Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1863-02-09
OMMUNICATIoEs.
ron TIE SPIRIT OF THE AeI

world. King Cotton is now making every
legitimate effort for his restoration to the
throne, aud with the assistance Of Eng
land and France, will DO successful for a
while. To prevent q future rupture be-
tween these competitors, and the conse-
quent ~effusion of blood and a waste of
treasure, q defnitive treaty between them
must be established. King Idea, there
can be no doubt, is the legitimate heir
10 the throne of the whole world, and ii
King Cotton will only agree to act here
after as his Premier, there will be no
further difficulty between them. To show
that | have settled this point In conformi-
ty to the laws of nations, history establish
es the fact, that ideas rule the world. A
community of ideas knits people together
in solid compact-confederation. 1t Is
impossible for q mar to be a great, able or
even safe statesman in times of difficulty
and %convulsion, or to speculate with any
accuracy on the Huctuating phenomena OF
societies aud governments, without adop-
ting the opinion that ideas rule the world,
as the polar star in his course. ~
The want of a coGmon idea as the
common bond of Union, is the great dan-
ger to be apprehended in the case of all
nations which are the otfshoot of q full
formed civilization, and which spring
from the combination of colonies, and the
gathering together of emigraDts FROM dis
similar countries. 1t was owing to this
cause that the brilliant career OF the
Greek colonies in Asia Aipor, and in
Ttolr -na ~ h~1ac nd %hc% nnfhin0. hnf
feeble and temporary unions were ever
formed amoog them. 1t was this cause
that led to the extinction of Carthage;
for that State was internally rotten, before
the arms Of Rome we're directed against
her. 1t was this cause that occasioned
the ultimate decline of Rome-as it was
the possession of a common religion and
q common sentiment of naughty patriots
ism that SO long maintained her being and
dominion.
The Puritan founders of New England
were actuated by a common idea, and
bound together by an active religious SEN
timent in emigrating to the shores of
America, and in their system of govern
ment after they arrived. The common
idea disappeared, the religious sentiment
languished, the government changed
and the war Of the Revolution gave back
to New England the potential impulse of
q common idea, by convertins her earliest
desire for an isolated theocracy into on
.ardor for n common government with lib
erty of worship. In this, she participated
with her sister States, and the social tie
which invigorated her own system embrac.
ed the length and breadth of the thirteen
colonies. r
Civil liberty, political freedom, and re-
ligious toleratiop-the enlightened liberty
of freemen, fit for freedom, in state and
church, was the sentiment, the common
idea which the revolution established by
its success. But, alas New England
waxed fat and kicked. Prosperity ~increas.
cd the love of gain-and the pursuit oil
gain has dissolved the unity-communi-
ty of idea-established by the Revolution
between Northern and Southern Society
The love and pursuit Of gain has destroy
ed civil liberty 10 the North by inaugura
ting civil license-converted political free.
dom into alien and sedition laws, protec-
tive tariffs and Observation-Disclosures re
ligious federation by introducing infdelity
Beecherism, Parkerism, Cheeverism, anc
war on Catholics.
The principles of social union which
had 50 bepefcially replaced the extiuc
hypocrisy or fanaticism of Puritanism, de
cayed like their predecessors,-and ar,
now lost in Abolitionism, Freesoilism
Socialism-all of them elements, or NOR
properly heterogeneous compounds of dis
cord, dissension, aud disintegration.
There is no common idea-no commo,
81 s~entiment-uo great principle of socia
ia life left, to keep the defunct mass from
decay and corruption. The individua
frenzy-or the individual advantage-ha
supplanted all organic principles, aud col
roded the society at the North. The in
dividual passion rules, and changes wit
the changing winds, always hostile to tn
common veal, always blindly greedy {
momentary gain.
These, and other diabolical passion
feelings, sentiments and principles, whic
have marked her course for many year
have resulted in a dissolution ofthe Unior
a civil war, which must eventuate in b,
eternal separation fron the South.
The South, which originated the revol
G ton Of '76, and gave birth to the auth
of the Declaration Of independence, col
times to maintain the principles of tn
great movement.
The South faithfully observed, al
strenuously insisted on the strict obser,