The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-07-05

from this office tomorrow.
We copy, in another column, the opening para
graphs of an eloquent and genial article upon the
last volumes of Bancroft History, which appeared
in a recent number Of the London Atheneum. We
do so, not merely because of their beauty and ap-
propriateness to the occasion, but because they
come from a quarter which it is the constant and
petty effort Of so many who called our States
men,, to teach us to regard with suspicion and
disrust. We confess that it gives us far greater
satisfaction to acknowledge one such brotbery and
manly tribute than we could possibly derive from
seeing both the STYx and the BLIZZARD moored as
prizes of war, beneath the broadsides of the windy
warriors in the Senate. Sharing with our coun-
trymen as we do, to the full, the just and
honest pride for which every recurring Anniversary
of our Independence gives new and ample scope,
we are still far from being able to say, with truth,
that our feelings as Americans, to-day, are alto
gether those of self-congratuaton The event
whose memories were mingled, yesterday, with the
worship of a thousand temples, and which, to-day,
will gladden. the hearts of many millons-has,
we think, its lessons of humiliation as well
the magnificent picture of our wealth and power
and empire we find ourselves inqliring, in our
own despite whether the Republic of to-day, with
all its grandeur, stands in as true majesty
before the World, as when it folded but a few
weak colonies within its youthful arms
Are The men of to-day-we involuntarily ask
ourselves-the men of the Revolution, and the
founders of the Confederation and the Constitu-
ton? Is there that spirit in the people, and in
those whom they appoint to rule over them, which
won for our fathers the smile and the bounty of
Providence, and made the Declaration of their In
dependence an epoch in the history of man? We
cannot answer such questions to ourselves without
pain, and it is therefore that we would step aside
from the revel of those who are only glad, and
ask our readers to think, while others would bid
them be proud and rejoice.
No reasonable man, we presume, regards politi
cal institutions good in any other light than
that of the advantages which they bring and Sc
cure. Things, and not names, are what practical
men pursue, that q curse is in nowise the less a
curse, because it may be called blessing, nor a
bad government the less an evil, because it has
taken a good name in vain. If q government does
anarchy and license among those who have adopt
ed it, we may call it republican, what we will,
it is none the less misfortune or crime. If Il
nation shall make itself known among its fellows,
merely by its power and lust of gain--if it shall
recognize the obligations of the great family to
which it belongs, for no better purpose than to
break them-a terror to the weak and Il source of
disquetude even to the strong it is of little mo-
ment that it be baptized by Il reverend name
nay, it will be the worse for thus desecrating what
all men regard as holy. Now we are far
from desiring TO convey the impression, that
in our judgment, the progress of our country has
reached the extreme points which we have indica-
ted. Happily, such things are not yet. But we
do mean to express our conviction, that the ten
dency Of our system at home, has been to weaken
the bonds of obedience to the law, to impair the
public sense of right, and sap the foundations of
political and social order We do mean to saw
although with sorrow, that externally our tenden-
cy has been to encroach upon the rights of our
weaker neighbours, and to make them feel our pow
err not in benefcence, but in spoliation: And we
not whether this has been by the action of our
Government or of our people with the connivance
of the Government, or in spite of its attempted re-
strant. The result has been the same and the
spirit which it indicates is identical. Neither do
we see any excuse or consolation for these things,
in the fact, that our history, in these particulars
is bat the history of other nations and that we
no worse than our contemporaries and predecessors
in the worlds annals. If we are no better than
the despotisms and monarchies which we despise
md urby- Of
pretending to be so e? If republican institutions
have no better result than the systems which they
seek to supersede why go through the bloodshed
and sacrifice of winning them? Why bring them
to shame, by linking them with failure and disap-
pontment? Do we place ourselves in the vanguard
of the world, only to lead it again through the
sloughs of its old Despond? Our idea of the duties
imposed on US by the blessings we enjoy, is, we
confess, different. We believe that in gratitude to
God, and in justice to His good gifts and to our
selves we have to grid up our loins for a different
as people, is not one of vain-glorious preaching,
and rampant selfexultation-bu of honest, up
right manly laborious example. Unless we work
out, from our republican institutions and from our
national privileges and blessings, government
which is really and practically based upon ODE
dience and respect; which honors the truth, and
reverences right and justice; which despises and
Furnishes license and corruption; which is in fact
what it vaunts itself to be-our pride will be dis
reputable, and our destiny must be disgrace. Nor
do we believe that we can avert these calamities,
unless, with our whole hearts, we take the matter
speedily in hand. Prosperity and power have
made us reckless. Luxury and corruption have
emasculated the stern manhood of our old repub-
licanism. We have gone on, from step to step, so
far, that we must stay our now, or we shall
have no power to arrest it hereafter.
1t is for this that we have asked our countrymen,
to-day, to let the voice of warning be heard with
the voice of feastng and in the pride of their pri-
vileges to remember the solemn responsibility of
their duties. Our Monarch, the People, like other
potentates, has been cajoled enough by fatterers,
and parasites, and court-foos. 1t is high time
that he had learned to hear the truth and there is
no season more appropriate for his doing so, than
the anniversary of the day which made him
King.
The result of the riots in South Baltimore has
been, we are credbly informed, to put an end to
the business of those who resist the demands of the
conspirators. The MesSrs. SKINNER have been