SPIRIT OF TEE PRESS. pUTORIAL OrOtlOItB OF TH1 UiDISfl J0CB5AIA Vton CUBBHTT TOPICS COMPILED KVSBT DAT FOB TBI IVININO TKLBOBAFH. What Iflatlon Votn Hie .IV. r. iVaMim. There is ft general expectation at this writing tat the Buocess of the effort to put a stop to Ifce contraction of the currency will be followed fjpbr an equally succesful attempt at far fjher inflation. Into the expediency or Inex pediency of arresting the process of contraction 'we shall not here enter at any length. There Is a good deal to be said against this mode of getting back to specie payments as well as for U. Unquestionably, if the whole of the green backs were swept oat of existence daring the coming year, gold and silver would rash in to fill their places, bat they would have to be bought like any other commodities, and we are Ul prepared Just now to buy them. The greenbacks have the recommendation of being the cheapest currency that can be devised, and the nation is certainly not ready jast yet to go back to the more expensive substitute; and it is possible that the withdrawal of even four millions a month is more than the coun try is yet able to bear. It is suffering first and foremost from the enormous waste of labor and material which occurred during the war. No country can absolutely fling away we are now speaking pimply economically $2, 000, 000, 000 worth of labor and the results oi labor inside of four years, and get all over it in two years. It is Buffering next of all from the most vexatious, Vspbilosophical, clumsy, and demoralizing System of taxation to which any country in Christendom was ever subjeoted. We say in Christendom, because we are willing to admit that in certain Mohammedan countries the E resent revenue laws of the United States ave been Burpafaed, if not in number and complexity, at least in unreasonableness and disregard of the taxpayers' comfort and welfare. But then these Mohammedan rulers never pretended to be politicians in our sense of the word, or to entertain any regard whatever either for principles of human nature or the experience ef mankind. Our llnanoiers do pretend to be politicians, and occasionally in moments of great exoiteiuent even call them selves political economists. The two things, therefore, that the country most needs are time and opportunity to replace its lost wealth by economy and hard work, and the freedom of trade from vexatious pursuit at the hands of the tax-gatherer. With these two, rapid and complete reoovery, within a very short space of time, is tolerably certain. We believe moBt firmly that there is more money afloat than the country needs to carry on business. A country can hardly have too xnuoh money in it if the money be specie. If there is too much, it will be exported for the purchase of things that people want more. The beauty of gold and silver is, that if you do not want them, other people do. You ship them off and buy "luxuries" with them, ana are none the worse for it. With paper money the case is different. The supply does not de pend on the demand, but on votes in Congress; and if more is issued than is needed, there is no way of getting rid of it. Nobody out of the country in which it is issued wants it, and the people on whom it is showered are obliged to meet its redundancy by using more of it in their transactions; or, in other words, raising the price of their commodities. But. supposing a oertain quantity of paper money once issued, and prices adapted to it, and no more of it to be issued, the country adapts its business to it, no matter how large the quantity may be. We might be just as nappy and prosperous paying $20 in green backs for a pound of coffee as we are now When paying forty cents, if we were sure there would be no more greenbacks put in circula tion. But the curse of greenbacks and of all paper money is that we do not know how much of it will be put in circulation. As long as Congress is what it is, and there are en gravers and printing presses in the United States, no human being can tell whether there ' will t e more currency in existence next year than in this, or whether there will be less. In other words, what makes this paper ourrenoy detestable is that as long as we have no other there can be no certainty in business; and next to time and industry, certainty about the future is just now what the country needs to reoover. If everybody will agree to let the currency alone for the next five or ten years, neither to contract nor expand it, we shall get on per fectly well, if we know that then, or within a reasonable period, the Government will be prepared to redeem it in coin, or even to begin to redeem It gradually. Paper money has many advantages. It is light, portable, and cheap; It is objectionable because it is a kind of money that