Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-09-01
WHENCE AND WHITTIER,

niuS1 Vi great events rarely penetrate the origins
perceive the complexion, or comprehend the varie-
ty of the influences which give to those events
their direction, quality, and SCOPE. Those who
dwell in the heart of great complication feel too
acutey each separate throb Of its mighty beatiDgs
to count with calmness and accuracy the rate, of
its pulsations.. When the heads of men are made
dizzy BY the gigantic sweep and whirl of great re-
volution there are very few who mark and measure
Its elements with sufficient minuteness and CONT
nuity to calculate from any given arc of its pro-
gress the curve through which it is moving The
present Emperor of the French has boosted that
he understands his epoch" 1t may be that he
is one Of those who, by their sagacty the eleva
ton Of their views, can perceive more clearly than
their contemporaries the "ogio of events" but it
is safe to say that epoch fully understand, itself
The passions Of men are SO implicated with the
movements which agitate society in time of revo-
lutionary phrenzy that it is as impossible for
U.S. under such circumstances, to profit by the les
sons of history as by the dissolving views which
pass before our eyes, since both alike leave per-
manent trace on minds preoccupied by the excite
ments which give intensity and vehemence to the
current that is bearing us along
We do not profess any more than others among
our more enlightened contemporaries to understand
the sweep of the eccentric orbit through which
this nation is moving, after having, more than.
three years ago, "shot msdly from its sphere
It is not yet clear to our minds whether the path
we are describing has even the elements of a re-
entering curve, or whether it is an cratic fight
through space, in which we have forever passed
beyond the reach of those "sweet influences" that
once bound our Pleiades in their choral harmony.
But we think we do perceive enough Of the ele-
ments that mark our course to justify the infer
ence that the 'sstrologers and monthly prognosti-
Gators who are looking for speedy exit from the
troubles which environ the land are men who We
no glimmering, much less clear-sighted and phi
losophical perception Of the situation in which we
are placed.
Many are anxiously inquiring (and it is proper
subject of anxious inquiry when will this soar
cease? For there are many who ignorantly sup
pose that it is the 0ar which makes the disturb
ance in our political System. Looking merely
on the surface Of events and living under the
pressure Of evils which make themselves too
sensibly felt to admit of calm and scientific inquiry
into their origin, such persons mistake the effect
for the cause and in their fond wishes transfer to
the contingent disappearance of the former all the
wistfnl hopes and expectations that be justified
and fulfilled only by the disappearance Of the latter
The is not the source of the woes which aflict
our body polito 1t is but the hideous ulcer whose
viiulence and wide-spreading infection only serve
to mark the intensity and depth of the gan
creme which has infused itself through our poiti-
cal system, until, in the expressive dcton of the
Scriptures the whole head is sick and the whole
heart faint. From the sole Of the foot even unto
the head there is no soundDess in it, but wounds
and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not
been closed, neither bound up, neither Modified
with ointment"
We have no doubt there we're good men of both
parties who, in the midst Of the "Great Rebel
lion" whose record still lives in the pages of
Clarendon, were wont to exclam, "when UtH this
war cease 7" They supposed, in the imaginations
of their hearts, that the war was the revolution
through which they were passing, but in fact it
was only phase and stage of the revolution. As
that mighty civil connection had gathered momen-
tum and volume through long and weary years Of
dissension in Church and State before it culmi-
mated in armed conflicts between the supporters of
King and Of Parliament, between Cavaliers and
Roundheads, between Churchmen and Puritans,
SO it was not until after the lapse of well-nigh fifty
years from the date of the first battle which
marked the transition point of the strife as it
passed from words to blows, that the oscillations
of the movement were composed by the acces-
sion of William and Mary to the British
throne in the year 1888 The war between Charles
!. and his revoted subjects came to an end as all
wars must come to an end, and only the more
speedily because they are waged with spasms of
violence. But the war between Charles and his
subjects was not The revoluion The British nation
finally rested from the agtatons of that CONFUSION
neither under the iron rule Of Cromwell nor under
the effeminste sceptre of Charles III nor yet under
the ambiguous sway of James ii. The period of
the Protectorate was reaction against the tenden-
oies which had long been gathering head during pre-
oeding reigns before they broke out in war during
the reign of Charles |. The period of the Resto-
ration under Charles H. and James IL was re.