statesmanlike qualities. His ad ministration of the Treasury gave opportunity for criticism by Borne; but in the Senate his course 1 in relation to matters of finance and revenue has always been sound, and he haa been the acknowledged leader in all important measures of financial and political policy, and the greatest errors of the party have been on points where he has been overborne by a ram pant radicalism. Senator Morgan will also loom up as the time of the Convention approaches. He has shown great political and financial judgment, both as Governor and Senator. lie endeavored to keep his party with Mr. Johnson long after almost everybody else had given it up, and though finally obliged to fall in with the aggressive policy of Congress, is constitution ally wise and prudent. At the same time he has been inflexibly true to the principles and Eolicy advocated by the most sensible men of is party. JJut the set of public opinion is undoubtedly in favor of Grant. If the Republican managers have the sense to nominate Grant, with Fes senden, or Morgan, or Andrew as Vice-President, we predict that the Democrats will fall in line. Then, with a patriotic Cabinet mado up from Union Democrats and Republicans like those we have named as prominent for the Republican nomination, and with some Southern man like Orr or Brown, or both of them, the "new party" would be fairly . launched. The bitter radicals and the malig nant Copperheads would be driven into a natural alliance with one another, and with such fossils as Perry at the South in oppo sition, but without sufficient power to seri ously disturb the progress of restoration and pacification. The current of events and of opinions during the coming four or five months, we prediot, will leave little for the political conventions to do but to register the edicts of the popular will, unmistakably promulgated long in ad vance of their assembling. Another week we Bhall discuss the programmes under conside ration among the machine Democraey, though they are not so far advanced as the Republi cans in Presidential schemings. The wisest of them Bee that if the moderate wing of the Republicans succeed in nominating Grant, their true policy is to concur in this and help to elect the ticket. Whatever we may think of the merits of this scheme intrinsically, it will Inevitably break the machinery of both parties, and will lead immediately to that "reconstruction of politics" that the Citizen has been preaching for months, and whioli all prudent wen desire to see consummated. From Pace to. War. From the Tribune. If this country is again to be plunged into a maelstrom of political passion if we are to go back to strife and confiscation rather than for ward to peace and prosperity, the people will not forget the good bo nearly achieved, nor excuse those by whose madness the cup has been dashed from their lips. The Military Reconstruction bill was passed in defiance of the President's best efforts and those of the democratic majority in congress. The latter combined with the Stevens wing of the Re publicans to defeat the far milder measure proposed by Senator Sherman, and thus man aged to render the measure actually passed much harsher towards the Rebels than it otherwise would have been. Being passed, the President vetoed it in a message of remarkable asperity, even for him, but which exists to prove that he thoroughly'comprehended and proclaimed that the power of the Military Commanders in the five Military Districts was made virtually absolute. They could not in llict the penalty of death without the Presi dent's approval ; beyond that, their authority was bounded by no other limits than those of their several districts. Witliin those limits each was temporarily an autocrat, without qualification or rivalry. Three months of this rule has gloriously indicated itself. The South was never before so quiet, so free from violence and oppression. Murders and murderous assaults are almost unknown. Blacks have at length rights which whites can only assail at thir Awn nrrova on1 w v.. h ' " " imminent peril. No one is molested in person or property by the ruling power. In spite of famine and a very general deficiency of teams and implements, the people are generally at work, and are steadily improving their condi tion. The sufferings are fewer to-day than they were when the act was passed, and they will hj still fewer two months hence. No one's nr.. ertv is C0nfisnat1 on1 c j'vA - 1 fcuy iaob maimer on accvunt." the Rebellion is out of jail. The voters ar .wing rapidly registered, and every thing is beinj. ' made ready for elections in all the Rebel States ,at a very early day. In short, while there are fewe." outrages reported in all the ten States under jnijitary rule than in lennessee aione, they are all moving rapidly and prosperously towards Bpeedy reconstruc tion and self-government. The impeachment project is virtually abandoned, the President more kindly regarded, and the bitterness of hate engendered by our terrible conflict fast giving way to a more generous and fraternal spirit. Such are the auspices under which the President sees fit to challenge Congress and the people to a new trial of strength. For getting or ignoring his terrible lesson of last year, he says, in effect "I will circumvent and nullify the act of Congress which my veto did not suffice to defeat." And so we are plunged into a new struggle, whereof the end is clearly foreseen, but the progress cannot fail to prove disastrous. 