ignoramuses or knaves oan easily tinker, or inflate, or contract, and be cause, therefore, as long as it is in use the fortune of every man in the community is at the mercy of ignoramuses or, knaves. As long as eighty or ninety men in Washington, of whom only a small number have ever in their lives devoted one hour's attention to the study of any financial or economical question, of whom probably very many go to Congress with such notions of the laws of cur rency as circulate in village bar-rooms, and of whom many more may be the mere tools of speculators, can any day run a bill through under the previous question or dering the Secretary of the Treasury to dimin ish the money of the country by one hundred millions, or increase it by one hundred mil lions, no man can lie down at night knowing what the value of his goods or house or lands or deVts will be when he wakes up in the morning. Under such a system no country, not even this, could prosper or reoover from prostration, and from this system there is no escape excep in a return to specie. Contrac tion is a painful process. If performed sud denly or rapidly it may prove to hundreds of thousands a ruinous process. It is open to prtoisely the same objection as inflation, in that it is an arbitrary change of the value of property; but it is superior to inflation in that it leads baok to dry laud, wb.ue inflation leads Out to a boundless and unfathomable sea. If the paper currency can be redeemed as it stands, by all means let us have no coatrao tion; but if there be no reasonable hope of redeeming it as it stands, by all means let us have contraction, because, somehow or other. we must have certainty as to the future. Without certainty no civilized community can 1 1 V -1 .. Aa lnnif aa noronna aa ill- Informed as large numbers of members of Con gress show theuieelve to Le in ail donates on this class of questions, have the power of de ciding by vote whether a mortgage, or a pro missory note, or a Btouk of goods, shall on any day in the week rise or full fifty per cent, in value, the eflei t on traJe is very much the eaipe as that of war. It is like, barring the phyfelcal fear, living lu constant ex posure to incursions of Indians or Mahratta cavalry, or to bombardment from aa THE DAILY EVENING TELEGRAPH PHIL enemy's fleet. It is a burniog disgrace that in the nineteenth oentury, with the lessons of - -. 11 . . ft thousand years ui uuiurj ui)u uuiure us, and with the teachings of soience weighing down our book shelves, not that we should have nothing but paper money for that is a misfortune simply, incurred lor noble ends but that there should be men amongst as, calling themselves legislators, who do . not know what the evils of paper money are, or who, knowing them, pass inglorious nights and more inglorious days trying to aggravate them. We have the less hesitation in using ctrong language with regard to all schemes of infla tion, because, at present, they are simply devices for filling the pockets of large holders or stocks or goods, or, in other words, of large speculators at the expense of the poor. An advocate of inflation is not simply a bad eco nomist, he is a conspirator against the labor ing classes. At the bottom oi the outcry for more greenbacks there is, of course, much ignorance, but there is also the desire of a very energetio and very knowing body of men to get rid of goods at an advance. Of coarse, they probably see very well that as expan sion means a general rise of prices, they would, in the long-run, not profit by it. But they care nothing about the long run. They want to get out of the pre sent difficulties, meet their engagements easily, and trust to luck for the rest. They try to persuade the working-man, too, that with more money they could employ more labor; but the working-man is a fool if he be lieves them. It is not with greenbacks that wages are paid, but with the things that greenbacks purchase, and the more greenbacks there are, the leea food and clothing and shelter will a paper dollar bay. Moreover, times of inflation are always times of wild speculation. We have seen this during the war. For every fresh issue of paper already made, dealers add one dollar to their prices, and then add another dollar to provide for the other issues which they believe may still be made, so that the laborer finds his comforts every day getting farther out of his reach, and his necessaries every day harder to reach. Moreover, though inflation may at first give the demand for labor a little stimulus, it is a stimulus such as brandy gives the physical energies. It is soon over. There can be no sudden increase of paper money without an increase of uncertainty as to the future. Those who have made money by one issue always want another very soon ; and