THE DAliiY EVENING TELEGRAPH PIEILADELPfflA, MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 13G8.
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
fDlTORIali OPIKIOHB Or THI LKADlRd .OURSAL8
OFOH CCKUBS1 TOPICS COMPILED BV1BT
DAT FOB TBI IYBNIKO TKLKOBAFH.
; L)!ii for Ihc Right.
From the N. Y, Xation. .
To aDjr person interested lu lies and liara the
rreeideutial campaign offers au opportunity
for successful investigation Btvli as is rarely
met wilh. At bo other period do the liars
Bhow Uieuoselvea so fearlessly and are the lien
to be seen in auch abunianoe and variety. Of
course there is always plentot lying going on
around us, but at no other time is there sys
tematic lying With referenoe to a fixed object.
In ordinary tinies men lie loosely and indi
vidually, for all sorts of objects, without order
or method. During the campaign they lie on
a preconcerted plan, by columns of battalions,
every lie being uttered in combination with
thousands of others. The interest of the occa
Bion to the scientific observer may therefore be
imagined.
The classification of lies devised by the New
York Tribune is now the oue most generally
received, and on the whole it is, perhaps, as
good a one as we are likely to have. Hut it
has one Berious defect; aud it is a defect which
Well illustrates the justice of .lohn Stmrt
Hill's remark, that "a true psychology is
the indispensable scientific basis of morals, of
politics, of the science aud art of education,"
viz., that in its definition of a lie it entirely
ovei looks the fact that a lie must be the pro
duct of a deliberate intention to deceive, and
that therefore its phrase or, rather, the com
mon phrase "he lies, aud he knows it," is a
pleonasm. Nobody can lie without knowng
it. This being so, a large number of assertions
which Mr. (ireeley places in the category
of simple lies must be taken out of
it, aud placed in that of unintentional
falsehoods. There is no doubt whatever
that the many faUe statements of his political
antagonists which he so frequently exposes
are made in good faith, and iu the belief that
they are true. There are bo many versions
of every political occurrence, bo inauy ways of
looking at the character of every political
man, and so many dillereut inferences may be
drawn from the simplest bit of statistics, that
the cases are very rare iudeed in which it is
Eafe to assert positively of a political speaker
or writer that "he lies" and is a "villain;" if,
indeed, the charge of lying does not always
include that of villainy. Hut in the Tribune's
classification of well-marked or ackno pledged
lies such as most campaign attacks on the
character of candidates are we doubt if any
improvement is likely to be made in our time.
The campaign, too, afi'ords a striking illus
tration of the stimulus which the progress of
BOcity has given to lying, and the enormous
increase of power which the liar has derived
from it. in the ancient aud medieval world
the public was doubtless more credulous, bat
his powers of reaching it were so limited that,
no matter how great his skill or energy might
have been, he could accomplish very little.
Very few of the great liars of antiquity or of
the Middle Ages were able to circulate a lie
beyond the city in which they lived, and even
there only imperfectly. The slan-ier of oppo
nents, too, was, as a weapon either of offense or
defense, comparatively worthless, because it
requirtd prodigious efforts to get a Blauder
beioie more than a very small number of
persons, or before them in a perfect or
effective thape, so rapidly do stories change in
passing from mouth to month. It therefore re
quired only about half as much virtue to be a
truth-teller in old times as it requires now,
because the temptation to lie was only about
half as strong. The whole ancient and inedi
scval world offered no euch example of the
triumph of moral principle as the modern
world offers in the person of a truthful editor,
or telegraph operator, cr orator. A lie told in
the agora of a Oreek city was cooiparatively
a feeble thing; a lie told on the stump or in c:i
editorial article in the United States has the
wings of the morning, and Hies to the utter
most ends of the earth. No one can Bay so
heartily as the modern liar, "Knowledge is
power," for uo one's condition has the
growth of knowledge so much improved.
The invention of newspapers has, in fact, done
for the liar what the invention of
gunpowder did for the mau-at arms it
makes difference of strength or weight
of no aceount on the battle-field. In the ab
sence of widely-circulated periodicals, the
great or good man with the unblemished repu
tation cared little for the mendacious Bohe
mian. II is name was known and his charac
ter established over a wider area than the
Uohemian could possibly cover with his slan
ders. Now the Bohemian has him at his
mercy, just as a boy with a revolver would
have a knight armed capapie at his mercy.