1 ' President Johnson is playing directly into he hands of Messrs. Butler, Stevens, Ashley, etc., whom he seems to dislike, and who cer tainly have no partiality for him. lie is doing for them what they oould not begin to do for themselves. If the result shall be his impeach ment and deposition, he will have mainly to blame his own folly in having lent a willing car to the worst advisers who ever misguided a ruler or scourged a nation. Ucneral Cmnt th Rallying Tolavt of popular Iovcr 4 From the JJa aUi. ' ' ... Certain citizens of yirgiiiia rrcently wrote a letter to John Minor Botti and some other party men and politicians in that region, urging good reasons why the people of the State should not be divided by arbitrary poli tical lines for the benefit of small demagogues. The letter of these gentlemen indicates that they perceive a remedy for the evil. They use these words: "For ourselves we Indulgo the hope that the great soldier who commands the enthusiastic attachment of his own section and the undivided respect of ours, may be the instrument under God of overthrowing , the despotism of party, of uniting all our people, and of restoring those fraternal relations which ought to exist among citizens of a common country." , By these words we may perceive that there is more wisdom in the Old Do minion than comes to the surface In its party struggles. We may see that the men in Vir ginia capable of really weighing the present treuble, and of perceiving the only safe way out of it, are not numbered or namod among party leaders, have only an individuality as part of the great popular mass, and keep to private life. No man recognized outside of Virginia as a prominent politician could have seen the mischief bo clearly or have desoribed it bo well. 1 arty leaders there are lost in rarty struggles. To them there is nothing else but party. But this letter of the citizens of Louisa (published in last Friday's Herald), rising like an emanation from the general thonght of the section, shows that the popular mind is sound and healthy. Over the whole country it is the same as in Virginia. Party strifo is the grand evil of the hour. Faction rules and ruins. Faction in Congress carries a certain law, and faction out Bide prevents its enforcement. Congressional faction thus finds its hands strengthened, goes further, and continued opposition only Berves to furnish it with excuses for newer and greater aggression and encroachment. Thus government, law, peace, and the national wel fare are tossed from faction to faction; and who shall say where they will laud? It is the South that suffers to-day; but if we permit this to co on against the South, shall we not make the precedent on which future faotions will condemn us also? Robespierres are typical figures in history, and they die always on the guillotines that they have made part of the law. How shall we stop this war of factions ? History tells us there is but ene way. To throw off the tyranny of party the people must have a nucleus for the gathering of their Strength. They must rally round the person of some great leader some man of power, courage, fidelity and, combining on him, give him the strength and confidence to put down the factions. By making Cincinnatus dictator the Romans saved the State. Later Romans would have saved it again if they had done the same by Cfesar before the factions had time to kill him. Nations must profit by such lessons. The only chance for the American people to stay the ruinous war of faction is to gather around Grant and confide to him the strength and the power to pacify and restore the nation. In Virginia the people see this as the obvious fact. Elsewhere it is seen also, and as this idea comes to prevail and the people act on it through the ballot-box, we shall have satisfac torily solved the great problem of our national troubles. Political Consistency Presldeut John sou and Ur. Diaiaell. Fi om the Timet. Mr. Lowe, in his late speech npoa the Re form question one of the ablest of the many able speeches which have been delivered upon the subject during the present session put this question to the House of Commons: "What can have induced the conservative party of England to enter into this ruinous compe tition to abandon the most useful and honor able position they held of defending the tra ditions of this country and its existing institu tions, of scanning measures critically, and altering them even in minor matters, to say nothing of measures of vast and unspeakable importance ? What can have made this won derful change?" The answer, supposing any leader of the Conservative party had undertaken to make one, would