insecurity Is the great destroyer of enterprise, and without enterprise industry must languish and laborers suffer. The overthrow of the Impeachment projects shows clearly that common sense and modera tion are at last reasserting their sway over the majority. But we would warn those who think the party can be helped by yielding to the present cry for expansion, that if it should prove, as it assuredly will prove, that expan sion, instead of being a relief, is simply an in crease of misery, by this time next year people will, as is not unusual in such cases, have for gotten all about the cry; they will only re member that the Republican party yielded to it. Workingmen are already beginning to decide on the comparative merits of the two great parties by comparing prices in the old Demo cratic days with prices in these days of radi calism. The process, we admit, is not a very phi losophical one, but it might prove awkward if it were continued in use and gained in favor till November, 18G8. Moreover, if experience, and especially experience during the last five years, has proved anything, it proves that the Barest course, both for politicians and editors, is to hold on firmly to the teachings of justice and science and history; let passions or delu sion carry the people ever so widely away from them, they are sure, in a oountry like this, to come back to them at last; and the most successful publio men successful in the highest sense are those whose faith in these teachings wavers leaBt, and whom the return ing tide finds still at their posts. Tbe Great Snow Storm. From the N. Y. Herald. Despite all the prognostications of the weatherwise that the present would prove a mild winter, the threats of Wednesday in' the chilly air and the aspeot of the clouds and the direotion of the wind, were speedily ful filled by a snow storm which forebodes a winter of extraordinary severity. Our tele- graphio weather reports announoed that at nine o'clock Thursday morning it was raining at Richmond, that heavy sleet was falling at Washington, that snow and rain were com mingled at Wilmington, in Delaware; that it was snowing at Philadelphia as well as in New York, that it was oloudy at Boston and Port land, and clear at Port uood. in tnis oity tne snow was falling lightly at one o'clock in the morning, with a gentle breeze from the north east, which inoreased to a gale by ten o'clock, when the snow fell thick and fast, seriously impeding travel and bringing business almost to a standstill. The tracks of the oity railways were cleared by the aid of snow ploughs; four horses and two drivers were put on eaoh oar, and during the greater part of the day the cars, although reduced in number, made their usual time. Stages, hacks, and drays moved with great difficulty, horses frequently slipping and falling in a way the most distressing to the sensitive Mr. Bergh. Pedestrians found the streets difficult to travel, and several persons were run over, narrowly escaping with their liveB. Scarcely a lady was to be seen on Broadway; indeed, an army of "street soldiers" would have been invisible at the distance of a block. The wagons of express companies, especially those which were overloaded, and all heavy teams, could scarcely move. The ferryboats arrived punctually only throughout the earlier part of the day. All the Sound boats except the New port boat were in on time. The railroad trains from Philadelphia and elsewhere came in safely and on time during the early portion of the day, but in the evening they were all delayed. The furious wind that drove the blinding snow through the air and along the ground spoiled the prospect of an immediate sleighing carnival. The ground was left almost bare in many spots, while in others the snow was drifted into formidable heaps. We trust that the polioe will remind householders and storekeepers of their duty to have the snow removed at once from the sidewalks in front of their premises. This duty often seems to be especially neglected in front of Government buildings. When shall we reach so high a degree of oivilization as to have as the Parisians have, for instance, along the Rue de Ilivoli miles of covered sidewalks ? The aggregate sum wasted in spoiled umbrellas, overcoats, overshoes, etc, within a few wonthB, in New York, would suffice to build piazzas on both sides of Broadway throughout its entire length. As we have intimated, many signs, inola ling the alleged approach of the Gulf Stream towards our coast, were relied upon by the weatherwise as infallibly predicting that the Winter of 18G7-68 would be mild. Bat the snow storm of Thursday apparently oontra dicU all these signs, and add jta testimony to that of the recent hurrioauns in the West Indies in favor of a general disturbance and confusion of