The New York herald., 1862-10-06

QCSp6vouco
tion Of General MoClellsn's army to General
Leo before Richmond short time ago. This
despatch was concocted in Baltimore and for
warded to England by person who was
shortly afterwards arrested and imprisoned for
dsloyalty to the government. And yet the
London Times swallowed it, and eagerly spread
It before its readers, delighted, no doubt, to
have such story to tell, improbable as it must
have seemed at the time. This is the way secss-
sion sympathy is sought to be kept up in Eu-
rope, through the agency Of discolored or wholly
false telegraphic news.
The New York Elcctiens-The PaOscrip
tions OF Ancient and Modern Times.
We have fallen upon evil days, and history
seems likely to repeat itself in our times, as II
all it's former teachings were in vain. Notwith-.
standing the diffusion of education, and the in
creased light of the nineteenth century, and
that the American people have the game In
their own hands, the sun Of liberty is in danger
of being arrested in It's onward march, and the
shadow on the dial of human progress of being
thrown back century or more 1t seems as il
in the science Of government man could only
move in circle, and that after attaining GER
tain point he was incapable OF further advance
ment, and, like planet in its orbit, returned to
the same point whence he set out.
Here we are in the great Empire State Of
North America-the Stale of New York
scarcely four score years after wringing our
freedom from the grasp of the tyrant King OF
England, deliberately proposing to surrender
IL of our own free choice to tyranny more
odous and far more fanatical The very fact
of such man as Wadsworth being offered al
candidate for Governor of this State speaks
volumes of our retrograde movement, and indi-
Gates the fearfully rapid rate with which we
are hurrying headlong to political destruction.
If we continue iunch longer at the samo speed
and i'll the same direction, nothing but = miracle
can save us from ruin
In many respects we resemble the go-ahead,
vigorous old Roman republic in its progress,
IN its backward tendency, and, we fear, in its
terrible iali It started from the srbversion Of
monarchy having thrown Off the yoke of Tar
quin the Proud, the last of the Roman kings,
just as the American colonies by tho sword cut
loose from George Ill From the establishment
Of the Roman republic to the civil wars and
Prescriptions and the overthrow of liberty was
Q period OF four centuries and quarter.
Owing to the bcundless wealth Of this new
country, and the rapid movements of modern
nations, we fear we have reached the same
point in three-quartcrs of a century. The
Roman republic ended in imperial despotism-
The American republic is threatened with the
same termination, without, perhaps, change
4
corruption have produced the same results in
both. 1t seems as if democratic institutions
were Inconsistent with high state of pros
perity. In the American rs in the Roman
public, public virtue and eternal vigilance-the
prime conditions of The existence Of flourish
ing democracy-have been extinguished by
luxury, the greed Of riches and tho seductions
OF vice.
NAen Rome had reached The pinnacle Of her
greatness, thcn says tbe historian, "Fortune
began TO exercise her tyranny and to introduce
universal innovation At first the love Of
money, aud then that OF power, began to prevail,
and these became the sources Of every evil.
For cupiduy subvertcd honesty, integrity and
other honorable principles, and in their stead
nculcated pride, inbumanity contempt of reli-
gion and general ycnaity. Ambition prompted
men TO become deccitiul and to carry q fair
face rather than an honest heart. These vices
at FIRST advanced slowly, and we're sometimes
restrained BY correction; but afterwards, when
the infection lad spread like pcstilcncc, the
Sta.c was entirely changed, and the govern
ment from being the most just ana praisewor-
thy, became lapacious and intolerable." Is not
this description Of Rome, written two thousand
years ago, as true picture Of the degeneracy
oil The American republic rs if il were drawn in
our own day and generation, For the last ff-
teon years our rapid decline in public morality
has alarmed every obscrrant mind that cherishes
tree Institutions
Corruption Of morals led TO faction and the
civil wars OF Marius and Sylla, Caesar and Pom
pcy. Sylla, a successful general, set the
first example Of prescription He devised
this new and unprecedented method Of getting
rid OF his political enemies. Ho called
them all traitors, drew up list OF
their nanes, and set it up in public, giving
authority and even o reward to every man to
kill them. Their property was con6scated and
sold, and, in order to secure himself against
their CONS, Sylia got law passed. py WHICH
the descendants of the prescribed were for
ever to be excluded from all the Offices of the
republic. A spirit OF revenge and thirst Of
gain drove the inhuman victors from one crime
to another, till one bold Roman found it neces-
sary to ask the tyrant whether he meant to
spare any human being at all, and to remind
him that IL he went on in the same way there
woud be I'm the end no one loft To r,,le over
This example was followed up afterwards by
still more wholesale prescriptions. Three
generals--Antony, Lepidus and Octavianus--