have been simple. The change which Mr. Lowe condemned, in language glowing with fire and animation, but steeped in bitterness and gall, has no other excuse to be offered for it than the pressure of publio opinion ana tne necessities or the times. Undoubtedly the revolution which a few short months have worked in the views and sen tirnents of the Conservative party is astonish ing. No one could have anticipated it; no one was prepared lor it. it is unexampled in the history of English parties. Last year a bill was brought in by the Russell-Gladstone Gov ernment reducing the suffrage in boroughs from ten pounds to seven pounds. The opposite party threw themselves against this measure, because it was too radical ami sweeping, and they succeeded in obtaining a majority in the House, They have now made themselves responsible, not for a JC7 franchise, but for one without any limita tions of value whatever. Under their Reform bill, any householder may vote, except such as may be unable to pay rates through poverty. Lodgers are also admitted to the suff rage. Mr. Bright may secretly wish to go further than this, but if he does, he has never dared to say' n n't... n' .1 . . ,. . . . du. j.jio Awry iian mo stona, ami, im movable party the party which has always been keeping things as they were, and has cried out against all change this is now the party of revolution. As we have on previous occasions pointed out, the metastasis is ex clusively the achievement of Mr. Disraeli. He has led on hi followers this session with desperate courage and determination, and he seems to have felt that it had fallen to his lot to deal with the great and final crisis in the history of their fortunes. We do not know what the effect of his singular dexterity and audaoity may be in the future, but it oannot be disputed that the old and renowned Tory party of England is dead, and that its dis tinguishing principles have perished with it. It finds its reward in governing the country under an altered form. There is, however, something of greater In terest and moment to us in this memorable phase of English politics, than the study of the transmutation of a famous party organi sation. The events to which we are referring throw into sti iking relief one of the maia points of distinction in the management of politics in England and the United States. There are many differences, and some of them can scarcely be reckoned in our favor. Strangely as it may pound to say so, it Is certain that publio men in England have greater latitude allowed to them for free dis cussion of principles than publio men in this country. They may differ with their own party without being stigmatized as traitors, and vote against the measures of their side without being accused of faithlessness or in sincerity, Lord Cranbourne held a high post in the Ministry, resigned on account of tin Reform Bill, turned runnd upon it with char acteristic -acrimony and bitterness, and has ever since been the most violent and impla cable opponent it has had. Yet he still Bits on the same Benches; he 13 still a mombor of the party. Imagine a "caucus" pretend ing that it could eject or stractae him I J lie party winch attempted such intolerance and bigotry in England would cover itself with ridicule and confusion, and the people would watih their hands clean of it in twenty- iour nours. xnese rennements or tree Gov ernments are reserved for the enjoyment of the greatest Republic in the world. , But there is a still more marked neculiarltv of English political life; and that ia the view which a foremost publio man in that oountry is found to take of his dutr, at times when he discovers that his personal convictions are in antagonism to those of the bulk of the people. Compare, for instance, the conduct of the Pre sident of the United States and that of M. DisTaeli, under nearly similar circumstances. When these two functionaries assumed the leadership of affairs, their situation before their respective countries, in relation to publio feeling, was almost identical. , Mr. Johnson held very strongly to certain opinions which were obnoxious to the general community. Mr. Disraeli was in the same nlieht. Mr. Johnson tried by various expedients, which are too recent 10 neea recounting, to bring the publio sentiment into conformity with his own. Mr. Disraeli, by numerous speeches, in which he made no mistakes which his oppo nents could turn to advantage, also tried to pereuade the Jingiish people out of their con victions into the adoption of his theories. Mr Johnson failed, and did not see it; Mr. Disraeli also failed, and did see it. Both these great omcials labor under the reproach or being out of accord with the true feeling of their coun try, and both estranged themselves from the hearts of their countrymen. Mr. Johnson may sometimes think himself hardly judged, but he has not to complain of thirtv years of in cessant vituperation and attack, as Disraeli may. How different was the course followed by these two men when the hour of trial camel The glory and boast of Air. Johnson was