East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1863-06-09
The Decadence OF the Republic

From the New York World.
There is no darker or sadder sign in all the
troubled atmosphere around us than the rotous gec
with which the debauch of despotism goes on. No
reaectinr porsou can take up the radical journals
from day TO day without recoiling in amusement
from the evidences they afford Of the absolute decay
and disappearance of political shame Not the
faintest sense seems 10 linger IN the minus oil inc
extreme leaders Of the dominant party that arbi-
trnry arrest secret trials sentences passed with We
NATHAN mystery and executed with Turkish eice-
triciy are thugs which, If they DO never SO neees
sorv 10 nreserye the being Of tho State, must at
least bo conceded TO be painful and lamentable nc.
ces,itios reversing all the presidents exp."ung al
the theories, humiating all tho PRIDE Of our Tree
American past.
To the foreign observer of American affairs all
this is plain enough. Our enemies make q mock AZ
us our friends arc forced TO apologize for us, as
one fer another the sanctitics OF Anglo American
liberty nrc trampled in the dust-as, one after an
other, the boasts of Anglo American history ato
made ridiculous In healthy state Of the public
feeling il would be impossible for any considerable
bodv Of men among ourselves 10 treat this state Oh
things with indifference OF with Ieyity, When men
who know what freedom means bnd themselves
forced TO do her some passing violence, tney SET
about the task with reluctance, in silence ana IN
sorrow 1t is their instinct, in the words oil inc
great anti-slavery poet Of New Eng!and,to
"walk backwards with averted eyes
And hide their shame"
To mako nm orgie of oppression, to dance aud
shout over the downfall OF guarantees venerable
with tho hereditary ovo Of centuries TO exut over
each successive blow struck by the power Mt private
right OF public law is TO prove that the very hoart
and substance Of liberty has been eaten out oil the
men who thus demcan themselves and yet this, pre-
csely this is the spectacle daily exhibited TO all the
world by tho leadidg organs Of the radical faction
which sways the administration.
In the French palace Of the Luxembourg hangs
famous picture by one of the first OF modern
French artists II represents the degenerate sons
OF Rome reveling in the crisis Of the nations ruin
The symbols and traces Of the elder day surround
them the blood Of Cato and scipio speaks in the
swollen lineaments Of the swinish crew. Fragrant
garlands bloom about their brows, tho glittering
tables groan with luxury but the guests at the ban
auet arc most truly clothed with shamecssness as
with garment The barbarian may be laundering
ut the gate tho Senate has become nest OF pan
derers and OF parasites, the old heroic honor, the
storm aud ancient faith in Justice dead and gone
But no sense Of this mighty fall, no shadow OF the
terrible doom, rests upon these reckless brows, or
clouds that hour of frantic revelry. The republic
Is in the agones Of death, but the republicans are
holding their high feast and with them all Is well,
as once II was with tho king "alrcady weighed In
the balance and found wanting" when he W whom