"When the Bohemian says to 50,000 people
that the great man stole a service of plate, or
was seen, the night before last, drunk in the
gutter, what can the great man do f
It ought to be observed, however, that cam
paign lies are, unlike the common lies of ordi
nary periods,, told upon a definite theory, aud
that theory is that to do a great right it is
sometimes lawful to do a little wrong. There
is very little gratuitous and utterly wicked
lying in a Presidential canvass. We have
so doubt whatever that even Brick Poineroy
comforts himself with the rellection that his
lies are helping in the accomplishment of a
great end, and are therefore excusable. To
Bay that Grant is a beastly druukard, or that
he uses stolen plate at his table, is a small
matter; whereas to defeat Grant, relieve the
South from her "bhackles," and overthrow the
tyranny of the radicals, would be a great
matter. Therefore it is well to lie on, the guilt
of lying, like the guilt of kilting, being depen
dent on circumstances. We teei satisfied, too,
that if au examination of motives could be
made, it would be found that a large number
of the frauds on the Government are committed
on a similar principle. The amount that any
one man can steal trom it, the cheat says, is
hardly felt by the nation, while it adds enorm
ously to his happiness and that of his children,
and may produce a marked improvement in
his character. Of course a regular thief of
the lower grade does not number self-improvement
amongst the objects of his stealing, but
there is no doubt a large number of poor
peculators who do. There are few poor men
who do not feel that they would find it far
easier to be honorable and conscientious if
they were well off, and plenty of them put
their scruples to sleep by dreams of the
pious UBa to which they will devote their
booty the churches they will build, and tha
Widows and orpbaua they will comfort.
It must not be forgotten, too, in judging
Brick l'omeroy and ui like, that his delu
Bion, if our presumption .3 to his sta'e of
mind be correct, is a very undent one, and
Las been and is still shared by men who
Btand well with their own cou,ienaetJ a9
moralists and reformers. Lying hM Utieu
freely used In the service of the
very best of causes during the last three haB.
dred years, ever since, in fact, the principle
of association for religious and philanthropic
objects came into common use, and since
means of publicity began to be extensive. Tue
Jesuits reduced it to an art, aud made it oue
oi their most powerful weapons, openly pro
claiming that the use of oalumuy agaiunt the
enemies of the order or of the faith was at
least excusable, a doctrine which still has a
strong hold on the minds of large bodies of
txcellent men in every Christian country at
the present day, though doubtless if presented
tothtm in its naked simplicity they would
indignantly repudiate it. Muy of our readers
doubtleM remember Pascal's delioioas story,
in the ."Provincial Letters," of the qaarrel be
tween the Jesuit, Father Alby, and M. Pays,
a priest of a parish near Lyons. M. Pays
published a little book, inculcating the duty
of attending one's own pariah church, instnai
of running about after strange preachers. The
Jeeuits were then preaching a good deal, and
Father Alby thought the book was aimed at
them. So he denounced M. Puys, who was
an old and respected clergyman of un
blemished reputation, from the pulpit, as a
man of licentious habits, whose intrigues with
women were notorious, who was suspected of
lieing an impious heretic, and who deserved to
be burnt at the stake. M. Puys was overcome
by these accusations, and after some negotia
tion, finding what the trouble was, formally
declared that nothing was further from his
intention than to attack the Society of Jesus,
which, on the contrary, he honored and
loved. Whereupon Father Alby said that
it was bis belief that M. Pays meant to
attack the Jesuits which had led him to use
the language complained of, bat that "know
ing better what his intention was, he declared
there was nothing to hinder him from hold
ing M. Puys te be a man of enlightened intel
lect, of profound aud orthodox learning, of
irreproachable manuers, aud, in a word, a
worthy pastor of his church."
Now, this Bounds very comical, but the
principle on which the worthy father acted
Las by no means completely fallen intodisuse.
It is seen in a very coarse and brutal form in
the campaign lies of the newspapers about the
candidates in, for instance, the World's daily
contradiction within the last three or four
months of what it said three years ago of
Grant's talents and character, the fact, ex
cept his nomination for the Presidency, re
maining preoisely the same. But it is also
found in quarters where more attention is paid
to moral distinctions. On many of the reform
platforms there Is very little trouble taken to
ascertain whether stones which are being cir
culated by the members to the disadvantage of
men considered unfaithful or unfriendly to the
cause are true or false. We would not obarge
these gentlemen with inveuting slanders, but
they certainly give little sign of caring
whether they are flanders or not before they
pass them on. Between the circulation of
finch stories as they spread abroad a year ago,
of Grant's having been drunk in the streets of
Washington, and the invention of them, there
is doubtless a distinction of which humau
critics are hound to take notice; but if it bs a
distinction to which tue Oiviue Iatelli.nnce
will attach much importance, either our logic
or theology is at fault.
