Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-03-25
Anarchy the Fac', Goveromont she DeIu-


sion.
Mr.. Carlisle characterized government in
as ANARCHY plus the street-consta-
With o mind more sagacious than
Ills to the lot of common men, be saw
the delusive shadow of our national
olity, and in a time of tranquility discovered
bat which, ever now, with the demonstra-
ion before us, we are unwilling to acknowl-
dge; that our Wanted bond Of union is a
mere pretense: that the " Fathers
Of the Republic" as they are humorously
styled, begot the form without the substance
Of a State, and that the great American ex-
pertinent in what is called self govern
ment" in the place of being a triumphant
success, is an utter and disgraceful failure.
Anarchy, plus the street. constable, is now
exactly the Jun of government in the dis
United States. Half the people-perhaps
more than half-are opposed to the execu-
ton of the national statutes within the ma
tional territory; and in consequence Of their
opposition, the statutes are not executed.
Outside of mere local regu%lations-the juris-
diction of the constabulary-there is no
law. The late United States, as a nation,
has collapsed-gone up and, practically,
nobody cares. Not one man in a thousand
would sacrifice his party feelings, his per-
sopal prejudices, or his private interests for
its reconstruction. There is mourning over
the Union in words, but there is nj in
fact If, Southern paper in Northern cities
had all been met at maturity, the Union
might bave taken its slide, and few but
holders of Office under it would have be-
walled its fate. As it is, in the name of our
sacred Constitution, our blood bought Union
and our glorious institutions, we have la
mented the protest of bills of exchange
drawn on the Cotton States.
We have mistaken spasms in the region of
the pockets for yearnings of the patriotic
bowel. Our cryings for reconstruction have
been prayers for ease in the money market.
Restoration simply means liveliness in trade;
ard whether it come under the old or under
a new political dispensation, so it come
quickly, is to the great majority a matter of
entire indifference.
Until we acquire the courage to face the
facts of our present, condition, there is no
hope of the wisdom to ordaiu another. The
facts are, not merely Secession, but demon
alization. The Union has not only been
divided, but the Government has lapsed.
We have no Government, but the street
constable, and so far as existing national
institutions are concerned, no civil char
acter. Either the Government framed by
our patriotic forefathers has misftted, and is
therefore properly thrown aside, or we are
not in a condition to sustain a national polity
of any kind.
Things are as things ought to be. They
always are as they ought to be. The world
digests its great results, and they are the
DEGREES of immutable justice. Rottenness
always, sooner or later, showsitself. Our Gov
eminent was rotten within, and with scarcely
the whisperings of breeze, it has fallen. 1t
is we'll that it has done so. 1t was capable, if
of no good, of immense mischief. 1t could
bave embroiled US in numberless wars; but
would have been as powerless in case of for
eign hostility as it is in that of domestic Sc
dition. Any war with an European nation
would have done what Southern agitation
has done-broken US to pieces-with the
additional misfortune of having the country
overrun by an enemy. Claiming the proud
title of the greatest and most powerful ma
ton in the world, there it not a second-rate
Power in Europe that would not have been
more than a match for US in a war and
this not from any want of courage or pa
triotism in the people, but solely through
the utter weakness and worthlessness of the
polity.
The fault of our Government is, that it is
not an original, but q manufactured article,
1t did not spring spontaneously from the
wants of the people, bat was constructed to
order and GpriOri. Made up of old political
Jaws and maxims frequently obsolete-upon
doctrines which the better sense of mankind
had rejected, and of ideas imported from
other countries, and adopted merely because
they were foreign, it was destitute of the
lexibility necessary to adapt it to the ever
changing ideas, conditions and character OF
the people who were to live under it, or to
the enlarged views of a higher and better
civilization. Distressed by fears of official
~usurpation upon the one hand and of popular
tyranny upon the other, the founders of the
Constitution framed an instrument which,
in its operation, offers perpetual rewards to
the ~demagogue, provides for a never-ending
state of party agitation, and leaves the Ad-
ministration and the country at the mercy OF
party politicians and Office seekers.
The question may be asked whether an
srchy, plus hestreetconstable, is not govern
ment enough for America. We have SO far
done well enough with it-so we'll that the
surprising increase in wealth, population, IN
dependence and the elements Of power that
we have realized, have been actually attrib
uted to the freedom, benignity and efficiency
of that concrete and quintessense of all po-
litical wisdom-our Government. With nc
Government at all we have all the time sup,
posed ourselves to be in the full enjoyment
of the blessings and benefits of the mosI
splendid system Of political Institutions upon
which the sun ever shOne. So much SUI
periOr has been our polity to that of "the
effete monarchies of the Old World in our
estimation, that with idolatrous Partially
we have been prone to attribute 70 it in
huences such as Governments do not Offer
exert: the very fruitfulness Of the soil ant
the ~fecundity of the human and animal pop
ulation Of the country being amongits bene
factions.
1t is true there has been another side I
our estimate and like the negro with hi