The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1864-09-29
THE oRANDEuR OF rHE STRUGGLE.


Prom ne Times.
The London Times hes well remarked "that
since the days OF aucjcut Rome no question so
important has been submitted TO popular dcc
sion" as that which will 10 submitted TO the
people Of the North at the coming election. 1t is
two thousand years at least since the fail Of un
empire has been decided at tue halOt-JOX, but
never before, in the whole history Of the world,
has the entire male population oe-any country
been called upon TO fix their nstoua. As,ny ~
their sufirages. In Greece and Rome none but a
slayeholding minority voted, no mater how mo-
meutous the crisis in public affairs. We are about
to furnish the first example Of the deliberate and
orderly submission to the judgment Of tho whole
of free and equal community, Of the most i'm
portant Of all worldly qucstions-thc rank to be
occupied by a whole people among civilized
natobs--tho shape aud complexion OF their Gov,
eminent for ages to come.
And this is not all. We are not about to decide
simply our own fate. II this we're the case, our
decision, after all might be TO lookers-on but
small matter. We are about TO test the value 0
certain political principles, on the sOundness or
unsOundnCss of when the futdre condition of
most civilized countries will mainly depend. II
we now give way, we acknowledge that the
South has been right in its proclamation Of the
failure of democratic government; that its desire
to escape from fellowship with has been re lsOn-
= able and just that its ability to maintain It's indie.
pendence is plain; that "iree society" as found
among us, is a failure and cheat
= These we know arc trte truths to most intelli-
gent men. We often say amongst ourselves that
we are "the last hope of free institutions" and
that If we give way in our contest the cause of
popular government is lost. But there are very
few of us who lay these truths TO heart. We are
all so absorbed in the paltrier Incidents of the
struggle and in its paltrer conseq uences in the
comparative merits of the two men, Lincoln and
Mcclellan, In the effect peace or war is likely to
have on socks dry goods, or gold, that we rarely
think seriously of the real breadth and vastness
OF the results of the work in which we are engaged.
We would have every man, when he goes to
the polls in November remember that tits neither
for Little Mac nor for "Od Abe" he Is really
voting, but to decide whether twenty four mil
lions out OF population of thirty millions have
not the courage and brains TO uphold a popular
q government against the efforts of the other six
millions to break 1t down; whether the great
principle of the brotherhood of the human race,
of the right OF weakness TO protection and TO jus
tice, promulgated by the Author of Christianity,
has or has not any real value as the basis
of a political organization; whether God really
made the world TO be forever the scene
of the tyranny and violence of the few, and the
tame submission and stupidity of the many
whether, in short, the hopes of the thousands who
idle dfet ms, real provisions of "the good time
coming" There were great questions, in short,
submitted to the bloody arbtrament of the sword
at Pbaisalia, at Tours. at Waterloo, and at Sol
ferino but they all sink into insgniicance COM
pared with that on which each man will pass who
drops his ballot into the box on the Sth of
November next.