We might multiply illustrations of the same
Eort indefinitely from the colamus of the
"organs" of various reform movements. A
good biting story against an "enemy of the
cause" is generally published cheerfully and
without inquiry; if his acts admit of two con
structions, the worse is put upon them, cir
cumstances which tell in his favor are carefully
concealed, or his refutation passed over with
out notice. A btrikiug illustration of this
particular form of lyiijg was afforded after the
impeachment trial, when the accounts given
of Trumbull, Fessenden, aud others were iu
such ludkio'iscontrast with the accounts which
the same organs won Id have given of the same
gentlemen the week before the verdict, in
a controversy with a Drmocratio opponent,
them that one heard the joyous wagging of the
devil's tail. Iu the temperance agitation,
there is visible the same tendency to "help on
the work" by loosening tue obligation of
truth-telling. The rules of evidence are not
eo stiictly enforoed in examining into a oharge
of drunkenness against a moderate drinker as
they would be in an inquiry conducted by the
same persons on any other subject; and we
fear presumptions are adopted against unbe
lievers by good Christians with a laxity which
they would not display if it was the fair fame
of a brother believer that was at stake. The
tendency to be untruthful is, in fact, in such
partly involuntary, and the victim is often en
tirely unconscious of it himself.
That the world ia growing wors in this
respect we do not mean to say. Ou the con
trary, considering the prodigious increase of
temptation, and of population, we think it is
growing better. We doubt, for instance,
whether any campaign has ever been con
ducted in this country with bo great a regard
to truth and decency as the Republicans are
displaying in the conduct of this one. What
ever indications of deterioration there may be
are found not in the fact that the number of
liars increases, but that the liars are a better
kind of people, and that the bad effects of
lving on society at large are being hidden by
the good use made of lying in particular cases.
But we cannot consider the effects of lying for
the right fairly without remsmbering that
modern society is weakest on the Bide of the
virtues which are covered by the term bona
fides. It is gaining prodigiously in humanity
and sympathy, but whether it is gaining, or
seems likely to gain, in honesty, truthfulness,
scrupulousness, and candor, is still a disputed
question; and it is to this side, therefore, the
attention of moralists should be directed.
One other thing ought not to be overlooked,
and that is, that confining the term education
to the training children get iu schools is a
dangerous abue of language. Children get a
very small part of their education in schools;
of their moral training, bo called, hardly any
thing, i neir notions of truth aud j ustice they
get from what goes on arouud them in society
from the conversations and the speeches they
listen to, the newspapers they read, the acts
they Bee their relatives commit; and those
who Hatter themselves that the injurious in
lluences of a canvass , filled with lies and vitu
peration, or of the spectacle of the use of im
moral agencies in the furtherance of a good
cause, on the opening mind of boys, can be
counteracted, on the whole and in the long
run, by Bet lessons in morality or religion,
given by paid teachers or even by parents,
deceive themselves. Every man who mounts
a platform or takes up a pen, therefore, with
the determination not to be too fastidious, or
"too particular" about aoouraoy, provided he
can "help on the work," is a corrupter of
youth, who puts the world back two steps for
the one be helps it forward, and on whom a
cup of hemlock, if it would be lawfully ad
ministered to him, would not be thrown away.
What is the Actual Amount of the Nalioual
Iobt I
FromtlieN. Y. Tribune,
'To the Editor of the Tribune. Sir: Iu your
lusue of 11) IHiti instant you say the public debt
'was not IMOoO.Oixl.Ouu ou the InI lrmUul, but
82,510,000. two, and that Is every cent that we in
tend to make it, or to pay.'
"The World on this point takes Issue with
f ou. IttiaH, 'The amount, minus the money
n the Treasury, ou the 1st of AukuhI. was
t2,5J,53M"0, aud not $j.510,UUi),(HH) as the Tribune
mutes iu' A little further ou lu the same article
tie bays, 'The public debt, lens the money in the
'Vreimury on tue Ihi of August., lSii7. wit 82, 511,
li'Mvti, juiu the Tribune apiiareuliy with a view
lo luuke the debt appear less after the lupin of a
year puu u ju rouud numbers 82,r10,0 10,000,
thus luukinv a tllht diminution or thedoht
tluiiiiK Hit veiir. i,ere" iu fact U hud bieu
lucreiiKecl tlipWii, iu epilo of our numerous
taxes.'
"In yonr Issue of the 20th, you answer no
much of the article above quoted from as re
lated to the position of tbe late riin ldniii H,e
vens on tbe bond question, bu'. yoj In no wy
notice that portion of the article whlob I han
quoted from. Am I to understand thai vour
Htaiement wan wrong and that of the World
correct? Has the puhllo debt been lnoreas d
dnrlnK the IahI yexr? Do nit you vlr"illv
coniet. tnat you were wrong and the Wrll
rlithi In thus letting its eiateuaenu eo unoa
troverltd? Will you pletse answer tbess
qoei-tlonsf 1 am accustomed to regard the
Tribune an trustworthy authority, aud waut to
know if I can so regard It still.
"II. EDWAHD3.
"lilnghamton, An?. 22, 18IH"
The Tribune's Answer.
The last official statement of the amount
of the national debt was made publio on the
7th, and appeared in the Tribune on the 8th
instant. Any person who can read csn see
what it is, and we do not see why there should
be any dispute about it. Let us see what
there is to differ about.