the elements of natnre. The sudden advent of winter, with all its rigors, cannot fail to remind tbe rich, in the midst of their comforts, of their duties to the poor, who are exposed to suffering daring this inclement season. Hoarding Qolrt. From the JV. Y. Tribune. The amount of currency in circulation to day, with gold at 140, is considerably less than it was two years ago when gold stood at 128, and somewhat more than it was four years ago, in the darkest hours of our war, when gold stood at 290. These figures alone refute the theory that in this country the price of gold is determined mainly by the volume of the currenoy. In England, daring the wars with Napoleon, there were times when, nnder a very considerable expansion of the currency, gold bore no premium but, on Napoleon's re turn from Elba, it leaped in a few days from a nominal premium of three or four per cent, np to a premium of 37 nearly as high as it ever attained under the operation of the "Berlin Decree" and the "Orders in Counoil," Bus pending all commerce between Great Britain and Europe; within a few days after Napo leon's defeat at Waterloo, it fell as suddenly to a nominal premium of three or four per cent. No man can doubt that, without the addition of a dollar to our currency, if a rebellion of ten States should again break out, gold would mount again to the neighborhood of 300. These facts show that the volume of ourrenoy is at least a subordinate cause of the premium onefold, and that the all-controlling influence is the decline in the credit of the Government, as represented by the value of our Govern ment bonds. The legal-tender currency, or de mand promises of the Government, stand in the same relation to its bonds as the promis sory notes of an individual do to his bonds. Both are on the same security, and rise and fall by the operation of the same causes. If an individual, owing more than he could pay, and whose notes and bonds were, therefore, selling at a discount, should commence by taking up his short notes and paying them or consoli dating them into long loans, all would approve his policy. And so far we have approved Mr. McCulloch's policy of taking up all promises of the Government payable on demand. Bat if in addition he should accumulate a mass of gold, one-third as much as would be required to pay his demand notes, and, instead of buy ing them up at the cheapest rate, should allow them still to go to protest, and sell at a heavy discount, and if remonstrated with, should say "this gold helps my credit more in my hands than it would if I paid my debt3 with it," he would be accounted a financier of a strange order. Mr. MoCulloch stands in the position of the insolvent who, being unable to pay in full, hoards all his income, puts it into a magnificent purse, and when his oreditors demand payment, shakes his money in their faces and says: "True, my notes are at a discount of forty per cent., but see what a pile of money I have to pay them with if I chose. If I should pay you, you'd run my paper down from thirty to sixty or seventy per cent, discount." Undoubtedly, a reserve of specie is needed in connection with our finances, but this is needed not so muoh in the hands of the Government as of the com munity the banks. This might very easily be eu'eoted by requiring the banks to deposit with the Government bonds to the gold value or a oertain sum exceeding tbeir circulation, and to keep on hand a reserve the gold value of which would bear a certain definite ratio to their deposits and discounts. This would plaoe the national banking business on a gold basis, cause the banks, who are the proper representatives of the business comma nity, and who are solvent, to have a larger gold reserve, and thus strengthen the business or the country, to which, and not to the Gov ernment, the gold of the country belongs Every step in the policy of hoarding gold ha3 been attended by a rise in prioe. Every heavy disbursement of gold has been attended by a fall in price. And yet the Secretary keeps locked up about one hundred and eleven mil lions of dollars, which is probably about half of all the gold in the country, and at least sixty or seventy millions more than he needs to supply any contingencies of accruing gold interest. JNone or tnls gold, as tnus noaraea, is security for any part of our currency. It gives no aid or stability to our banking system or to the business community; it is utterly in capable of being utilized, and only enables the Qtinvai txrrr r Dan 4a Vila nrci 5 Ma twt r am Vn vr fc-'vv jtaa j v m ij v uia va out dvi n w uw i u wwj ing and selling his notes at a discount which increases as his hoard increases, "Behold how Bolvent I am I How dare yoa sell my notes at a discount f If I catch you doing the thing too