THE DATLf EVENING TELEQRA PIT TRIPLE SHEET PHILADELPHIA, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1809. wiring clcgtapfa TUBLI8IIED EVERT AFTERNOON (SUNDATS BXCRPTBD), AT THE EVENING TELEGRAPH BUILDING, NO. 103 8. THIRD STREET, PHILADELPHIA. Tut Price is three cents per copy double sheet); r eighteen cents per week, payable to the carrier fcy whjm served. The subscription price by mail is Ktne Dollars per annum, or One Dollar and fifty Cents for two months, invariably in ad t ance for Ve time ordered. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1809. RS DEL DISFRANCHISEMENT. An epistolary contest has been commenced between Iloraoe Greeley and General Butler in regard to what the former terms "the policy of rengeance," while the latter claims that the question in dispute involves the termination of "the war of the Rebellion in Successful reconstruction." The main point at iHue is whether the existing political dis abilities should be removed from all the Rebel loaders who favor the fifteenth amendment, or Vrhethor evon those who support that amend Stent shall be kept on probation until the Sincerity of their motives and the complete ness of their conversion to Unionism are fully attested. The dispute is at best not one of much consequence, for the country will be able to worry through, after some fashion, whether a few thousand ex-Rebel leaders are ermitted to vote and hold office or not. These Men have been so thoroughly shorn of their old influence, and so completely supplanted by a host of new aspirants, that no considerable portion of them can regain prominence under the mwt favorable circumstances. Tlayed out politicians are at a discount in all Ameri can communities, and after they have once boon fairly shelved for a few years, they are rarely able to rewin public favor. The lead ing Rebels staked everything on secession, and the downfall of the Confederacy destroyed forever their hopes of political preferment. Hlill, some of the members of the proscribed class may bo useful as local or national officials, and as Congress has already acted on this theory by grants of amnesty in a large number of cases, we see no good reason why there should aot be a further extension of the Same prinoiple. It is a grave question whether proscription is not doing quite as much harm as good by its tendency to keep alive bitter memories, and to engender ani mosities which the great body of the Ameri can people are anxious to destroy forever. It is quite possible that a proscribed Rebel may be more dangerous than an enfranchised one. Whatever may be thought of the extreme leniency of our mode of dealing with the Rebel lion after the destruction of its armies, it has certainly proved, in many respects, wonder fully successful. England has been vainly trying, for seven centuries, to pacify Ireland, and in all that long period she has done less to secure willing obedience than our Govern ment has accomplished in less than five years. If we had tried, convicted, hung, and quar tered every lending Rebel in the South, a cry for vengeance would have gone up from every Southern hamlet, which would inevitably hare resulted, sooner or later, in new out breaks. IHit the unprecedented leniency of he course actually pursued has ' achieved a ) loral conquest only second in importance to the victory of our armies. And whatever .'nay have been the crimes of Ku-Klux Hans or Southern rowdies, no age or coun iXyhos witnessed an equally complete re establishment of national authority over such a vast district of country in so brief a period. Of individual outrages there have been many, but of concerted movements to galvanize the Southern Confederacy, not one, and any man who would propose such a scheme now in the most rabid Rebel district would be deemed a crazy euthusiast or a downright fool. Since leniency has aided to secure these results, and since proscription in Tennessee and Virginia Las resulted in Republican dissensions, which have enabled the Rebel element to dictate the policy of those States, it is a mere question of time when every ban against men concerned in the Rebellion will be removed, and Con gress should manifest a disposition to hasten rather than to retard this period. The desire for the complete restoration of peace prevails among the sensible men of all sections, with out roference to their past reoords; and while the nation is appealing to the whole South to subdue its ancient antagonisms, it Khould, in turn, do all in its