Two or three great companies are engiged
under the patronage and control of the Gov
ernment, in opening communication b; rail
road across our country from the Atlantic to
the Pacific Probably not less than one hun
dred thousand men are now employed and
paid by those companies to cut timber, dig
ore and coal, made iron and roll it into rails,
etc., grade track, build bridges, lay track, etc.
etc. The Government backs this enterprise,
to a limited extent, with its credit, besides
giving the corporators certain lands along their
respective tracks. Every cent of the cost of
these railroads is to be paid by the companies
which will own their respective roads; but the
Government lends them its bonds to a pre
scribed amount per mile to facilitate the work.
The companies undertake to pay, and thus far
have pair, the interest on those bonds as it
accrues, and they further agree to pay the
principal of the bonds as they fall due. The
total amount of these bonds issued to them up
to the 1st inst. was 32,210,000.
Now, then, w do not reckon these bonds a
part of the debt of the United States, though
there is a contingent, remote possibility that
one or more of the railroad companies may
fail, and that their roads may not prove a
Builicient security for the payment of their
bonds. The ll.ilroal Companies owe the
bonds; they assume to secure the Govern
ment against loss by a second mortgage of
their respective roads; and they cannot fail
(we think) to pay, without llagrant rascality.
And we understand Mr. McCulloch to have
held the same view of them we do. If he is
now trying to elect Seymour and Blair, that
circumstance may account for his putting this
contingent liability of the Government into
his last official statement of the dnbt. If you
concur iu that purpose, yoa will probably
pronounce it right to do so.
Now, Mr. Edwards, do you, or do you not,
consider the bonds loaned to the Pacific Kail
roads and payable, principal and interest, by
them, a part of the current expenses and debt
Of the Government f We do not.
Apart from this, the national debt, as set
foith by Secretary McCulloch iu his last official
statement, is as follows:
Deoi I earing coin luterest ?2. OSS. 371,811
Debt beHrlux currency Interest tJl.O.il.K'JO
Debt pitHt due, and l Here lore uo louu
r bearing interest 13,09,175
Gieeubacks, mil a cerdllcaits, mid
pos'al citirency, bearing no In
terest 410.302,8111
Total 92 001.U78 7o0
Less casa on hand 110,051.270
Actual debt August 1st ...S2,1'J1, 321,177
We repeat that this is all the debt owed by
the United States, and really much more tb.au
all; because it is notorious that a large per
centage of the greenbacks ami postal currency
Lave been destroyed In tires, by the sinking of
vessels, and iu many other ways. Oi the
eighteen millions of "matured debt not pre
sented for payment," including over eight
millions of Seven-thirties, which long served
as a sort of currency, it is inevitable that a
consideiable share has likewise been lost. Bat,
even reckoning all this as nothing, and count
ing the liability of the Government on its
bonds loaned on mortgage to the railroad
companies at half their face that is supposing
the Government should ultimately be com
pelled to pay half of those bonds through the
tailure of the companies the entire debt is a
fraction les3 than he hastily stated it iu the
article referred to by our correspondent. We
were mistaken in saying that a correct state
ment of the debt would reduce it to 2,478,
000,000; we were not mistaken in our funda
mental position that (apart from the contin
gent aid rendered to the Pacific Heads) we
have been Bteadily reducing both expenditure
and debt ever since the surrender of the Rebel
armies.
Have we now made this matter clear ? Or
must we go over the figures again 1
The Internal Keveune Imbroglio.
From the N. Y. Times.
The quarrel about appointments which em
barrasses the administration ef the Internal
Revenue act is the best possible illustration of
the badness of our civil service system, and of
the folly which rejected the Tax bill, as origi
nally presented by Mr. Schenck. That bill
proposed the only proper course the organi
zation of the Internal Revenue branch as au
independent bureau, with its Commissioner as
the responsible head. Under that plan unity
of purpose would have been secured, a guar
antee would have been furnished for the selec
tion of competent subordinates, and the reve
nue would have profited accordingly.
The effect of rejecting the plan is Been in the
present disgraoeful condition of affairs, brought
about by the evident anxiety of the President
and his Secretary of the Treasury to use the
internal revenue machinery in the interest ef
Seymour and Blair. The curse of the system
which Congress endeavored to amend was
found in the facilities it afforded for prostitu
tion to the basest personal and partisan pur
poses. The revenue became the prey of the
men who should have been its guardians, aud
a service in which integrity and capacity
ought to be the only standard became the
re luge of knaves and incapables. The country
was scandalized as well as plundered by its
servants. The immediate responsibility was
divisible between the Executive and the Sen
ate; but the great first cause of the evil
arose out of the controlling power of parti
sanship in the matter of appointments and
removals.