outrageously, I'll come down upon you when you least expect it, and pay off some of ineBe debts or mine 1" Sir. DIekens In America. From the N. Y. World. As not a few publio journals and a good many private individuals really soem to re gard Mr. Dickens' second visit to America as a very bold British experiment upon the irascible genius of our nnterrifled Democracy, it is perhaps worth while to say at onoe that the idea of making such a visit iras originally suggested to the great novelist several years ago, from our o irn Bide of the water. It is now some ten years since Mr. Diokens first hit upon the notion of turning hia vocal and mimetio abilities to account in the populariza tion of his written works. Ins brilliant com peer, the lamented Thackeray, had led the way for him, in those successful lectures on the "English Humorists" and the "Four Georges," which were denounced indeed by sundry peri wigged authorities in literature as a shocking condescension to the vulgar curiosity about celebrated authors; but which nevertheless not only filled the lecturer's pockets, but greatly extended the clrole of his legitimate literary influence. Undeterred by the cynics who sneered at a great writer's making a "wild beast show" or himself, the author of "Pickwick" followed in the wake of the author of "Pendennis;" and very soon found himself bettering tbe instruction be had reoeived. Ilia so-called "readings' rapidly attained a popularity in Eugland which induced an enterprising resident of this good city to press upon Mr. Dickens the pro priety of bringing them across the Atlantio and that with so muoh force and Bklll that an arrangement was entered into for that purpose and a contract actually drawn up. The exe cution of the projeot was prevented, however, by the interposition of Bundry legal difficulties aribing out of business transactions with which Mr. Dickens was at that time occupied in Lng land. These facts were matters of publio no tontty at the time, and we disclose no mystery, therefore, in claiming for our ex celleut fellow-citizen, Mr. Brady, the pho tographer, whatever oredit may justly at tach to him for being sensible enough to see, and persuasive euougu to make British author see, that the American peopl are not so illogical as to quarrel wUu good piece of bread and butter because it Jiapeus to be spread by a person wb.o ouoe made faces at them. Mr. Dickens' new ex ADELPHIA, SATURDAY, perience In America, brief as it baa been, must have already sufficed to convince hiui that Mr. Brady was right in his estimate of the good sense and the good taste of Ameri cans. The truth is that, "touohy" as our people have long been reputed to be. there are no audiences in the world so little likely as American audienoes are to prejudge what ever may be offered to them in virtue of extra neous circumstances. Neither in London nor Paris is the average of publio audiences so fair and candid as in New York. An evening ournal comments, possibly by way of a joke. upon tbe "quiet good order and attention" of Mr. DickenB' first audience in this oity as worthy of notice, in view of the notorious "vulgarity and boisterousnesa and general bad behavior" of Amerioan assemblages. If this was meant as a quiz npon British notions of American publio gatherings it was hardly just to forget that the only British writer who has made a special study of this point In oar ways and works, Mr. Oxenford, of the London lime, has taken particular pains to speak of American, and esrjeoiallv of New York audi ences as remarkable for their good breeding and decorum. Thia superiority is only a natural fruit of the superior average eduoation of the Amerioan people. When Robert Lowe's idea shall have been realized, and England shall have educated her "new masters," simi lar results may be looked for even there. Mr. Dickens's visit may be made useful to his own countrymen if he will take the trouble, as no doubt he will, to impress this lesson of his experience upon their minds. New York, Mr. Dickens may take it as certain, is but a fair representative of Amerioa in this particular. How things went at BoBton we cannot say, nor does it much matter; for Boston, though an interesting and, we believe, virtuous oity, is very far from being in any respect charac teristically American. A - people who look upon Sumner as a statesman, and prefer baked beans to Blot, are capable of any thing. Tbe only positively objeotionable feature of the Dickens readings in this city so far, for example, ia Bostonian. We mean the attempt to turn Mr. Dickens into a reading-master, by inducing his hearers to buy at the doors small pamphlet copies of the selections which the great novelist is to read on a given evening, and to fix upon these printed pages the attention which should be