power to avoid petty irritations. Many Rebels, who are still proscribed, are quite as worthy subjects of forgiveness as a large portion of those who Lave been relieved of their political disabili ties by the special grace of Congress, and we trust the period is near at hand when the re maining restrictions can be removed by a sweeping enactment, so that all citizens of kthe country can stand on a footing of equal- before the law. IRRIAOE AND 1)1 VOUCH LAWS. Richardson tragedy has attracted the at- Ijon of the public, in a very forcible in.m- to the very imperfect and unsatisfactory of aff airs now existing in this country i-count of the different laws on the sub- f marriage and divorce that are in force So several States, and to the necessity for lj measures of reform. It is scandalous, 'in the highest degree detrimental to pub- and private morality, that the marriage fon&s should be dissolved with the facility they are in Indiana; and the faut that some of the other States retuse to recognize such divorces only serves to make the com- nlication worse. This condition of things is no less censurable than the scandalous diu parity that exists between the laws on the aubjoct of marriage in England, Ireland, and Scotland. It opens the door for innumerable frauds that not only affect the perpetrators. but that encourage, in the most direct manner, licentiousness, produoe a low tone of morality, und sap the foundations of religion and virtue. Marriages and divorces affect (e wWe United Stales, and they ought to be regulated by uniform laws that will apply to I every State and Territory in the same mn-' ner. It is one of the oversights of the f mm era of the Constitution that the regula tion of these matters was left to the States themnolves, and the troublo roquirod to pro cure the necessary amendment to that instru ment will militate greatly against auyspoody reform. The time is at hand, however, whou a reform must be instituted, and it is important that the voice of publio opinion should be heard on the subject in a decided manner. BLONDE AND BLAND. Thompsoh she of the bare and brazen calves has again appeared in print, and this time she assaults the two Ti'Vunes, that of Chi cago and that of New York. To us the most vital point made by this yellow-haired strip ling is the repudiation of having applied an offensive epithet to her audionoeg in this city. It was rumored, on the authority of a degenerate newspaper man who had sunk so low as to "interview" the fair Lydia, that she had insinuated against the howling multi tude drawn together in Philadelphia by hor dazzling legs, the charge of "coldness" and "stiffness" in short, that she had denounced her Philadelphia audiences as "Quakerish" in the extreme. But we are quite prepared to accept her denial as the truth. For that mat ter, the eternal fitness of things, against which the belle of the blondes kicks so vigor ously, bnt which, despite her kicking, still holds sway to some extent in our midst, renders it highly improbable that a "Quakerish" sort of an audience would under any circumstances congregate about the legs of Lydia; and, moreover, we had ocular proof that such terms as "cold ness" and "stiffness" were quite inapplicable to the audiences in question, which were al together as loud in their 'manner as Lydia herself, and loudness, whichever way we choose to interpret it, is not a marked charac teristic of Quakerdom. Next in point of importance is a sentence which brings up for review the whole Thomp son business, and necessitates a realignment on the merits of the case. "I am not, in deed," says Lydia, "a Fourierite," as other men have been !" What are we to infer from this startling statement ' That Lydia is not a Fourierite. of course: but about those "other men" who have been . In ono of his quaintest fancies, Poe has told us of a curious sort f creatures who, abiding in church steeples and other lofty eyries, have a dis agreeable and disgusting habit of amusing themselves by "rolling on the human heart a stone." "They," says the poet, "They are neither man nor woman, They are neither brute nor huniau, Tliey aro ghouls:" Now, unless we are prepared to assert that Lydia is as loose in his language as ho is loud in her manner, we are forced to believe that she is either a man or a woman, or neither, or both; or if neither this, that, nor the other, that he is a ghoul. This point settled satisfactorilyand we confess that it is not entirely so settled to our mind we must be prepared