The tax scheme as enacted undoubtedly
achieves some reforms. Honestly and tffi
ciently administered, it might be expeoted to
produce an ample revenue, aud at tbe same
time to ex'end inoreastd consideration to
business inteiests. But what is the result ?
The whole pyetem is disorganized. The mea
sure designed to protect the revenue is for the
time rendered praotically null a id void by a
squabble about appointments. The poai'ion
oi Mr. Rollins himself is uufortnnate. His
conditional resignation introduces au element
of uncertainty at a period when concentration
of force is desirable. Bat the more serious
difficulty la in regard to the appointments
under the act. Had the Commissioner been
empowered, as he should have been, to orga
uie the service with exclusive reference to
efficiency, it would have escaped the inter
meddling of Mr. McCulloch, who, wIihu
patronage is concerned, is the alter eya of Mr.
Johnson. As it is, the Commission oan but
recommend; the Secretary appoints. And as
the foiiuer selects Republijaus, while the
latter, doing the work of the Democrats, wants
oiily Democratic officers, theservioeis brjaght
to a Btand atill.
The proposal of compromise attributed to
the Secretary, makes the oase worse, lift is
willing, it is said, to divide the patronage with
Mr. Rollins, with one half assigned to R-pub
licans and the other to Democrats. We are
told that this may be the end of the contest.
If it be, it will fasten indelibly the charge of
gross partisanship upon the Seoretary, and
will teach Congress the hopelessness of auy
plan of reform whioh ia subject to his discre
tion. The Commissioner may be iutl lenoed
by a partisanship in his selections. That is
not improbable. The prexumptiou is, how
ever, that the question of fitness also enters
into his choice; while on the Secretary's Bide
the only thing apparent is a determiuatiou to
make duty subordinate to partisanship.
The whole controversy is humiliating. Bat
it will not be without benefit if it add strength
to the movev'i;t for civil service reform, aud
Stimulate Congress to make internal revenue
administration us far as possible independent.
What the service wauts is able, faithful
officers; and these it cauuot have bo long as
the President, through the Secretary of the
Treasury, may obstruct business iu behalf of a
political party.
Arc We n Aation
From Hie iV. Y. World.
Mr. Bancroft must look to himself, or, ou
his return, the Hon. Charles Sumner will have
a long account with him. As is well kuown,
the Hon. Charles is precise iu matters of pro
nunciation; capable, even, of a spasm on a
spondee, and what, therefore, must be his
emotions at eeeing his historical friend permit
himself to lie called, without question, "Ame
ricanarnm Civitatum Conf;u leratarum ad Au
gustisiiuum BorussmHege iu Lpgatutn," as he
is in hia late German degree.
Theie ia something in this that ia awful;
something that begs the whole question, aud
if permitted, forever puts out of savor that
choky little Sumueristio conundrum, Are we
a nation 1 If the latiuity of the Bonn docto
rate be admissible, we are not a nation, for
civitatum enpfwderatarum is, as the learned
Charles must ere this have seen with paugs,
the States united by a league. This beiug
that rank heresy in which Copperheads de
light, its apparition iu a foreign mark of
honor shown this ambulatory ambassador of
ours, must have had grievous effects on
Charles. And, furthermore, since Mr. Bau
croit takes, as we believe, the national view of
it, how comes it that the attention of the
learned inditers of this instrument was net
drawn by him to the peculiar technology by
them employed f According to this toadying
philosophy of the day, which apea after for
eigu monarchies' in its use of such words as
"loyal" and "rebel," the titular designation
of thi country, "The United States ot Ame
rica," does not mean the United States, but
the unified States. The idea is that the
States are not simply joined together,
but that they are bo inextricably
homogeneilicd that they are not, pro
perly ppeaking, States at all, but rather a
nation; and it is pleasant to find that even ia
the iar-off University of Bonn the true origi
nal of this Government is so far kept up aa
to find expression in its academical degrees.
The confaderatarum of Mr. Bancroft's doctorate
gives the exact idea of this Government, con
veying in the con the fact, and iu the fed us the
manner of Union. These United States are
not a cation. It was never intended that they
should be. It would provoke a smile to speak
of the Roman nation as it was in the days of
the Gracchi. The Roman republic is the title
by which it is great in history. It did not be
come a nation till Domitian, Caligula, and Nero
eat upon the throne. Thrones, body-guards,
huge armies, golden crowns, the will of the
man on horseback go with nation they are
incompatible with tbe name or idea of a re
public, and the American republic, and not
nation, let us hope it will continue to be as
long as We, the People, remain the first words
of that instrument which forms the bond of
union between otherwise independent aud au
tonomic States.
Bonn has said a good wor3, and the atten
tion thereto of the nation-mongers is invited.
Senator Wilson ou the Stump A Sledge
Ilauiiner Speech..
From the N. Y. Herald.