that he stood firmly and unchangeably by his principles. Every one knows how much there is to be said for this line of conduct. A variety of phrases, which are supposed to have a manly and imposing sound have been adapted to such occasions. We may talk of nailing colors to the mast, of going down with the ship, of no surrender, of planting our feet upon the rock, and use a great deal more of fine language to the same effect. But to a reflective man, or a reflective people, the question will recur, whether firmness is always a duty or a virtue in a publio man intrusted with the destinies of his country at a time of great difficulty and emergency. His first, bis commanding obligation, is to guide the people safely through the embarrass ments which surround them. The claims of "firmness" or "consistency" are Blight in comparison, and there are periods when a statesman would be criminal if he did not ignore and disoard them altogether. Pitt did so; so did Mr. Gladstone, Lord Derby, Sir Robert Peel, and a hundred others, and they have thereby gained, and not forfeited, the respect of the world. The Duke of Wel lington struck at the Reform bill of 1832 with might and main, but he gave way at last solely in deference to public opinion, and not in the least degree because his own opinions underwent a change, Ua3 any writer, of auv side, ever blamed aim for iuls act ? Ha3 it not, on the contrary, always been placed to his credit as the crowning good service of his life 1 Charles I was consistent and true to his opinions. He believed that ship money and governing without a Parliament were good things, and his consistency brought him to the scaffold. George III was firm in his colo nial policy, and it lost England, under circum stances which she has graver reason to regret with the lapse of every year, the noblest pos session a nation ever held, and suffered an imbecile monarch to trifle with. The lessons of the past these commonest of all lessons, and at the same time the most unregarded were lost upon Mr. Johnson. He seemed it dishonor to yield. He seemed to think that the human mind is constructed upon the principle of the solar system, re volving only in a certain given cycle, and in capable of change. He was like a knight errant who held himself bound to perform his vow, even when all grounds ot reason and all motives ot prudence demonstrated its iiiex cutable folly. At this very time the English statesman was noiaiy pursuing the opposite course. lie threw aside old prejudices and traditions, lie marched step by step with the opinions of the age. He shifted his position nomaayto day, almost from hour to hour. "JNobody can tell what the effect of this bill will be," complained Mr. Lowe ; " how can we when it is changed from day to day ?" The uouse heard the reproach in silence and indif- icrence. H the conservatives chose, with llicir eyes open, to go over to the side of the country, RO much the better for the country anu tne conservatives too. oucn is the judg. ment of England upon the reoent changes. e do not mean to say or imply, that a man should always go over to the side of the majority. But, as we have said, it is a matter oi sacrea auty under many circumstances. that he should be receptive of the opinions of others rather thaa over tenacious of his own. It was so, we think, in Mr. Johnson's case. 1 he country was to be studied before the in dividual the publio safety is of greater con sequence than the uniformity of the "record" of any one man in the ooinmumtv. Above all, when the nation is beset with difficulties vhich ballle all human calculation, which defy even analysis, which in their very nature are incapable of being illuminated by the experience of the past, and which divide men of thought into innumerable seotions at such an epoch, fraught always with possible peril, sometimes with immint-ut and quick disaster, it is the duty of a ruler to hear other voices besides his own. to doubt himself, to suspect the accuracy of his favorite conclu sions. Mr. Lincoln was once opposed to the forced abolition of slavery; but he, with his accustomed simple wisdom, acted eventually upon the advice of others. By no power. except the power of a strong hallucination, can a man know that he is always right and others always wrong. There is no supeena- turai prescience to inspire this feehng. 'Ihe light which seems to guide him may shine only to mislead. He may be honest; he may be conscientious; he may have all the virtues; and yet he may ruin his country. And this truth is an applied principle in English poli tics more frequently than it is here. It accounts for the difference in the policy of Mr. Disraeli and that of Mr. Johnson. Publio life can never be brought to its highest state until the propriety, the necessity nay, more, the imperative moral obligation of suffering the mind to grapple with new problems as they arise, unshackled by its former predilections or prejudices, to taKe in new ideas, and to move with the movements oi tna age, are fully recoguized. Had Mr. Johnson acted upon tills truth, ne wouia nave lost uothing in the estimation of the world, and gained niuuh in the estimation of LL countrymen.. OldlfyeWhisleics. 