given to the reciter himself. This abominable practice, which originally came upon us with Rachel, and had some slight excuse in the presumable unfamiliarity of foreign audiences with the French tongue ana with a renoh tra gedies, may perhaps have been neoessary in Boston, where the literary culture of the in habitants is chiefly confined to the Atlantic Monthly and the effusions of "Timothy Tit- comb." It has no such "reason of being" here, and ought (o be promptly "squelched" at the doors before- it can get into the house. Its effect in the days of Rachel used to be to frighten everybody, at brief intervals, into the belief that a severe rainstorm had suddenly set in. The peril of this being conjured, how ever, Mr. Dickens will have quite aa muoh reason to be proud of his New York hearers as his New York hearers to be pleased with him The'Flrst of tbe New Constitutions. From the A". Y. Evening Post. We published recently an outline of the Constitution which the Alabama Convention has presented to the people of the State for adoption, and which is subsequently to go to the Congress of the United States for ratifica tion. It is the first of that crop of new Const! tutions that is to grow up out of the war and its consequenoes. It deserves, on that ac count, more than usual study and reflection. It exhibits the negro for tbe first time as a participator in legislation, and may be re garded also as a specimen of the kind of politl cal document which is likely to be prepared in other Southern States, under the recent acts of Congress. This constitution begins with a strong and comprehensive bill or rights, to which we pre sume no American will object. The greater part of it seems to be taken from the Declara tion of Independence, or from the preamble to the old Virginia Constitution passed in the early days of the republic when the popular inspiration was strong, and the sentiment of liberty animated the hearts of all men. So far, then, it cannot be otherwise than excellent These old formulas of truth, intended to guard the people from the enoroaohments of power, cannot be too familiar to us, or too often re peated in those fundamental organs of Govern ment, which are the pledge and shield of our freedom. In the distribution, too, of the various de partmenta of the State government, in the de scription and limitation of their functions, the Alabama charter follows pretty closely the best models of the free States, improving upon their provisions, in some respects, and lall ing behind them in few, if any. All offioes are made elective, but the judges serve for six years, senators for four, and assemblymen for two. A beard of education is instituted, and speciflo taxes set aside for the support of those by whom its purposes are to be carried into effect. In all, this, again, the Convention appears to have been governed by the ex amplea of the free States, where politioal or ganization ia supposed to be the most ad vanced and perfect. It would have been better, doubtless, to render the tenure of judges during good behavior; but, as the Con vention of our own State boggles over that point, we are not to be surprised that they hesitate in Alabama. But now comes the important query who are to be the eleotors by whom this new Uov ernment is to be empowered ? Who are to vote under it and to hold office under it? The general answer is, "all male citizens, native or naturalized, twenty-one years of aget who have been residents of the State for one year," which is aa liberal as it can be; but the Assembly is ordered to provide a regis tration of such citizens, from which the follow ing classes of persona are excluded: First. Those who. during the late Rebellion inflicted or caused to he lullictecl any cruel or nunmial punishment upon any soldier, or sailor, marina, employe, or citizen of tne Unlieil Hlales, or who in any other way vio lated the rules of civilized warfare. Heoond. Thote who may he disqualified from holding olllce by tne proposed auieudment to the Gnn- HiKuilon of the United Slates, known as Artlole XIV, and those who have bee a disqualified lioni reglBlerlug to vote lor delegates to iue Convention to trame a Constitution, provided mat me i.eiBirtiure may remove said aisaQiii Ilea. Third. Those who shall be convicted o treason, erabiKzlement of publio fund, mat feai-auce In orllce, penitentiary otlnnnen, or bribery. Fourth. Those who are Idiots Insane. But, finally, before any one can be regis tered, he is to take an oath "to support the Union and the State of Alabama, to accept the civil and politioal equality of all men, and to agree not to deprive any one, on aocount of color, race, or previous condition, of any politi cal or civil right." Now, If these words are not misquoted, aud we understand tuem, tuey