Senator Wilson, as a stump speaker, is a
mighty man in Israel. His late effort at Biu
gor, Me., was a sledge-hammer speech. It ia
the condensed milk of Greeley's two ponder
ous volumes on "The American Conflict." It
gives us a graphic picture of the decline and
lall of the pro-slavery Democratic party and of
the causes and consequences of the slave
holders' rebellion, appropriately beginning
with poor Pierce. The speaker reminds us
that in his first message to Congress, Pierce
gave his pledge that the repose of the coun
try Ehould receive no shock during his offi
cial term, and the orator then enlarges upon
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise as
the fatal shock to the domineering, slavery
propagating Democratic party. He dwells
upon the ominous border ruffian conflict in
Kansas, which may be called the bloody
overture of the great Rebellion, and he
reproduces the Southern and Democratic
threats of disunion, scceision, and civil war in
the event of Fremont'd election in 1S5G. He
reproduces the promises of Northern Demo
crats to Southern revolutionists in 18U0 and
1801, the political events which marked the
beginning of the war aud its progresss to the
end, including the various forms and shapes
of the Northern Democratic opposition to Con
gress, the administration, the army, and the
loyal masses of the North, while engaged in the
work of suppressing the Southern Rebellion,
and in all this to the close of the war the his
torical sketch of the political issues, parties
and conllicts involved is not only exceedingly
like the flattening of a piece of red-hot iron
with a sledge-hammer by rapid blows well
laid on, but it is substantially true.
But upon the issues and conllicts which have
arisen since the war, and especially upon the
great underlying and overshadowing issues of
this Presidential contest, Mr. Wilson ceases in
a great degree to give us the truth of history,
and deals too largely in the assumptions and
conclusions of the mere party politician for a
clear exhibit of the political situation. He
tells us that the Southern Rebwl elements were
predominant in the late Democratic National
Convention, and he undertakes to prove from
Northern and Southern Democratic stump
speeches that the whole party, rank and file,
under the sway again of their old Southern
leaders, are in thia campaign simply fighting
to lerive and establish "the lost cause" of the
Southern Confederacy. In thia presentation
of his case Mr. Wilson makes the most of the
abundant capital furnished by such intractable
and hopeless fire-eaters as the Rebel Generals
Forn-Bt, Albert Pike, Henry A. Wise, and
Wade Hampton, aud the uulucky Rebel Ad
miral Hemmes; but still the great Massachu
setts etumper in Maine does not meet the great
issues of thia canvass.
What are they ? They are the great isiuea
arising from the measures and the policy de
veloped by Congress since the war. The peo
ple have the heavy burden to bear of an
enoriuous national debt; they are taxed by the
national Government to the extent of four or
live hundred millions a year to meet current
expeLSes and the interest ou the debt, the
218 & 220
S. FRONT ST.
4
OFFER TO TUB TRADE, m LOTS,
F IKE RYE AM) BOUIiBOA7 WHISKIES, LY IJ9.YD,
Ol 1HOO, 1807, find 18G8.
AIS0, HUE FIXE ME AYD liUFKUOY WHISKIES,
Of GREAT AGE, ranging from to 1845.
Liberal oontracta will be entered Into for lots, in bond at DlHtlllcry, of thia years' raanufaot nrt.
principal of whioh remains, and promises to
remain, an undiminished harden tor years to
come under the powers that be. Corruptions,
spoliations, and revenue frauds by millions,
alaim the country and excite the wrath of the
tax-payer?, and they are casting abeut for a
change. So with the reconstruction of the
Rebel States. White disfranchisements aud
universal negro suffrage have brought about
Bmh confusion in the States concerned that
there ia no prospect that those governments
can be maintained as restored by Congresa
except by a standing army. Nor can the
Republican party justly demand that the
white people of Georgia shall submit without
complaint to this policy of universal negro
suffrage which Congress dare not attempt to
enforce in New York, Pennsylvania, or Ohio.
Then, again, in addition to high taxes, are the
high prices of living, the comparative stagna
tion of business and the general distrust ou
all sides of the party in power. Admitting
that Seymour is a poor stick for President and
that Blair, in returning to the Democratic
camp, has become a fire-eater, his not Vlr.
Wilson heard once or twice before this iu hia
experience the significant popular cry of "any
thing for a change ?" and has he not seen
something of the consequences ? We would
admonish him that the questions of the war
are not the questions which will determine
the general result of this canvass, but tb.it it
will turn upon the great questions which have
arisen since the war, and which directly affeot
every man's interests aud every man's pocket,
North and South.
The Vermont temocracy.
Prom the Boston Foxl,
Though it is not to be expected of the de
fenders of the Constitution in Vermont that
they will achieve anything like a numerical
triumph next Tuesday, we do reckon with
great confidence on such handsome gains for
them as will serve for an index of the final
result when the country votes in a body in
November. The result in Vermont will estab
lish the fact of the tendency everywhere else.
