The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1858-10-29

said Of playing end both at the first and now
was and Is, to hold, as twere, the mirror up TO
ture, To show virtue her feature, scoin his
image and the very age and body OF the time its form
and pressure '--how felicousiy though unknowingy
did he not represent the of the newspaper press
the present dme Faults it has in ample number and
degree, undoubtedly; for whatever do, in their
highest as in their lowest works. testies 10 the mper
fecons OF natures and the press with its very short
comings s indeed the very mroro the passing day and
of course, with its wisdom and its folly its virtues and
Its vices and all there is of blended good and evil Of
Ormuzd and OF Ahrman, in the ways of the world.
And how the steam engine and the rail car, and the
ocean ship and the telegraph conspied to accumnlate
and to dnse the Of intelligence in that newspaper
sheet Let US add another sign Of the advanced State
OF our society that the knowledge and scholarship mani
tested In the cangs Of the higher class Of the newspaper
press whether In Europe America are equal now to
the famous literary authorship of other times. What
reputation attained by Junius ON account of few
newspaper articles in the London Public Advertiser
And yet many leading column of the better journals
of England, France Germany Spain. Italy, the United
before day by day. and passes of without
our specal note, and with individual fame to ts
thor though it be higher in composition and purcr in
spirit than is anything from the hand of Junius.
Pause we, then here moment to reflect We are
the witnesses and prakers of that universal activity Of
day which, by of the combined external force
Internal stability and democratic republican selfacton
OF particular society have their utmost accelera
ton in the United States Its general consequence has
been the populousness and wealth Of particular States
the dusyeness OF internal improvement throughout the
country the ndeatigabe energy and repressble enter
prise of the peoplen word the general greatness of
the Unien Has it not at length reached point of
Of mental activity and of individual enterprise
is compared with the of satisfying all
the instincts of thought and acona Have not
plus of yigor, exuberance of vitality full
ness op ian OF the functions of individual and social
existence think have j do not speak of
of agricultural mechanical production or of
tradethat is in the of political economy 1t is
in those relations alone nor in those chiefly that
find an nf nd,
with the field for its exercise perceive 1t not less it
to menay perceive it still more in those pres
ent political manifestations and emotions OF the people of
the United States, which have universally the
complexion, which consentaneous all the
country to indicate of necessity cause, and
most distinctly TO point out that cause
Let us see Are not we, the people of the United
States from end to the other, statesmen and law
gves farmers and mechanics, clergy and laity given
up to the discussion of political distractions reconde
supposable questions of public law, projects Of impracti
cable change, maginations of ideal social perfection
Do not these evanescent political distractions and social
localities and go after the other so tansitoy in
their nature hardly to survive the exigencies Of any
single popular electonY And these questions while
common to the whole country particularly rife
In the northern States where there the most schools
and colleges, the most books the most speeches. and the
most newspapers and where the din of reform and
formers of all sorts Of cosmopolitan philanthropy fills
the avenues Of intelligence and obstructs perverts all
beneficial legislation. NgNas GH ,.
How weary, stale, and Improbable all these Wis
onary specuatons of impossible social reform One set
of refornes would have to dwell in great barracks to-
geter with perfect equality and mutual interchange of
all the offices and all the personal and domestic relations
OF lfe and another would have all furnished with
remuneratye labor without STINT and especially without
compusion but at the expense of the community One
set would have to eat and drink by rule of law and
what is worse, the rule Of their morbid fancies
or vactudnary constitutions Another would be con-
tent If 1t could have all matrimonial ties, and of
course all filial ties, abolished forever Another
nd hayn thar rio Ia and
privileges of transferred to women without propo
sing however to relnqush the rights and privileges of
women, and have these conceded to Another set
insists that all the varieties of the human racewhite
black red shall be declared equal by law, and all dsuc
tons political domestic csnbordnation, well as of
and color, extngused One set would impose celibacy
universal duty and another would elevate polygamy
into universal religion. Some would have govern
ment and laws leaving all the social relations Of men
to their voluntary of right and Others would have
nothing but law, and law to take the place Of all the OBJ
legations Of honor, morality and religion And there
not few who teach assassination the common right
and the common duty of all persons discontented with
any Of the conventional burdens obligations of society
In all these and many other and groser absurdtes Of
doctrine opinion, country abounds can produce
the evidence OF all these monstroses and foes their
agators and their apostles their journals and their
yentons and their experimental establishments and not
20 outside of the limits of single city to find It, And
thus it happens that many people in the northern
States surrender themselves to the agitation of the
most abstract OF all possible distractions and the most
mpracticable of all conceivable irnpaccabites. Tho
consideration is, not only how they shall reform real
supposed evils at home but how they shall reform
other people whom they have jurisdiction who
beyond their reach and with whose domestic affairs
they have righful lawful concernnamely, their
feow-ctzcns of the independent sovereign States
We concede to the people Of each one of tho States
within itsefnay it is their undoubted right and their
privegethat they discuss at will the abstract doctrines
of social philosophy, and try at pleasure all possible
periments of theory and of legislation, and turn and
~. 1ns,x, a.. fIa
condition of maintaining republican government.
There within ITSELF is the proper, and the only proper
field Of such questions We in one State may deplore
the alterations of opinion ia these respects which agtae
another State trusting that In the end will
and truth prevail That is the accepted prin
cipe vf democratic republican institutions. But the
stitntion Of the Union forbids to 60 further 1t for
bids of the United States to interfere with the nst
tutons of another in the either of innovation
the repression of innovation. To do either of these
things to violate ths first great fundamental principle
Of the federal Union to wit the mprescrptbe equality
and constituted right of the individual States.
And yet have not the spectacle year after year, of
the Congress of the United States the constitutional
guardian of the federal interests, and with no
authority or duty beyond them abandoning and neg
lecting all those interests month in and month out
through each entire session. resolve itself into sort
Of moot court for the discussion of fancy questions of
political philosophy or to regulate the party struggles OF
insignificant Territory or worst Of ALL to peroatc
in set speeches for the of their local constituents
the domestic institutions Of particular States to the
disregard Of the obligations of the constitution and the
Unoni
Where, meanwhile, are the material interests of the |
Unon its commerce. its exchangeabe productions its