mean that no man is to be allowed to register his name as a voter who is unwilling to swear that he is in favor of the immediate and universal suffrage of the negroes. We have beard of a great many jteMB ,a? quaUucations. Tor the franchise pro perty 'qualifications, edueatioiial qualifications,' DECEMBER 14, 18U7. OLD RYE TUB LARGEST FINE OLD In tho Land Is II HENRY S. Nos. 218 and 220 Eeuth FRONT Street, nnonriin tiik ma he io tub tbae, ix iots, on vebt adtantaueou TEBHS. Their Stock of Eye Whiskies, in Bond, comprises all the favorite brands extant, and rail through the various months of 1SCG, 'CG, and Liberal contracts made for lots to arrive at Wharf, or at Bonded Warehouse, as parties may ENGLISH OABPETINGS. kew coons or oca own impobiatioh just abbited. ALSO, A CHOICE (SELECTION 07 AMERICAN CARPETINCS, Ed (tilth Praggetlmgi, from half Bagi' Mat. Our entire stock, hicluding new goods daily opening, will be offered at LOW PRICES FOR CASH, prior to Remova'. in January next, to Kew Store, now building, No. 1222 Chesnut street. REEVE L. KNIGHT & SON, 11 14 tbstu2m NO. 807 CHESNUT STREET. religious qualifications, and various loyal quali fications but it has never before been required that a man should take an oath to his belief in the political capacity of others before he should be enfranchised' himself. Carry oat this test, and we shall next hear of conventions that require subscription to the Chicago platform, or the Philadelphia platform, or the Baltimore platform, or some other shibboleth of a party cieed. Parties, in fact, will soon come to dis franchise eaoh other, as the Mexican and Spanish parties often do, till political contests are no longer a struggle of votes, but a strug gle of force. We ourselves believe most nearmy in tne natural equality of all men. We believe that all men are entitled to civil rights and to the protection of the Qovernment in the exercise of them. We believe that political rights ought to be diffused aa extensively as possible throughout the community, and that no par tial or class qualifications ought to he adopted; but we know a great many very good men who do not agree with us in these particulars; and shall we, on that aocount, deprive them of the suffrage f We know very good men who think, as the editors of the Express lately, with a large party behind them, that foreign ers ought not to be suffered to vote; shall we disfranchise them lor that opinion r There are hosts in California who maintain that it would not be at all wise to make voters of those Asiatics and heathen the Chinese; shall we exolude them from the registry? There are sixteen thousand Republicans in Kansas, and two hundred Democrats in Ohio, who hold that negroes are yet unworthy of participating in the Government; must they be ostraoized f In a word, is a man's mere belief or sentiment in regard to any question of political policy to be made the test of hia capacity for the suffrage or of his eligibility to oruoer let that is precisely tne test which, the Alabama Convention requires of all who are to be registered as eleotors, and of all who are to be chosen to any political position. There are in Alabama thousands of men who are not yet prepared "to accept the politi cal and civil equality of all men," in the shape it has taken in that State; they do not honestly regard the negro so lately a slave as fit to exerciee the franchise, to sit on juries, and to become legislators and governors; they allege that he has had no experience of self government, that he cannot read and write, that he ia ignorant of the commonest truths, and that he is still the degraded aud brutal ized victim of slavery; and that time, a pro bation, the nse and wont of freedom, the custom of obedience to law, rather than to a master's will, is necessary to his proper edu cation into citizenship, ia neoessary to render him a responsible and self-determining being and not the tool of demagogues and intriguers ; but for such opiniona are these men to have no vote in Alabama f They may be wrong opiniona; they may be vulgar prejudices; they may arise even irom a malignant hostility to the negro; but are men to be disfranchised because they are not so enlightened or liberal as to approve of the negro's enfranchisement f Apply the same test in many other States, not so recently emanci pated from the old tyranny of caste aa Ala bama, and a majority of their people would scarcely be found in the intellectual and moral condition which this test makes the sine qua non of legislation. It was no doubt natural that the loyalists and negroea of Alabama should dread their old foes of the war-time, and seek to tie their hands by constitutional restraints, but the mode is none the less bigoted and impolitic, and in a few years would make the authors