to retract many harsh things which we have said in time past concerning the general impropriety of Lydia's pei formances. Concerning the King of t he Ghouls on whose eccentricities Poe discourses so mellifluously, we are told that "His merry bosom swells, And lie dances, und he yells," and all that sort of thing, for the doing of which the nnsexed Lydia has been severely censured, by the press. If Lydia bo indeed a man as well as a woman, and neither the one nor the other, and a ghoul to boot, we see no good reason why he or she should not henceforth be suffered, without molestation or disparagement , to dance and to yell, and to cut a swell generally. But we sincerely trust that she will adhere to the intention expressed at the close of his epistle, wherein she says. "I, for my part, prefer to stick to my abbreviated petticoats." Wo hope she does. If he should discard them, not even her affinity to the race of ghouls would protect him from the slight tinge of Quaker ism which still pervades publio sentiment. But the mainspring of the whole effusion of the dubious Lydia is found in the con cluding statement that the blondes expect to play "a successful engagement" next spring, "right in the face of this dreadful battery of pop-guns. in simple trutn, Lydia is played out in the West, where bhe is now sojourn ing, and having previously played out in the Past, tihe is in a perplexing dilemma. The bent members of her troupe have deserted her spangled banner, and her "partner" is about all of the original importation that is left. A renewal of her fight with the newspapors pre sents the only chance of regaining her lost notoriety; and fully appreciating this fact, some seedy and needy newspaper man has been hired to fire the first shot, which, weak as it is, is altogether loo heavy to be attri buted to Lydia herself. We think, however, that the good sense of our playgoers has by this time got the better of their curiosity, and that, when the blondes return to our midst, they will be snflered to dance and yell and swell in vain. To the TtMriiKANci: Men who are making such earnest endeavors to ruin the cause to which they profess devotion Jby intermixing it with politics, we commend the warning which comes all the way from Maine. The Bangor Whig states that less real temperanoe work has been accomplished by the radical advocates of the cause in that State during the past year than for a long time previous, The reason is found in the fact that many of them have entered into the strife of politics with enforced abstinence as the primary plunk in their platform. The same result has fol lowed this course on the part of tho tempe ranee neonle all over the country, and wherever temperance has been made a political ihsue, the good work has been seriously impeded. Elizabeth Oadv Stanton "dotests potty vri.r.leB." At least, she so informed tho woman fighters who were rocontly in con clave ut Cleveland; and being, moreover, fear ful that her preseuoo might give rwo to thorn, wrote a melancholy apology for hor absonoo. It may be that Elizabeth slightly overrated the inflammatory tendency of her pro.one?, but the offense was a pardonable ono, and if all the other old women who are in this business would cultivate a similar vauity, the woman question would so m bo sol rod by dropping out of sight. THE INTERNAL REVENUE TAX.J TnK internal revenue tax is the most onerous to the people, the most difficult of collection, and the most unsatisfactory in its applica tion of any of the means devised for raising the money necessary to carry on the Oovorn ment. It falls unequally upon different classes, and it opens the door for innumer able frauds of evory description; and there appears to be no way in which it can be made to operate with impartiality, or yield all that it ought to if honestly collected. Not the least of the evils oonnoctod with the imposition of this tax is the horde of office-holders that it fastens upon tho public, a very large number of whom are unable to resist the temptations offered them to fill their own pockets at the expense of the Trea sury. To do away with all the assossors, collectors, and other agents of the Inter nal Revenue Office would be a positive bonefit to tho nation. It would not only reduce the public expenses, but it would force the mon who are now living upon the nation to go to work and contribute their share towards ad vancing the prosperity of tho country by laboring in a legitimate manner for their bread and butter. It