Weekly national intelligencer., 1851-01-18
"THE PAST AND THE FUTURE. I"
PRon rHE RrcaMosD nBruBLIcAs.


The National Intelligencer has cheerful article
on this subject The Southern Press dissenls
from the views of the National Intelligencer on this
as on all political subjects. The /" Past" presents
ray OF comfort to our discontented friend OF the
Press The heavens are as iron above him, and
the earth as ashes under his feet. He sits in the
dust, like Job, scraping himself with a p0tsherd
and cursing the day that he was born. Or rather,
our detected contemporary reminds us of the pro-
phet Jonah, who was excessively disappointed and
wrathy because the great city of Nineveh was not
destroyed, as he anticipated.
The :" Past" of our country is happily beyond
the reach of accident and malice. We have his
tory OF power and patriotism and republican pro-
gress which must ever live to astonsh the minds of
mankind, and awaken an admiration only less pro-
found than their regret that career brilliant as
the meteor should be as rapid in its flight. The
records of the American Union; its almost miracu-
lous growth in all the elements of prosperity and
greatness its triumphs on the theatre of war, and
its more enduring victories on the smiling fields of
peace-these, records can never be effaced by the
hand of foreign domestic strife; they will remain
deep-rooted in the hearts of all mankind, and the
stream Of time shall only make them more green
and fresh, it rolls on, bearing to oblivion those
petty baubles Of crowns and sceptres which are SO
common in the annals of the world.
The Future" is not so certain I; but, thanks to
the patriotic exertions of the statesmen of all par
ties, it is full Of brightness and hope. The cloud
of civil discord is passing away, and the bow of
promise illumines its dark surface. The whole
face of the political universe is irradiated with
smiles, and its whole heart is beating with Joy
always excepting those disconsoatc birds who are
ever sorrOwful when the sun rises, but come forth
in the night to refresh themselves with sombre
prospects, and hoot at the stars for their presump-
tion in shining. To such as these g The Future
Is disagreeable from those very qualities which in
spre in the hearts of others the highest degree of
confidence and happiness
1t is not difficult to imagine what sort of
!" Future" it is which the labors and ambition of a
certain school Of politicians would speedily realize
1t is Future Of ttOo Confsderacies instead of
one !; and, afterwards, Of numerous Subdivisions,
so that IN the end we should have nearly as many
independent Empires as We no,0 have States
DIsUNIoN, once established as the remedy of wrongs
in the present Confederacy, will be adopted in the
new; and not only in the new Confederacy, but in
each State, where the interests of sections are con-
ficting, as they supposed to be at this time in
Virginia. The thirty-one stars of our system,
shooting from their spheres, and some of them
broken into fragments, would rush in wild confu-
sion against each other. The end would be, as
predicted long ago by some Of the wisest statesmen
of America, that military adventurer would SUBJ
jugate the conflicting elements by the strong hand
Of war, and upon the ruins of the hostile Republics
establish one Government, and that Government
This Is ",Ihe Future" to which the
path Of DIsUNIoN leads this the Egypt to whichd
the chosen people of God will be carried captive,
should Judah separate from Israel.