It will certify to the positiveness of the reac
tion that is going on throughout the Union
against the revolutionary course of the fac
tion that has attained supreme power. There
is a great deal mere virtue in the example of
a reduced opposition majority, as iu the case
of Vermont, than in a positive victory in a
State where victories over radicalism are
regular matters.
it is lor this reason that we make au earnest
appeal to the Democrats and Couservatives of
the Green Mountain State, to put forth the
utmost of their strength on Tuesday. They
must be conscious that the cause they are en
gaged in is the same saored cause for which
their honored ancestors made so many sacri
fices and exertions. It is the simple preserva
tion of republican government on the American
Continent. They are familiar with the efforts
of the radical party to destroy the trust which
the people generously confided to their admin
istration. They know of the extravagance, the
corruption, and the revolutionary recklessness
that has strewn the pathway of that party with
the wrecks of republican freedom aud the peo
ple's prosperity. And they are well aware tuat
this party promises n reform in its courses,
holds out no new hopes to the country, and is
thoroughly bent on continuing the destructive
measures it haa inaugurated. It offers no de
fense of its conduct, but points to events long
gone by, the Iruit3 of whioh are blighted by
their own criminal action. In opposition to
such a faction the true men of Vermont will
concentrate their full numbers, and the result
will rouse a tresh enthusiasm in the ranks of
Union men throughout the couutry.
Eastern Vermont assembles in Convention
to-morrow at Lyndon, where the population
of the Connecticut and Passumpsio river val
leys will demonstrate their numerical and
moral power to their fellow-citizens in the
other part of the State. Able speakers are to
address the mnltitude on the living issues of
the time, and all the accompaniments of a
grand mass meeting will be there. This is to
be a real gathering of the people, not of a fac
tion or a party merely; and what will be said
and done is certain to tell with marked effect
at the ballot-box next week. We rejoice at
the prospects which are furnished by such a
demonstration, for it means that the defenders
of free government are fully awake to the
needs of the hour. They do not assemble
after such a fashion to advanoe the claima of
any party, but to save a country never in such
pei il before. It will prove to be a gathering
which the radioals of the State will be com
pelled to respect as they do not ordinarily re
spect popular manifestations.
Forward, then, men of Vermont, to the duty
which the hour imposes I Your free institu
tions are still within your own control. Pro
ceed with Btern determination to rout the
enemy of republican liberty from his strong
holds. Dislodge him by a front and Hank
assault. If you bring down the majorities
against you by handsome figures, you will
Lave done that for whioh your brethren
throughout the Union will sincerely thank
you. Principles are stronger than numbers.
Free government doea not rely on the life or
death of any faction in power. Vermont fires
the signal gun on Tuesday, and let it start
patriots everywhere to their feet for the Union
and the Constitution.
PAINTED PHOTOS.
NEW THING IN Alt T.
BERLIN PAINTED PHOTOS,
A. S. ROBINSON,
Ho 9i0 CHEBNUT btrtet,
Has UBt received a superb collection of
BKHLIN PAINTED I'HOTOuaAPrW 09
FLOWEKa
The; are exquisite geui of art, rivalling la beauty,
nauiruhieHa ot tlut, aud perfection ol form a great
variety ot the cuolcett exotic flowering pluuU. They
are mourned on boards of three lizea, and sold from
Ki t r.i to 13 aud fJ euch.
Icr framing and tue album they are Incomparably
ut'builtul. 8 5J
WI L .L I AM 8. GRANT,
l.Oil &Ut810N MH. HUH ANT,
Ke.8. CMAWiliK Aveuue, Philadelphia,
iUkNT VIIH
Piipniit'g Oimpowiier, Kftlned Nitre, Charcoal, EtO,
XV ItKker f-o.'a C tiorolaie C &. a'il Mrouia.
( r'lrker, Urns. & Cu.'i YbUoW UuUU Uueallitnfc
ttuila aud is am, l'&i
218 & 220
S. FRONT ST.
& CO
WINES, ETC.
g 0 AO 31 A WOE COMPACT.
Established for th sale of
This Company oiler lor sale pare California Wines
Willi E, CLAKWr,
Catawba. puh',
btfEHKV, XdU-CATEL,
AMiELICA, CHAMPAGNE.
ANI
rUPE GBAFli BRANDY,
wliolfnale ana rtvail. ail of their o-n irrowlra-. and
warranted to cuniain noihlog but toepurejulco ul tne
Tigfugg " w";, lmrp
JAMES CARSTAIRS, JR.f
Kos. 120 WALM'T aud 21 (JKAMTE Sis.,
IM POSTER OP
Erautlies, "YIues, tiln, Olive Oil, Etc. Etc.,
AND
COMMISSION MERCHANT,
lOIt THE BALK OP
TIEE OLD IS YE, WHEAT, AND L'OUR-
BOA WHISKIES. U
LUMBER.
