New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1862-10-16
INFRINGEMENT or IDEAS.

balance in other respects, can refrain from
giving his current trouble on unreal climacteric
Importance. His present experience of pain
seems the resultant and aggregate of all past
kindred experiences; and he happily escapes
the further egotism of suffering who does not
complain because the whole world PUSHES not
instantly toward him in sympathy-exalting
him for the courage Of his endurance, and
canonzing him as the epitome Of all its woes,
and its one great yicarous martyr.
The law which thus. and without reason,
centers attention upon self and transient expo
rience, giving tiiem both an application and
position far beyond the shadow Of any just
claim, applies as eppositely to States as to per-
sona. Whenever governmental functions are
seriously impeded or national life is seriously
threatened, there arises in the breast Of the
people thus hara.sed or be'eaguered an exag-
gerated sense OF the crisis which they are
called TO meet. II seems to them that no
people under tho sun were ever placed in
predicamen. quite 30 difficult, with q cause
quite 80 just, and in position quite so fairly
calculated TO win the sympathics Of oil other
States. II never occurs to them to inquire
whether The embarrassment is Justly deserved, !
being of their own sinful creation, or whether
they arc taking the common-sense means OF
clearing themselves and it is as far from
their thoughts az national vanity can put it, 10
ask IT, amid all their means, they may not be
fostering the very element productive of The dis
cord Ii brief, sudden trel throws nation
40 yiolently back upon itself, AID demands such .
instant eIerion OF power to meet the upper
most emergency, that il is a long while before
n State can see around the cause Of its disaster
and so aim TO surround and crush il; or is
able TO get beyond ~ first cry for sympathy,
and 10 take Just view OF the relations which
is own action ebiges other nations TO assume
toward it,
Tho popular views taken Of the difficulties
thrust upon us in the last ycnr and half are
abundantly Illustrative OF thee simple truths.
Ito actual presence of civil war overwhelmed
n, with dismay. We imagined ii 10 be a
strait more terrible than any TO which We had
previously lcen reduced in the past We had
STRUGGLED with much defeated sometimes,
o0ener victorious. All forms of political ana
economic disasters had oyertaken u, aud we
had lived through them. Internal jealousies,
Tie n, alrics OF sections, the conflicting demands
Of opposite interests, the sutjugntion Of a new
country the lmagamation Of various peoples,
tie production, encouragement, and harmonic.
ing If different iniusiries-all the great task,
deroying on forming S,ate-ha1 been,
though with infinite toll, tolcrably fulfilled,
aud al the complex relations, though with in.
finite sacrifice aud concession tolerably ar.
ranged Foreign foes bad assailed ~; we had
yanquishcd them. But Crit Var, There was
contingency Of horror which our widest
dreams had never viewed. The stalking By
brothers Of brothers. blood Our every moral
scnfe rcyoltei against it. and voted it to be the
greatest trial yet thrust upon US.
But We did no. stop here: We pursued stYl
further the reflections of the individual upon
bis private griefs. We not only saw in the
war into which we were suddenly plunged the
most momcnt1us moral evil that We had had to
encounter, but We began TO consider il a re-
suit, ia a physical sthse, Of prior conditions.
The Economist talked largely Of the adverse
systems of labor, with their long trims OF
irreconcilablo interests, which were now crap
ping together ia q struggle that would win life
for one by the death Of the other. The Social
lot exposed tie different Influences that con
ditioned tue social systems Of North aud of
South, aud proved, to the satisfaction Of him.
SELF and boards OF school directors, that the
war was a vast aud stiring educational re-
form. Tho politician, albeit Conservative,
took more radical view Of the case We
were shown by these public lumunries how
blind We were, now that we saw the fact, not
the facts evolution The trouble was tha,, not
having access to the lobbics, vo knew nothing
Of TIC financial detail, of national life; else we
might have seen long ago the peculiarly de- ,
struct.yeness OF Slagery-to the state, its con.
slant exhaustion of soil, its shiltlcssncss aud =
and, seeing that its demand
Tor new territory was a necessity to its y
very existence, we might have known the GER ,
tain result Of our harsh answer in that unior- ,
tuuatc Kansas affair In either case, the Con. =,
seryatiye politician has had glorious chance
to serve up, newly bood.spced, his told you
so;" for, if We had yielded to arrogant de.
nands, the war would not have occurred; and '
nov that We had despiscd warning, the "told =
you so" prompting of serviIity aud fear has :,
found itself realized comfortably aud conform. ii
nbl, to its own cOnceil. II