Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1861-02-26
THE RESULT IN TENNESSEE.
From the N. Y. Times.


The young-and, for that matter, the old
are apt, in reading history, to feel that al
most any epoch of the past was superior to
the present in dramatic energy, and was Of
really far more importance in determining the
social destiny of the world. 1t is always
'ihe distant and the dim which we are prone
to greet" luOOa reHHU
But regarded from an all-embracing point
OF view, assuming the solid well-being OF
humanity as the crowning glory of history,
the present day, nay the present hour, is wit
Messing the most widely extended struggle
between Might and Right ever seen on earth.
If we indeed are not as yet in the very melee
of the fight, we are nevertheless in the most
thrillingly anxious moment. The trumpets
If the heralds have sounded-the spectators
.ean over the barrier-the lancers are in rest
,ome have splintered-a thousand years hence
It wilt all live in legend, in chronicle, in pic
ure and in song.
Let US see how the battle may gol In
Russia the most stupendous emancipation
ever proposed at single sweep viii, in al
most certain probability, be carried out dur
ing this year. The cost Of this benefit has
beer, however, enormous It's history is that
OF all Muscovite reform, beginning with Pc
ter the Great, and first made clear by the
marvellous labor and devotion OF Gar Nicholas.
the most thoroughly misunderstood and best
abused man Of history. To hope that this
great victory will be gained Without con,
vulsion, is indeed to be sanguine. A nobil.
ity, whose control over the Imperial Execu-
tive has been again and again strengthened
by murder, will not readily yield its power.
If we look to Austria, we see the purest Eu-
ropean despotism-the only one in which old
diplomatic sins against humanity and CANA
rilla crimes have been preserved almost Gu
riously intact fairly forced into reform, and
bewildered amid the most inconRruous ele-
ments. We see her holding fast to that sum
of all modern follies, the Concordat, with one
hand, and dispensing from the other in trem-
ulous, unconscious profusiou. reforms which.
as dispensed, turn to curses. Nine disafected
nations have been ruled by her with the
sword; ninety and nine times have thew
risen in. one form OF the other against her.
and now the hundreth and the last Is close at
hand. .t stl1] 40 e-tlifH
In Franee-the worlds frebrand and i,s
waning political experimentLthe battle Is
not less strongly marked to the observant
eye. Though no literal revolution now
threatens that land-though no JAcobins and
Red Republicans sing carmagnoles around
CORY guillotines-still the slow progress of
its ruling mind into the harmony of mutual
interests between the governing and the gov
erned, is really spectacle Of tremendous
interest. 1t may possibly be the first real aG-
vance towards rational liberty which France
has after all gained. ItmoYes, very slowly
almost impereeptibly, under the strongest
disguises spuF 81 TpuoVs--and yet it does
move y .s7FEr 1lTl sIgt
In Italy, the great consolidation dreamed
of BY Cesar Borgia, that Louis Napoleon Of
ths middle ages, who dreamed Of raising bis
country, sOith himself to an unexsmpIsd
pitch Of prosperity, and that freedom from
the barbarism prophesied BY Aachiavelli, are
both in the lists. SlaVonia even, and Hun |
gary, speak Of 1881 as the year of deliver.
ance. And when struggles are going on, can
any country in Europe escape their influence? |
In this year Sweden, Prussia and France have !
made an extraordinary concession in begin |
ming the abolitisR of the passport system, and
Il is not impossible that, ere many months.
we shall witness fierce struggle between
barbarous fansticism and civilization in the |
Ottoman dominiOna.
Finally, on our own soil the great battle |
between humanity and The old dragon Of op-
preston has taken definite shape, and is |
being glorionsly fought out. Whatever form
this struggle may now assume-hJweYer /
compromised and deprived of deadliness-
one thing may be taken for certain, that its |
result, in any case, viii be triumph Of |
the right. It is not possible to destroy its
moral effect. The rights Of free labor, Of /
mas, win have been vindlcated not less en-
phatically than they were BY our f st Revo-
luton, . a.te4 81
Such Is The great battle Of the age. WIN
any one ny that history has ever, at any oDa /
lime, embraced 90 vide q field Of WGrfaref