1 llllE. LAEGEBT AND BEST 'ST001C .01f . . FINE O LD RY E 17 HISKIES ! IN THE LAND IS NOW T0SSESSED BY ' Nos. 218 and 220 SOUTH FROT STREET,' WHO orrtBTnE sameio tub TRAIB, IW LOTS, ON vert advantageous TERMS.'' . ' Vbclr Stock of Ry Whfhle. IN BOND, comprlnea all the rTnrli. xtamt, ana runs tbioufin. too various montba ot 1869,'60, and rtthliMir )ttint data. P Liberal contrarts mado for lots to arrive at Pennsylvania Railroad n.n. Errtcason 1.1 na Yt barf, or at Bonded Warehouses, as paitles maysUct, "Po Carpetings, Canton Mattings, Oil Cloths. Great Variety, Lowest Cash Prices. EE EVE L. KNIGHT & SON. HO, 807 CIIEHNIII HTBEET, (Below the Qirard House). Negro Suffrage and the Democratic jfariy. From the World. Chemists distinguish between the two states of matter called crystalloid and colloid. The crystalloids tend to assume definite, sym metrical, crystelline forms; the colloids do notliing of the kind. They are the Jellies and gums and gelatine of creation. These facts analogue in the political world. There are crystalloids In politics a3 there are colloids. With all possible respect, we must be permit ted to say that the Times will never, in this world or the next, get itself classified among the crystalloids. There are no principles in accordance with which it arranges itself. Top might as well be bottom, or hind side might come before, and to this colloid it would be all the same. At one time its soft, gelatinous nature adjusts itself among the most pro nounced opponents of the radical revolution. At another time, it has moulded itself into perfect harmony with the revolution, its leaders and its results. Yesterday, apart by the whole diameter of its being at least, from military despotism; to-day it is albuminously surrounding, embracing, and defending that despotism. But a few months ago denouncing the wholesale imposition of negro suffrage by Congress upon the country, with suoh vehe mence as if all the tender jelly of its nature would burst and scatter to the ends of the earth in sheer revulsion; this month the yield ing mass has slipped and swayed, and we wake to find the Times denouncing the Democracy for its blind insensate hostility to negro suf frage, as a party. Now, the colloid Times may thaw, "dissolve, slip, sway, and flow as it chooses, but it shall not misrepresent the relation of the Demo cratic party to negro suffrage. It cannot with truth be said that the Demo cratic party is for or against negro suffrage. In its. opinion the subject is not lawfully a national one; and as the Democratic party is a national party ana a law-abiding party, it has not as a party formed or expressed any deci sion on the enlargement of the voting fran chise. Democrats believe it to be a question by law in State control, and they can no more be deemed against negro suffrage than for it, or than the Republican party can be deemed against woman suffrage still an unmooted question in Congress. In the last National Democratic Conven tion, as in the last Republican Convention, neither negro suffrage nor woman sutfrie was a flank in the party platform. It is, indeed, & mark of the monstrous change which has been effected in the political situation, that a question which no man broached then has now become so prominent. It is a mark, moreover, of the utter unoonstitutionalizfri of the Republican party, that this question, which but two or three years ago was not dreamed of by either of tne two great politi cal parties as one which could possibly eome within the sphere either of naiipnal, or of national party, action, has now become both a party tenet to which the' colloid Times has at last moulded itself into conformity, and ;ilso a matter which the party has agreed to withdraw unconstitutionally from the Stata control, where it now lawfully and let".11 i.i.. -..,1 i i.: . i. t . i ' uiuieiy reejuea, uu iu buujbuii authority. The columns of the Times, in are full of able and Conclusive to reuerai ( past days, j arguments against this nnconstitutionanzing process, w hich it now submits to, and consents to, and applauds. The World recognizes quite as clearly as the Times recognizes, the facts and the logic of facts. And with the whole Demo cratic party it submits to them because it is powerless to prevent them. It does not con sent to them. It scorns to defend, apologize for ,or applaud them. Least of all docs it surrender the stronghold because its outposts have been captured. J he i orld and the Democratic party have held but one opinion regarding negro suffrage. That opinion is neither for negro suffrage nor against negro suffrage as a party," for the simple reason that in their view negro suffrage cannot lawfully become a national, or a national party question. They are opposed steadfastly to the imposition of negro suffrage upon any Southern or any Northern Stu'te by Federal legislation and nower. For if any thing in the constitutional law and history of our Government is established