, 1862-04-05
The United States after the War.


events and excitements of the present as to neg
lect to glance at the future. We should strive to
comprehend the direction of the current and to
ascertain whittier we are tending. After survey
ing the position of affairs in our country, intel-
gent but tmiG men say they afraid to con-
front the future of the United States. They are
fully pursuaded that the Great Republic can never
return to its former much lauded condition, with
its freedom from debt and the burden of huge
military and naval establishments, and its sacred
regard for the liberties of the citizen. They
dread the warke spirit which has been kindled
in the bosom of the nation, and predict tsut 1t
will be the constant cause of trouble with foreign
States, and tend to the Inauguration of an ag-
gressive policy. They fear that the enormous ad-
dtional power intrusted to the hands of the Pres
ident may be employed by bold, bad, ambitious
man to crush out the liberties of the people. And
they assert that even now State rights have al
most disappeared in the increasing shadow of the
central authority.
is there any real ground for alarm Have we
any just cause for ndulging gloomy apprehensionsP
Where will the triumphant termination of the
war for the Union leave the republic? There is
bright side to the picture, which we prefer to
the darkIy shaded conceptions of the croaker
There is promise of good, which seems to us to
be supported by stronger guarantees than the
forebodiugs OF evil. We listen rather to the ex-
utant screams of the eagle than to the hoarse ut
terances of the raven. Let us suppose that by
the end of the year 1862 the authority of the
Union will be restored in every Southern State.
This is giving the Administration more time than
it claims, and the rebellion longer lease of life
than, in our judgment, it can enjoy We shall
then have a Government which has demonstrated
its power to put down and punish treason, no
matter how formidable front it may offer
Those abroad, who have hitherto asserted the in
herent weakness of republics, will thus receive
the most effectual reply. We shall have proved
our ability to call at least a million of men to the
field, should an emergency arrive that will require
their services We shall have Generals of expe-
rience, capable of handling huge armies, vastly
improved Notifications, thousands of field and
siege guns of the most destructive description, q
million stand of small arms, and arsenals filled
with all the munitions of war. We shall have
navy sufficiently strong to protect our commerce
on every sea, and naval officers who have gver
proof of their vigor and skill. We shall have
demonstrated our financial independence of Eu
ropean capitalists, and also the selfsustainine
power of the Republic while foreign nations have
been reduced to the verge of bankruptcy and fam
inc by the absence of our products and the de
crease of our importations. We shall have for
ever banished the bugbear of State sovereignty
and established the doctrine that we constitute
nation, and not mere temporary league of dis
tinct communties-an incalculabe gain, for tht
reason that our strength is proportoHate to ou
unity. We know not how far the contest may
affect the institution of slavery but we are quite
certain that the institution can never again be al
overshadowing, domineerng power in our politics
The area of free territory will undoubtedly be Ell
larged for the peculiar institution has received it
death wound in Western Virginia and Missouri
while Maryland and Kentucky have been drained
Of slaves, north and south, to such an extent tha
many years will hardly pass away before they
adopt kind of labor better adapted to their soil
climate and productions. Moreover, the war il
more effcacous than the Wilmot Proviso in civ
ing the whole of the Territories to free white la
Dor, thus checking the sources of agitation anC
sectional strife. In the South numerous class
of demagogues will have been crushed out. The
Wises, Rhetts, Tylers, Floyds, Masons and Sli
dels will be dead or in exile, and moderate, con
seryative men, content to enjoy their property il
peace, under the protection of the Constitution
will take their legitimate place in the public coun
ellis. All this is gratifying, even in anticipation.
To shade the picture We shall have debt o
at least thousand millions of dollars; and t.
pay the interest upon this sum, as well as to pro
vide for the increased expenses of the Govern
meni, will nccess,tate heavier taxation than an,
! to which we have been accustomed. For somt
years we shall be compelled to maintain an arm,
of a hundred thousand men to garrison the fort
and guard us against any attempt to rekindle th'
embers Of rebellion. Our naval establishment
must be proportionately strong We shall NJ
longer present the spectacle Of great nation re
? posing in security with but the skeleton of an ar
/, my, scarcely war vessels enough to constitute
! single fleet, and a surplus in the treasury. Thou
sands of oar young men, liberated from caml
discipline, yet still restless, violent and adventur
ous will be indisposed to return to the steady anC
J plodding pursuits of industry, and will continu
to be source of grief to their relatives ant
t friends and of annoyance to the communities il
which they locate. Not the least of the evils tha
will result from the war will be the universality o
4 military titles and the claims of Brigadiers, Col
onels, Majors, Captains and Corporals upon pub
lie office. But against all these bad results, ant
for the recuperation of the Republic, we can safe
y count upon the virtue, intelligence and energ
of the people, and the inexhaustible resources o
e the land. We rely upon people who will hay
e proved that they have country one and indivis
y ibe; a flag that neither domestic treason nor for
4 eign enmity can insult with impunty, ard Gov
$ ernment which, having its roots deep down in tn
national heart, is the strongest the wisdom of ma
81 Oh all h