F. H- WILLIAMS,
SEVENTEENTH AM SPUING GARDEN
OFFEUiroii AIAL.E
PATTERN LUMBER OF ALL KINDS.
SXTBA SEASONED PANEL PLANK.
BUILDING LUMBER OP EVERy DESCRlp.
TION.
CAROLINA 4-4 and 8 4 FLOORING.
HEMLOCK JOISTS. ALL BIZKS.
CEDAR SHINGLES, CYPREtS BUNCH SHIN
GLES, PLAJsTEBINU LATH, POSiy,
AL80,
FULL LINfi Off
1YALXUT AND OTHER HARD WOODS.
LUMBER WORKED TO ORiiER AT SHORT
NO'IIOS. ,.
7 w mwi2m
ISC8.
BPRUCE JOUST.
bPKUC'E JoioX.
BE.Mi.OcK.
HEMLOCK.
1868.
1 0;Q 0 MASONED CLEAR PINJC. -, -.
iCOO. SEASONED CLii xH pISe fififi
CHU1CE rATl'fcKM PINE AJU0,
SPAMJsH CEDAR, Poit PAlTERNrs
RED CEDAR. KJXa'
1808. glftSS: 1868
CA.hOL.iJNA ELOOilUNU. J--"-J.
ViiUiUMA ELooiUNli.
DELAWARE ELOOiUJN(jl
AfoJA ELOO HINDI. 1
., JW A C'i PLOOR INQ.
i'LORlDA STEP BOAKi.
RAIL PLANK.
l&ttft WALNUT BDS. AND PLANK "I r"ir
lOOC). WALNUTBiiS. ANufivjr 1868
WALNUT BOARDS. ' UU
WALNUT PLANK.
)f ft UNDERTAKERS' LUMBER t rr
ICUO. UNDERTAKERS' LUMBER.' 1868.
WALNUT AiND PINK.
1 SEASONED POPLAR. 1 Ozr
JLOUO. bEjujoned CHKjfcRy, loOO
WHITE OAKPLNK AND BOARDS,
Rt'ft CIGAR POX MAKERS' t OrtO
lOOO. CiOAR BOX .MAKERS' lonTL
bPANibxx CEDAR JiUX HOARDS
FOR rLE LOW. '
iftf ltt CAROLINA SCANTLING. ln.n
lOCO. CAROLINA H. T. SIlLS 1868.
NORWAY SCAJSTLINOT '
lftH CEDAR SHINGLES. 1 0o
ICUO. CYPRfcJSB bHINULES. lOOO
MAULE, BROTHER Tu7 "
11 No. 2ooo SOUTH Streot.
UNITED STATES LUILDEKS MILL, NOEL
24, te, and it S. iTPTKENTH streetT
ESLEIl j- BR O., PR 0PR1ET0R3.
Always on Uand, made of tne Rest Seaaoned Lumbu
at low prices,
MOULDINGS, BRACKETS, BALUSTERS
Bewels, Balusters, Brackets, and Wood Moulding j
AJEWKLto.IIJNe8, BBACKKm BALUSTERS
Walnut and Ash Hand Railing, t, tX, and I Inches,
BUTTERNUT, OHE&NUT, AMD WALNUT
MOULDLNUS to order. ' I lii
CARRIAGES.
GARDNER & FLEMING
CARRIAGE BUILDERS,
No. 214 SOUTH FIFTH STREET,
BELOW WALNUT.
An assortment or NEW AND SECOND-HAND
CARRIAGES always on band at REASONABLE
PRICES. tt fmwgm
GAS FIXTURES.
JOHN J. WKAVIB. J, 6ELLKKS PKNNOCK,
WEAVER & PENNOCK,
PLUMBERS, GAS AND STEAM FITTERS,
NO. 87 NOR1U SEVENTH STREET,
Pnlladulphla.
Country Seats fittf d np with Gas aud Wa'r, In first
class style. An atsortuieut ot Brass aud Irou Lift and
Force Pumps cnnbtantlv ou haud
LEAD BURNING AND CHEMICAL PLUMBING.
N. R. Wa fr Wheels supplied to the trade and
others at reusouable pilots. 7 81 liu
GAB FIXTURE 8.
MlbKKY, MERRILL A TUACKABA.
No. ?1 t'll.SL 1' blreut,
marpfactnrers ot Uan Futures, Lumps, etc., e3C
H'omM 111 the aiieutk not the public uhIimIi I'.re i-
rit'gint ausorUiiwt ol U Cuantlr Uer, Wu ;o(,
Jiif. keu,, mj. They also tutitluc S'-vil'" li'i
dvili, ,s and public builuluas, aud attend l.)ltu
las, nlU'rlny. and r-i auiuK 3 plpw.
All worn warranted. g uj