of it themselves ashamed. If the people of the State do not rejeot this Constitution, Congress will be compelled to pass upon it, and we do not doubt that it will at onoe correct the narrowness of its proscrip tions. The classes disfranchised under its own acta are already too large. Aa the con trolling classea of Southern society the men of charaoter and leadership they need to be reconciled, not repulsed. "If we cannot gain their support," said the late Governor Andrew "the support of the strongest and ablest minds, the natural leaders of opinion at the South, to the just measures needful for the work of safe reorganization, reorga nization will be delusive and full of dan ger." What Congress may do and should do, then, is to strike out all these politioal proscriptions, and insert in their place the simple test of an ability to read the Constitu tion . of the United States, and to subscribe one's name to the registry. That, we believe, would be an end to the whole reconstruction muddle. First. Because the test is that which is adopted in the most advauoed and best governed State of the Union Massachusetts. Second. Because the test would be nearly im partial, as between the blacks and whites, in the present condition of Southern culture. Third. Because it would hold forth a strong inducement to both blacks aud whites to acquire the rudiments of learning aud to sup port the schools. Fourth. It would meet tbe approval, or at least disarm the hosti lity, of the principal conservatives of the South, as we infer from their journals and re cent speeches aud addresses. Fifth. It would fall in with the views of the President, as he expressed them in Tennessee, and as they are now represented by Senator Doollttle; and, sixth, it would not encounter a Utter hostility , roin the Democrats whose ablebt aud most influential organ, the World, not lonj since WHISKIES. AND BEST STOCK RYE 7 H I OF a k I E 8 now Possessed ANN IS by & co.: of this year, tip to present date. Pennsylvania Railroad Depot, Ericsson Lt elect. 9iU OIL CLOTHS. ETC. yard to four yards wldei Matt lags, proposed substantially the same test. Now, a measure whioh is likely to conciliate such diverse parties as these, without doing any real or permanent injustioeto anyolass, seeuu to ns to present a golden opportunity to Con gress for silencing strife, and establishing a policy whioh is destined to endure. . QREAT REDUCTION, FOR THE HOLIDAYS. IN Oil. PAINTINOS, CIIBOTIOS, AND EXUBAVINUS. MANTEL AND FIEB LOOKING GLASSES, 4 IN QREAT TABIETT. NEW ART GALLERY, BOLAfJ D & CO., F. 11 1 2m2p 3NTo. 014 ARCH Htreet. BOOTS AND SHOES. OW READY, Gentlemen's and ' Youths DOOTS AND GAITERS I'OR FALL. AND WINTEB WEAB. FRENCH PATENT LEATHER BOOTS. FINK I BENCH CALF BOOTeJ for Balls and Par. ties. SINGLE-HOLED BOOTS for FaU Wear. - LIGHT DOUBLE-HOLED BOOTS for FaU Wear. FRENCH COBX-SOLED BOOTS, very eaiy fof tender feet. QUILTED BOLED BOOTS made by band. GUM SOLED BOOl 8, very durable, aud guaranteed to keep tbe ieet dry. Having fitted tbe second story of my store for some ot my workmen, I am able to make any tort of Boon to order, at very short notice. Fair deallns and a moderate price la my motto. A trial Is all I desire. VVM. H. HELWEC, NO. BS9 ABCII ST BEET, 38 srnw 8m rp One door below Sixth. THE LATEST STYLES IN CU KTOM-HAVB BOOTS AND SHOES, FOB tiENTLEMEN AND BOTS. CALL AND 8KB THK, . KEW BOX TOE S. rBICES FIXED AT tOW FIOVBES. DARTLETT, NO. 83 SiOUTlI SIXTH STBEE1', ' 11 23 tf ABOVE CHESNUT. PATENT ELASTIC VENTILATING INWEB SOLES. They are PERFECT REMEDV JfOJ COLD OR BWF.ATY t EKT OKI ORNH, Tbey relieve litfKU-JMA'II-M AND NEURALGIA. They absorb and remove the PER&rittATiOA Inside ol KUBBUU To ki-ow their merits they moat be warn. Rtll Price, tl w tr pair, bold by all retail Boot ajid felloe Debars. K HILL Proprietor and Manufacturer, 12 B Id) No. 7 UMHN Htreel. Bunion, Mam. JpOR THE INFORMATION OP HOLDERS OF GOVERNMENT SECURITIES!, who may wish to convert them Into the FIRST MORTGAGE BONDS OF TUB Union Paciflo Railroad Co., We publish below tbe terma npon which they may now be exchanged at tbe otnee of the Agent of tue Qompauy In thin city, W5I, PUSTlllAro., NO. SOUTH TUIHU MTBEKT. We would to-day tlve these bonds and pay a ditto, re nee of fiie si taking la ezchanee U. S. 8's ot 138L 1166 83 do. do. a-20', of lesx v 127 M do. do. 6-2U's Ol 1864. 187 68 do. do. b ib'tol 18(i, May A Nov, 151-83 do. do. l-ai of '65, Jan. & July. tlbl'83 do. do. 6-20's of '67. do. fU3-83 do. do. ft cent. 10 4d's. do. I69 18 do, do. 7fc I't'y. June Issue. 1153-18 do. do. no t J July Usue. (For eveiy thousand dolla'e.) We offer these bond, to the public, w lib every con fiderce In their security, ' rblladelpbla,Nuv.'4l, 1SV7, 12 Hp
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