The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1856-06-20
THE PROSPECT.

| the political cauldron boil more furiously
and never did 1t contain more potent ingre
dients than at the present juncture of ou
affairs, foreign and domestic. The Kansa.
question and its attendant, civil war-the
Champion enlistment imbroglio, involving
the dismissal of the British Minister and sew.
eral E'itish Consuls-the Clayton-Bulwel
question, and Nicaragua question, upon
which hang the Monroe doctrine and the
commercial destiny of this country-all
these come up at once to vex and perpleS
statesmen and agitate and arouse the people
But the sectionalism and fanaticism enter.
ing into the Kansas troubles and controver.
sizes is not the only element that really casts a
cloud over the scene, nd looks ominous for
the future. In addition to the bloody dra-
ma enacted in Kansas, the most unseemly
strifes of words and blows result in Congress,
from sectional rabids on one side and ire
pressible indignation on the other. Where
will it end? For the end is not yet, but we
have only the begining-the dark foreshad-
owing and under.hum of storm which has
not yet let loose its fury. In contemplating
the possibilities of this strife, the black line
grows blacker and deeper, and widens into
an immense fissure such rs an earthquake e
might make which rends a continent and
"mumbles its huge lips over sunken cities"
On either margin stand those who were
once politically united, but who are now
separated by hatred as deep and dark as
the chasm which yawns between them; and
neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder can con.
quer the fate that sewers them. How can
this picture be prevented from becoming a
visible reality! How can the swift execution
ofits Siby lime prophecy be stayed for time
or forever!
Six months have elapsed since the first
meeting of Congress. WHAT has done for
the welfare of the country, what useful act
it has passed, what salutary principle estab-
lished, what evil averted, what measure of
pacifcation devised, it would puzzle the
most determined optimist to point to. New
er has the country stood more in need of
wise legislation and practical craftsmanship
never has it been less likely to enjoy them
Congress is rapidly tending to, if it has not
already reachcd~the point of positive injury
to the political well being of our people,
1t is an evil augury for the country, and de-
notes an alarming public decentralization, that
individuals are sent TO occupy seats in that
body, and manage to acquire prominence and
influence there, with whom, as Senator Ma
son declared the other day, gentlmen would
not associate elsewhere. Demagogues and
catiffs and knaves cut the most conspicuous
figures there, while men of solid worth, of
dignity and modesty, are thrown into the
background. Capacity, integrity and high
bearing are at discount-and venality, inn
pudence and scurrility rule the hour. The
national Legislature is n nuisance and the
national administration but little BETTER
There are sound sense and disinterested pa
triotsm enough among the people to apply
the hand of reform and save the country,
if they could be aroused and concentrated,
but we are by no means confident that this
can be DONE We shudder to think of the
rapidty with which, in tho last three years,
we have drfted towards that whirlpool of
profigacy and recklessness, in
which all republics that have gone before us
have been engulpbed. A strong arm and an
eye at the helm might yet steer
lhe ship away from the wide crcling mael-
strom, but we must change all the officers
md crew and trim anew her rigging. 1t is no
lime for landsmen or fair-weather sallors.-
We must have men who have weathered
storms before, who know where the reefs
md breakers are, who have watched the fix
ID star of the constitution through many
light, and who sail by the compass and chart
he great first captains of the ship were
used to.