Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-08-18
THE REACTION.

THE REACTION.
La the great political reaction upon which the
country has entered during the last mon tn or two
it is gratifying to observe revision and modifca-
ton of certain extreme, opinions in quarters which
we mighthave supposed would be among the last to
confess the presence of the melioratiDg influences
under which the public judgment is gradually but
surely reganing the balance it had lost. Every
student of history has lived, of course, during the
last thee years, IL the sure expectation and
foresight that rebound from the modes of thought
and action into which the people have been
plunged by spirit of phrenzy was inevitable in
the course of events. Its coming was a question
of time, dependent ii part upon the prudence
with which extreme measures should be pressed by
their patrons, and in part upon the greater less
degree of success which should attend the opera
tions Of our armies
If the spirit Of innovation AID of social re-
form had graduated its measures according to
the exigencies of the crisis through which we
were passing, and had not sought to build anew
the foundations Of the Republic at time when
the ground was quaking beneath our feet, we
might have witnessed such wise adaptation
of means to ends as would have carried US
through the arduous struggle without spasmodic
fits and starts, and therefore without the revul-
sions OF feeling by which they fail, sooner or
| later to be followed.
And 80, if we uld have had an unbrokcn sue
cession of military successes, (omitting from our
n ~. IL. e. 81
were rendered impossible by the policy into which
we drilled under the sway of our passions,) there
| would have been little inducement to revise the
theory on which the war was conducted. And &C
cordingly we observe that it is in the shadows Of
military disappointment that the national con.
science has come to be quickencd and the national
intelligence enlightened with regard to the true
ends and objects Of the war.
As single illustration of the amended thought
which is pervading all classes of the people al
the present time, inducing them to revise opinions
adopted under the promptings Of revenge, mistaken
for the insigatons of patriotism, we cite the sig
nifcant fact that the New York Tribune, within
the last two or three weeks, has formally re
nounced the policy Of confscation, to which i
once looked as a thunderbot of war. In his cele
brated prayer of twenty millions addressed t
the President Mr.. Greeley wrote
1--WE think you strangely and disastrou.y remis
in the discharge Of your ofca and imperative duy will
regard Ia tho euoncpaing provisions cf The c0nfsca
ton We complain that The seaDn wa tci
you approved s habtuay dsregarded by yOur Generals
and That no word OF rcbukc for them from you has ye
reached the public ear" We quire of you, as thu
first servant &c the republic charged especidly and pre-
| enlnenty with this duty that you execute tho laws
Most cmphaticaHy do DEMAND that such laws have
been recently enacted which therefore may fairly be pre-
sumed 10 embody the present will aud to be dictated bJ
the present needs Of the republic shall be carried into
effect aud you shsl publicly and decisively nstfuc
your eubordnaes that such laws exist that they bind
ing on all iunctionares and citizens and that they are
be obeyed to the letter"
This " demand" we thought misplaced and in
applicable at the time, but every reader will per
ceive the higher and wiser inspirations uude
which the Tribune now writes, when it holds tht
following language
" The zanies In the Loyal States who talk though
broad empire could be subjected to military execution
supply the yenomous desperate traitors in Dixie with thu
very sment thty need; and deeply regret that
the resolves Of the late Baltimore Convention cal
| cuated TO give them lift Gen Fremont did wise
generous manly act in stamping nstead OF standing thu
wholesale confsoation plank If the CLEVELAND platform
| thereby aiding to smooth the path TO peace