would also discourage the great and increasing army of professional politicians, whose rapacity is now incited by the enormous number of fat offices in the gift of the Government, and who would be forced to turn their energies into other chan nels if those offices were largely diminished. Next to the total abolition of the internal, revenue tax, the things to be desirod are its more equal application and the reduction of tho force of agents now required for its col lection. Tho Government cannot afford now, and it will not probably for many years to come be able, to give up the revenue obtained in this manner; and tho proposition now under consideration by the Committee of Ways and Means, to alter tho method of col lecting the tax, only gets over the difficulties of the present system by inaugurating one open to even greater objections. The proposition referred to was introduced by Mr. Getz, of Pennsylvania, upon whose motion the Committee on Ways and Means wns instructed to inquire into the expediency of abolishing tho offices, of collectors, asses sors, and other agonts, and of appropriating the amount of tax required to be raised from domestic sources among tho several States according to their population. This would be a much fairer way of apportioning tho tax than tho ono at present in operation, but practically we fear that it would not be found to work. It is as much as any of tho States, and more than a good many of them, can do to collect their own taxes; and if obliged to collect those of the General Government also, it woidd bo found to be practically impossible. The proposition has i s advantages if it could be carried out; but the State governments will object very seriously to such an addi tional burden being placed upon them, not withstanding the fact that the people are directly interested in having the tax more equally distributed and more economically collected than it is at present. It is a serious question as to whether this would not bo found the most expensive and difficult method f collection, and whether, taking it all in all, it would not be found a docidodly worso method than tho one it proposes to improve. THE DISTRIBUTION OF SOUTHERN LANDS. Tim greatest drawback on the prosperity of tho Southern States, and one of tho main causes of all their troubles, is the fact that the land is mostly in the hands of a few own ers, and the impossibility that has hitherto existed for small farmers to obtain possession of their own homesteads. This state of affairs raised up a wealthy and aristocratic class, who sought to rule the country, and who pre cipitated the Rebellion when they found that they were unable to do so. Since the war, practical men have seen clearly that the surest way to raise tho Southern States out of their present impoverished condition was to en courage settlers who would cultivate mode rate sized tracts, and constitute a class of inde pendent land owners, who would have incen tives to labor that the large planters of the olden times lacked. It is particularly impor tant, too, tnat tne freedmen should be fur nished with homesteads, and encouraged to work upon their own ground, with the assu rance that they would be able to enjoy the lriuui oi ineir laoor. To further this object the National Colored Labor Convention has presented a memorial to Congress, through Judge Kellov. nravinu that the surveyed public lands in the South ern States may be subdivided into traots of forty acres each, and that any freedman who shall enter upon one of such subdivisions, and cultivate the same for ono year, shall re ceive a patent for it, the title to vest in the settler and his heirs, and to be inalienable for the period of ten years from the date of entry. They also propose , that tho forfeited grants of land to railroad companies be em braced in the operations of the same sohome rnese suggestions are in tuo main judicious, and it would certainly I advisable for Congress to niako such a disposition of the lands. The expediency or propriety, however, of making any discri mination in favor of the freedmen is ex treinely doubtful. The poor whiles need just such encouragement as this quite as muoh as the negroes, and any homestead act that Con gross may enact for the special benefit of tho Southern States should apply equally to all taking care of course to protect the freedmen from injustice, and giving them a fair chance with their white neighbors. It is also im portant that measures should be adopted to keep thoir