Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1863-07-09
OUR SECOND EDUCATION.

Ctates less lmbued with the principles and even
less familiar with the provisions Of the Constitu-
ton than their predecessors at any former pc
Rod in the history Of the country.
The generation contemporaneous with the fer
nation of the Con ,titutioa, partaking they did
in the discussions which every where preceded
and attended its adoption, not only profound
ly impressed with the value but also deeply in
doctrinatcd in the principles of that great instru-
ment which it had taxed the highest wisdom of
our fathers to frame.
After the Constitution had been ratified by the
States and the National Government had been
reared its present basis, great part of the po-
litical activity of the country spent for many
years in the discussion of purely constitutional
questions which were raised by the practical ope-
rations of the Government under its new charter.
The nature, scope, application, and limitations of
the powers granted by the Constitution furnished
for long period the chief subjects Of partisan
division and debate, until at last "construc-
tion construed" had nearly spent its force, and
the instrument, in all its essential features, gradu
ally took on definite I" form and PRESSURE" re-
suilibB ifom cslap'isHcu PicccuSuIs III VIC "uiHiu
istration of affairs.
To this age of constitutional Interpretation sue
ceeded the period of administrative measures,
based mainly on considerations of political econo-
my, and expressing the different views which OBJ
tanned among different denominations Of men with
regard to certain leading questions Of public expe
diency. Constitutional questions continued, it is
true, to be warmly discussed in connection with
these measures, but it was evident that men diff
fered more from the force of conceived diver
gency of interests than from simple diversity of
opinion as to the true meaning of the Constitu-
ton
This supposed divergency of interests led to the
formation of parties, organized for the sserton
longer of theoretical principles but Of material
wants, duplicating first the cupidity and then the
passions of their respective adherents. All that
was selfish in human nature gradually conspired
contests fcrocity which rendered men as insensi-
BILE to the teachings of the Constitution as they
deaf to the voice of reason. This was the pc
Rod of organized poitics-when politics were
pursued as q trade, and when the retainers of
party could be led captive at the will of dema-
gogues, every where appealing to the grosser in
stincts and prejudices of their respective follow
ers-until in the end this civium ardo, praua
jubentium degenerated into q sectional wrangle
whose din and discord drowned every other
appeal.
Amid such excited disputants the Constitution
L l~A l:I.1o ~ L. <bo 80
or the other, and men showed only too significant
y that they needed but little its injunctions There
was noise of political riot in the land long before the
sounds of cannon brought the nation to its feet in
struggle with armed sedition, which latter was the
elimination of growing disregard for the Constitu
ton of the country. The people, thus led into poti
cal captivity, forgot the language and the laws of
the fathers. They spoke in strange speech Of
hatred and passion, and they trampled the rights
guaranteed by the ancestral covenants. This alien
alton has finally brought US into the depths of our
present troubles and distresses.
But the very extremity of the evils under which
we now suffer is causing men every where to pom
der the paths they have been treading, and day by
day it grows only more and more clear that our
only safety is to be found in returning to the ira
ditions from which we have, as a nation, aposta-
tized. We must return to the first principles Of
the Government-to respect for law and order as
the basis Of respect for each others rights and i'm
munities The law is the bond Of peace rs il is
the bond Of union, and we must be re-educated in
the precepts Of law and restored to acquicscence in
its sanctions. So Ezra read afrcsh to the Jewish
people, after the return from captivity, the
words of the law" which had fallen into forget
fulness among them while they dwelt in the strange
land into which they had been led only because of
their unfaithfulness to the teachings of their Di
vine Legislator.
We are to-day learners in hard school, but the
whole nation will profit in the sequel by the lessons
it is receiving in the fires of adversely and as it
becomes more and more imbued with that wisdom
whose ways are ways of pleasantncss and whose
paths are paths of peace, it will more and more re-
turn to the spirit and temper of the fathers from
whose example it has so widely departed
We have been reminded Of this encouraging
prospect bright outlook from the darkness that
now envelopes the landry the following reacc-
tions of Governor Seymour, of New York, as con-
tanned in speech delivered by him on the Fourth
Of July. He said:
80 oca Of thosa ,ybo In If hopa T,s,r.