Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-11-19
The 'DOwnfan of our Country"-HOw IL
VIII UaaN

tles were rushing here and there through the
country, prOclaiming the approach of the
end Of the world, and the necessity of i'm
mediate preparation therefor, one of these
individuals was confronted by an inquirer,
who sought to know of him whether he was
sure that the end had not already come and
passed; and whether mankind were not then
actually in possession of the realities of the
thereafter" The question being simply one
of fact, admitted of both an affirmative and
negative answer-either of which would
be simply matter of opinion, and one just as
legitimate as the other. The apostle thought
it had; every thing that the one saw savored
of time-of the old ORDER every thing that
theothers saw savored of feternity-of the new.
Equally zealousand equally positive, neither
would give up his opinion; they tired out
their hearers without convincing them, and
finally grew angry and abused each other in
terms more energetic than evangelical.
The difficulty in the case was that the
parties failed in the beginning to settle the
meaning of the principal term in the
debate-in what condition of things human
and material, the end of the world was to
consist. A point was left which both were
Obliged to avoid, and as this was one of the
most Importance, nothing but indefinite
wrangling and dispute was the consequence
The error into which these persons fell is not
an uncommon one. The world is constantly
being amused, or misled, or terrified, by
words whose meaning is so indefinite as to
be equivalent to none. All disputes in
philosophy, ii is said, in the last analysis,
turn upon definitions; and thousand states
of mind and forms of doctrine which, in the
light of one system of terminology appear
awful in the extreme, in that of another be-
come quite excusable, if not really praise
worthy.
Although the end of the world has
been postponed for a new calculation upon
the prophetic bases, thereby rendering un-
necessary for the present any conjectures as
to that in which it will consist there are
other popular phrases suggestive of catas-
trophies yet to come, a slight examination of
whose purport might allay some present ap-
prehensions. We allude to that class of ex-
pressions now SO much in vogue among pol
iticians in one section of the United States,
(which the typical one is "The Ruin of Our
Country ry"-taking, however, various FORMS
to adapt itself to the immediate exigencies of
the orator or journalist by whom it is em-
ployed. Our country is in danger of being
ruined it is therefore important to know
what will be the condition of ''our country"
when it shall have been 'ruined"-when the
ruin now imminent has fallen upon it; so
that unlike the end of the world, there will
'- be no occasion for dispute as to whether or
not the ruin has arrived.
.... 1t has been the custom of writers and
orators of the sensational school, iu this
connection, to employ certain figures of
speech drawn from startling natural phe-
nomena, as floods, earthquakes, the eruptions
..- and explosions of volcanoes and the like, or
from the various forms of architectural de-
struction or dilapidation. Thus the catas-
trophe to which we refer has been symbol
lied by a sweeping deluge, or the eversion
of a continent through the energy of subter-
ranean forces, or the untimely falling of a
lofty edifce, crushing people at once, and
institutions into a condition undesirable to
contemplate. 1t is possible that in conse-
quence Of the use of these figures notion
at-o indefinite and exaggerated has
obtained in the popular mind in respect to
what is to come, in case the threatened
ruin shall arrive. When the people are
informed that they are sitting upon the
summit of a volcano, primed and loaded for
an explosion, they viii, ofcourse, anticipate
a very emphatic jar in case it shall go off
3, beneath them; and when gentleman potent
in oratorical phrase threatens to grasp the
pillars of the Constitution and pull the
entire national fabric upon their heads aAd
his own, they will hardly escape expecting
to hear something drop" when the feat is
performed. We suspect that these figures
are not very justly chosen, and shall there
fore, in what we have to say, dispense with
their employment while we proceed to in
quire into the nature of the thing to be
ruined, the character of the ruin that is
threatened, and the probable extent of its
operation.
"0UA COUNTRY is tract of territory long
and wide, extending from the Atlantic to the
Pacific Ocean, and from the Great Lakes to the
Gulf of Mexico, occupying the best part of
the continent of North America, and inhab-
tied by some thirty millions of people. The
'RUIS" that overhangs it is admitted to be
political only. 1t will not, therefore, neces-
sarily annihilate the land or destroy the peo-
pie. The soil and the climate after the ruin
viii remain precisely as they were before.
Hill and dale, woods and waters, mountains
and plains, will all stay in theirp places, their
vast productive powers neither impaired nor
suspended. The people, also, with all their
pristine energies to multiply and produce,
with the same character, the same aims,
and the same ambitions, will be just
as we see them now. There will
be the same wealth, the same capacity
the same love ofindustrial persuits, the same
rewards of labor, and the same incentives to
eminenee. The sun will rise and set, the
streams flow, the rain fall, and the seasons
revolve as they have done since the founda-
tion of the world. If q man were placed
upon the top of a mountain so high as to be
able to overlook the entire land at the time
of the collapse, he would not be able to dis
cover a particle of difference between tho
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