and clear, it is that each State has supreme control of the distribution of the elective franchise among its own citizens, we Bhouia mouu: the intelli gence of our readers to cite those olauses in the Constitution, those passages in the de cisions of our highest court, and those facts in the history of the country, which prove that the present position of the Demooratio party has always been the position of all intelligent men of all poltiical parties until the Republi can party entered upon its unconstitutional izing process. Quite superfluous ana unnecessary is it now deemed by that party to make changes in the Constitution according to the mode therein pre scribed, jnow it hesitates no longer at over riding the Constitution by party majorities through Federal legislation. But this the De mocratic party has never consented to do and never will consent to do. The Demooratio party would oppose just as strenuously the REMOVED. OUR BEDDING STORE IS REMOVED FJSOSI THE OLD STAND TO No. 11 South NINTH Street. 6 27 B. ! KNIGUI A SON. denial of the suffrage to the negroes of the United States by Federal legislation. Tha denial of the suffrage to the blacks would ba not one whit more repulsive to the World than is its foroible impositiontipon them by Federal power. Its hostility is the same in either case, because the reason for that hostility is ia either case the same. To oonfer the suffrage franchise or to deny it, is equally a lawless violation of the right of all the States, eaoh for itself, to distribute the franchise as its people elect to do. New York repels the right of Delaware to say, or have a voice In saying, how she shall apportion this trust, and Cali fornia, with her Chinamen, repels the control of B'lorida, with or without her negroes. If the Times and other Republican journals, therefore, have not determined entirely to eschew fairness and candor in political contro versy, they will hereafter take pains to repre sent the Democratic party as opposed to the denial of negro suffrage by Federal Jaw no less than to its imposition by Federal law. As we have already said, the World and the Democratio party recognize facts and the logio of facts with quite as clear an intelligence as their opponents. They do not need to be told whither events are tending. They see. They do not need the 2'imes to inform them that the Rebellion and the consequences of the Rebellion I (.amOSg which, perhaps, the most direful ia j the unconstiUltionaliziEg of a great political party, and its transformation from the odious ; form of a sectional party to the still more odious i shape of a revolutionary party) have put I ballots into the hands of all the adult male I negroes of the South, which neither Federal power nor State power will hereafter be able to withdraw from their hands, even were it I desirable. j This enormous change in our political dynamics nullifies any previous decision in : any Northern State regarding negro suffrage, . ne, as all such decisions must have been , made', before tbis monstrous change had taken place, in a state of facts which has now ceased to exist. The conclusions of the New York j Constitutional Convention of 1840", conferring ; upon our negro of tizeD8 suffrage with a pro perty limitation, can ha? and should have no control over the Constitution Convention of 1867. All things are changed; and political wisdom then is no more likely to be wtsiipot now than an agriculture suited to the car boniferous flora would be likely to produoe great crops from the existing vegetable world. I We express the wishes of every enlightened Democrat, therefore, when we say that it ia j the duty of the Constitutional Convention ' now in session at Albany, to submit to the 1 people of this State (not to the Republican juniority in Congress), to be voted upon, thia mattef ' e extension of the voting fran chise. 'lhe7 are the competent and lawful judges whether or not, and how much or how little, the franchise shail be extended; and our political circumstances have so changed since the matter was last submitted to their deci sion, that there is great propriety in its being now again submitted to their revision. In-' deed, it is a question of so muoh importance, that the will oi the people of the State ought not to be prejudiced or imperilled by the pos sible failure of the Convention to make a Con stitution suited to Jbeir wants. Even if the new Constitution werfl be rejeoted by the people, their free consM.ratfon and unbiased detision of the question cfl.be extension of the voting franchise ought to insured by its separate submission. PATENT MOSQUITO .OAR. JU8T ISStTKD. K.VEKY FAMILY SHOULD HA VIC ONE. Fortune to be made lu even State. Call aod tea : oneol them. Can be manufactured very low, fctTATJE RIGHTS FOB SALE BY HOLLAND A HIBB9, ( 10 lm KO, Ital UBOWM STB EOT,' gTBAM BOILER EXPLOSIONS CAN BE PREVENTED 11V VSINQ ASHCItOFT'S LOW WATER DETECTOR. mit'E 150, APPLIED. ' auo. S. BATTI.ES, BOLK AGENT FOR PENNSYLVANIA, 7 tT KO, ft KOUT1I MIXTII STI1EET
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers