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


from this office tomorrow.
We copy, in another column, the opening para
,,ro,bs of an eloouent and genial article upon the
last volumes of Bancrofts History, which appeared
in q recent number of the London Ahengum. We
do so, not merely because of their beauty and ap-
nropriateness to the occasion, but because they |
come from quarter which it is the constant and
petty effort of so many who are called our Estates
men, to teach us to regard with suspicion and
distrust We confess that it gives us far greater
satisfaction to acknowledge one such brotbery and
manly tribute, than could possibly derive from
seeing both the SrYx and the BUzzARD moored as
prizes of war; beneath the broadsides of the windy
warriors in the Senate Sharing with our coun-
trvmen 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 Americans, to-day, are alto
cether those of selfEcongratuation. The event
whose memories were mingled, yesterday, with the
worship of a thousand temples, and which, to-day
will gladden. the hearts of many millions-has
we think its lessons of humiliation, as well
as its associations of glory. Gazing upon
the magnificent picture of our wealth and power
and empire, we find ourselves inquiring, in our
own despite Whether the Republic of to-day, with
all its grandear, 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
ourseves-the men of the Revolution, and the
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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 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 readers to think, while others would bid
them be proud and rejoice.
No reasonable man, we presume regards politi-
cal institutions as 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, SO that curse is in nowise the less
curse, because it may be called blessing, nor Il
bad government the less an evil, because it has
taken good name in vain. If government does
not, in fact, govern, but is the preteXt merely of
anarchy and license among those who have adopt
ed it, we may call it republican, or what we will,
it is none the less a misfortune Il 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 better purpose than 10
break them-a terror to the weak and a source of
,lao 10, Of
ment that it be baptized by Il reverend name
nay it will be the worse for thus Decorating what
all men regard as holy. Now we are far
from desiring TO convey the impression, that
in our Judgment, the progress of 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
er, not in benefcence, but in spoaton. And we
care 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-
straint 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
worse than contemporaries and predecessors
in the worlds annals If we are no better than
the despotisms and monarches which we despise
and denounce why 90 through the hypocrisy of
pretending to be so? If republican institutions
have no better result than the systems which they
seek to supersede, why 90 through the bloodshed
and sacrifice of winning them? Why bring them
to shame, by linking them with failure and disap-
pointment? Do we place ourselves in the vanguard
of the world only to lead it once again through the
soughs 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 lons for different
task. We believe that our mission upon the earth
as people, is not one of vain-glorious preaching,
and rampant sefexultation-but of honest. uy-
right manly, laborious example. Unless we work
out, from our republican institutions and from our
national privileges and blessings a 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 1t vaunts itself 10 be--our pride will be dis
reputable and our destiny must be disgrace. Nor
do we believe that we can avert these calamies,
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-
hcanism. We have gone on, from step to step, so
far, that we must stay our course now, shall
have no power to arrest it hereafter
1t is for this that we have asked our countrymcn,
to-day, to let the voice of warning be heard with
the voice of feastng and in the pride of their pr
vileges to remember the solemn responsibility of
their duties Our Monarch, the People, like other
potentates has been cajoled enough by flatterers,
and parasites, and COURTEOUS. 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
oeen, we are credibly informed, to put an end to
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