The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1862-03-27
maxims Of Louis Napoleon.

your age and then these ideas will follow
and support you"
off you march behind them they will
drag you on
And if you march against them they
will certainly prove your downfall"
These are very simple but weighty de-
daetiens from history, and they are wor-
thy of our earnest consideration under
present circumstances. An illustration
of the FIRST is the success of the Republi-
can party. An illustration Of the second
is the weakness Of the Democratic party
An illustration of the third will be the
complete and overwhelming overthrow of
the rebel power and the downfall of sla-
very.
Napoleon has the penetration to see that
I" the ideas of an age" are the moving
powers of that age, and are greater than
Emperors and armies. Against them, he
is sagacious enough to know, swords and
bayonets can make no permanent head
way. Success is only for the man who
impersonates the ideas of his age-who
knows how to bestride them and ride in
to power while the man who sets him.
self against them is inevitably cast down
and crushed. In the days of the Cru
saders the only way to power was fighting
for the deliverance of the Holy Sepul-
chre. In the days of chiyalry the only
manhood was knighthood, and the only
glory, challenging the world to combat in
the rame Of fair lady. In these days, a
man is blind who imagines that the cham.
pionship of slavery is the way to real sue
cess. The reason is, that the ideas of an
age lie deeper than the mere floating,
ehangeable notions of the intellect; they
are central and vital; they are oonvic-
tons WHICH have taken hold of the life.
possessing the hearts and minds of the
great masses, from the philosopher and
scholar even to the mechanic and labor
er; they came to light spontaneously,
more or less, in public addresses, ltera-
tnre, legislation, enterprise, creating pre-
vailing tendencies and giving the great
mass SO steady aud strong a movement in
one liked direction that everything must
yield before it. We ilnaeine that many a
man In our country would now be in a
very different position, had he taken pains
to acquaint himself with the ideas of the
age, and apprehend the truth of the utter
impotence of any one to make Roadway
against them. Vain the agonizing efforts
OF any man who attempts to row his craft
up the Niagara river.
We think that not one besotted defend
er OF slavery would remain in the entire
North, If all were to proceed according to
the maxims of Napoleon. 1t must be
admitted that, in politics, liberty, and
not slavery, is the idea Of the age. The
grand political idea Of the century is EN-.
bodied in the Declaration Of Independence.
and not in the slave-codes of the South.
1t " this idea, which is sustained in the
hearts Of pro-slavery Democrats, and not
man OF them can make speech ten
minutes long on the issues before the
country without, in all probability. giving
1t expression. They do, indeed, at times,
swayed BY their shallow, wretched policy,
perpetrate "hideous monstrosities of log
ic III favor of slavery, but when, forget
ting Tor moment party ends, their hearts
speak, they admit that slavery is an evil
and curse. Every American worthy Of
iiae HaHst admit that the slave has
the rights Of human nature Humanity,
universally has inherent Ged-giYeH rights.
This undoubtedly is the FIRST truth Of
oar politics; the vital principle of our
free institutions. Property in man is no,
an idea of the age, but is wholly foreign
to ITS spirit and tendencies. 1t canno,
ny any possibility be forced into the mine
OF the age. This fundamental doctrine O
slavery Is not an outgrowth from our Chris
nanity and kepublicanism it is utterl,
hostile to them, and cannot by any mean,
be harmonized with them, and therefor,
can ouly be regarded as an ofishoot from
barbarism and heathenism, which has ken
the country in agitation simply because 0
ITS violent collision with the spirit of tn
age and our fundamental American idea.
II is rejected with detestation by entir
christandom, by England and even b