lands out of the hands of more spocwatora, and to offer as many inducements as possible to actual Boltlors. A judicious homostoad law would do much to ropair tho ravages of war in the Southern States, and we hope that this mattor will roooivo tho sort ous and candid consideration of Giagres-. "lfrr Tnarn Fruits," Em Two renUemon from Germany recently appoarod bofore a Now York police justice, oaoh ono olaiming tho custody, oare, and comfort of a certain lady who bore them company. One of the contending '1 on tons was the husband of the lady in disputes tho other was hor "admirer" only. The husband was unable to controvert the oliArge of poverty which hia antagonist preferred against him; while the "admirer" n turn succeeded in establishing the f aot that he was in a "position to support hor rooro rcspoctably." Tho Daniel whose judgmont in the matter was sought theroupon ques tioned the lady, and, having been informed that "hor affections" inclined to the "ad mirer" rather than to the husband, "he de cided accordingly." Thw is just what we might expect after tho promulgation by Beocher and Frothingham of the new code of marital rights and obligations. The explo sion of the old doctrine that men and women are, or at least should be, wedded "for bettor or worse," could not have happoned more op portunely. The claims of the Tehuantepeo Ship Canal and Mexican Pacific Railroad Companios against the Republic of Mexico are quite startling, amounting as they do to $:i22,0()7,!ll8.1j. In fact, we scarcely know which is the most startling, tho grand total, which makes a mere bagatelle of a million, or the remarkable precision of the arithmeti cal process by which that grand total has boon arrived at, and the strong emphasis which ia hud upon tho one-third of a cent which rounds it off at the little end. Those claims are to be presented to the Mexican Claims Commis sion, now in session at Washington, and of course, if they aro allowed by the commis sion, they will be promptly paid by Moxtco. And immediately after, we may expoct tho United States to establish a commission for tho purpose of ascertaining the prociso amount of damage inflicted upon loyal pooplo in tho Southern States by tho Federal army during the war, which, together with tho claims of the Rebol bondholders in England, will, equally as a matter of courso, ba promptly settled. Covode vs. Fosteb. The contest ponding between the Hon. John Covodo and tho Hon. Henry D. Poster over tho seat in the House of Representatives for the Twenty-first Dis trict of this State, will soon come up for set tlement, and there can be but little doubt of the result. In this district tho Democracy last year resorted to their time-honored devices in such a wholesale, reckless, and open manner, that tho ostensible election of Foster was too glaring a fraud to stand the tost of ordinary scrutiny. Mr. Covode has proved beyond a doubt that he received a majority of 4 19 votes, after the polls of cor tain districts in which the fraud was of so glaring a character as to vitiate them en tirely are rejected, and a majority of 5,", votes at loast, even without such rejections. We hope the Committoo on Elections will see to it that the will of tho people is not triflod with in tho shameless manner which tho awarding of the scat to Mr. Foster will neces sitate. That World's Faiu. The proposition that Congress should appropriate a million dollars or so out of the national treasury to enable the cheap and nasty boarding-houses of Wash ington to fleece the whole world, was so glar ingly outrageous that the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia has stricken from the bill incorporating the Great International Fizzle Company the sections which proposed to make an appropriation out of the people's pockets and the franking privilege. The com mittee has permitted the section which authorizes a taxation of city property to re main, and to that action Washington alone need object. If the capital insists upon ex hibiting its weak points, its boarding-house extortioners, and its magnificent distances, to the world at large, it should certainly have the privilege of paying for the luxury in any way that appears feasible. Who Knows ? The New York Herald em ploys a man who closos every article he writes with the pertinent query Quientabef Some body ought certainly to enlighten this genius on the leading political and social questions of the day. Will any one do it? Quieii sahe ? LOOKINQ CLASSES, ETC. JAMES S. EARLE & SONS ARE NOW OCCtrYING THEIR OWN BUILDING, THEIR 8TOKK HAVING BEEN EN TIRELY RENEWED SINCE THEIR LATE FIRE. CARLES' GALLERIES AND Looking (jilitNM Warrroom, No. 81C CHESNUT STREET, J 8IA BL18BKD 179 S, A. S. ROBINSON, FRENCH FLATS LOOKXNQ-QA3JS4 KNORA VINOS, BEAUTIFUL CHB0H08, PAINTINGS, Manufacturer of all kind ot LOOKING-GLASS, PORTRAIT, AND PICTURE FRAMES, NO. 910 CHESNUT STREET, I II Fifth door above the Continental, Pttfl. ft ODOURS' AND WOSTENnOLM'8 POCKfiT SMUrX,"1 Nunr HandlM, of beautiful ud the oelMwmXA UCOOLT1US UAZOtt fcUlbttOlU oi ilia nnert quality. Ror, K ditm. Re I mors, und Ttlila OaUarr Ground ud f' Liatmu.'tt. No. 11a H. lUMTli Hut, VWBAaaWal V 4 fcWft OHRISTMA3 OOOD9. Christmas Groceries. SIMON C0LT0H& CLARKE, S. W. Corner Broad and Walnut. FRESH GOODS ItECEIA ED IVIJW Reduction in Prices Con stantly being made. White Almeria Grapes, ONLY 40 Cents Per Pound, OR. BY TILS KEG, AT WHOLESALE PRICES. Choice Fruits of Every Description, New Walnuts, Tilberts, and Pecan Huts. Paper Shell Almonds, Stewart's Broken Candy, Ziady Apples, and JSellilowcr Apples. Fresh Canned Fruits and Preserves, Jeilies, Jams, and Marmalades. French Candied Fruits In Small and Pretty Glass Boxes. Fine Teas, Coffees, Chocolates, Etc. Staple Groceries OF THE FINEST CHARACTER. Cheese, Domestic and Imported, in great variety. . Potted Game and Strasbourg Aleats. Pates de Foie Cras. White Clover Honey, in the Comb and Strained. Queen Olives and French Olives. Olives, Farcies, and Capers. Olive Oil, unsurpassed in quality. Fine Imported Cordials. All the Popular Brands of Cham pagne. Svery Variety of Sherry. Old and Hich Port Wines. IZigh-XVIediums and low Grades Clarets. California Wines. Fine Cigars. ANt A. GREAT VARIETY or Fine Goods for Table Use ALL At Reduced Prices. SIMON COLTON & CLARKE, SW. Corner Broad and Walnut, 11 to tiw tup PHILADELPHIA, ASHMEAO'S OOUUMN. NEW ILLUSTRATED BOOKS rUHMSIIED DY DUPHELD ASHMEAD, No. 724 CHESNUT Stroot. XII IS " Illuminated Christian Year," Comprising mmlnaUng ( AdaefU, Christmm1 Epifihany, Lent, Qttt, Friday, Ealer, Attention, JThtt. mnday, Trinity, An Exquisite Title Page, by Jean Lee, Ithimi natorcf "Nothing but Leases," "The Beatitudes," etc. ete. The Ulumin&tions are printed on tinted card ; aiu 11 by it, in not less than nrteeu colors. Boca cart codUiiu the Collect for the day, in iUnminated text, and surrounded with appropriate aud imboUa borders. rrite. The 10 cards put up in an extra one cloth, port folio, with appropriate side stamps tj- The same mounted on guards, and bound In extra doth, bevel boards istsa The Banio, superbly bound in Turkey morocco, extra One tt ot "Eaoh picture is a careful study, and will bear critical examination No mere de scription will irtve a just idea of the beauties of this elegant quarto." Philadelphia Inquirer. "The artist has acquitted herself surprisingly wert in the production of this work of rare excellence." I'hiladtiphia Age, 'These are by far the finest specimens of illumina tion executed in thin country that hare yet come under our notice. . The flowers in thosp illustrations are very beautiful." Dr. H. Xhti. ton itacksmie, "Nothing more exquisite In itself, or more appro priate to t he Christian Idea of tlieseaHOU, 1ms len or will soon be puiiltahnd, than this study and Ulamina Uon." A'urth American and Uazttte, ANEW EDITION OF THE EXQUISITE RELIGIOUS POEM, "Hothing but Leaves," ILLUMINATED BY JEAN LEK. lire. Small Quarto, cloth, beveled boards $5-M Small Quarto, extra boards 14 II A SUPERB RED LINE EDITION OF Keble's Christian Year. Finely bound In cloth, red edges fit Turkey morocco extra, gilt edges H IN ADDITION TO OUR OWN PUBLICA TIONS, WE HAVE A. FULL STOCK or Standard and Illustra ted Books OF English and American Manufacture IN PLAIN AND EXTRA BINDINGS, SUITABLE TOR TIIE IIOLIDAYH, Which we are offering at "Wholesale Iiice.s. ALSO, A FINE ASSORTMENT OF ENGLISH, FRENCH, GERMAN, and AMERICAN GIIlfcOIvtOH, GOLD, WALNUT, and PASSE TARTOCT FHAME4 WRITING DESKS, FANCY WALNUT GOOS, Consisting of PARI.OK BRACKETS, WALL rOCKETS, BOOS BLIDKS, BODK SHSbVKS, KTC. A NOVELTf. (.oodaM's Celebrated Christmas Stationery. All who Intend mafcluff CHRISTMAS l'RESENTH Oil NEW YEAR'S CALLS Hhould not mil to call and raafce an early selection of thfbe BEAUTIFUL TKIFLES. Anexuniimi'fc'O0' our STOCK aud lit I C1C3 so licited at me OLD STAND, Ko. 724 CHESNUT Street. M ITHIM) AStlMllVI), II M t IKKJKSarXKU AND iHTOarjUt
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers