Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-05-17

pue-DclUcu ny WHOle ZOilt, unueT
prince with diadem more bril-
liant than that of Alexander, or Napo-
leon,-where love on the one hand and fear
on the other, kept obedience,-an Empire
which had Rome for citadel and the Door
Keeper of Heaven as a founder,--on the
death OF its benignant ruler, was cleft into
dismembered and bleeding fragments.
What was Kingdom became q Babel of
jarring feudalities. The genius of its cohe-
sion died and the cohesion crumbled. When
our Constitution-the sacred greatness of
which is beyond human name-shall die,
then another Guizot may record of our dis
cordant and divergent States, what he re-
corded Of the great Empire of Charlie
magne: "Power and the nation were dis
membered, because unity of Power and the
nation was impossible.n
Truly there are fixed laws for the events
OF History. Society revOlves i'm an orbit.
The tenth century Is reproduced in another
Era and on another hemisphere. If the
principle of cohesion in our country, the
Constitution, expires and the sundered
States are attempted to be blotted out-lo!
a central despOtism for few jarring months
or years, to be followed by thirty-four or
less crashing organisms! This is the per-
petual cosmos of beauty and power, to
which America is invited by the Destruc-
tives in Power! .laa
The history of man for six thousand
years teaches that it is impossible in our
day or for our race, or indeed for mankind
to control immense regions and large mass
es of men under the exclusive ar6inf,m of
one man or one central government, how
ever wise. ..0-.... .--
The Emperor of Russia understood this
in granting to Finland free Constitution
and local representative assembly; and
although he fails to treat Poland with the
same enlightened justice, yet in the end, he
will be compelled to grant her local Con-
stitution, or bid her depart in peace. Let
us con the lesson. What is the relation of
Russia to Poland now, after nearly fifty
years of settlement" by the treaty of 1915.
A secret Government sets viewless at War
saw. Without a cannon or q soldier visi-
BILE, its power is terrible. Russian spies in
vain seek for the implacable foe. Execu-
tions and cOntiscations are revenged by as
sassination and fire. determination is the
only remedy which Russia has contemplate
ed in her dilemma. What advantage has
Russia from such rule? Has it added to
her strength her stability or her grandeur?
The throne before which three hundredlan-
guages are spoken, is powerless over des-
perate people. Brute force only destroys.
What revenue does she derive, which is
not absorbed? What can repay her for the
odium of her conduct amidst civilized ma
tions? Wherein does the new gospel of eX-
termination in this country differ from that
of the Russian policy toward Poland? At
the end OF thirty years, we may have in
the South, what Russia has in Poland, only
an army which the population of the South
will despise and defy. We may gain the
Mississippi; but where is its olden CON-
merce? Where is its golden prosperity
Our difficulties have been great thus far in
struggling to hold the military occupation
and power we have attained; but our diff
culties will have utbegun, when we begin
this Executive system of amnesty, as an
instrument to subjugate and eXtcrminate.
The most absolute empires which the
world has witnessed have been but an ag-
gregation of provinces with the power in
tensely centralized. In proportion to the
Capitalization of their power, was their
career brief and calamitous. Sometimes the
success and ability of the Ruler has given
permanency and strength to the State; but
as in the case of Charlemagne, so in the case
Of the ancient Eastern empires, the death
of the Ruler dismembers the realm.
The great Mesopotamian monarchy* was
an Empire which was made up of con-
geries of kingdoms. In proportion as these
retained their inctindividuality remain-
ing as they were before the conquest--ex-
cept the obligations towards the paramount
authority-tie empire subsisted longest.
When the local governments kept their old
laws religion, line of kings, law of success
sion, their internal organization and machin-
cry, only acknowledging an external suzer-
ainty, they preserved longest their hetero-
geneous materials in one empire. But even
in such an empire, there were elements Of
These elements bear such similarity to
our own history that shall examine them,
for our profit. mo sooner" says Rawlison,
''does any untoward event occur as a dis
astrous expedition, a foreign attack, do
meStic conspiracy, or even an untimely or
death of the reigning prince,
than the inherent weakness of this sort of
government displays itself. The whole
fabric of empire falls asunder; each king
dom reasserts sitsindependence, tribute ceases
to be paid, and the mistress of hundred
states finds herself suddenly thrust back in- !
to the primitive condition, stripped of the
dominion which has been her strength, and |
thrown entirely on her own resources
Then the whole task of reconstruction has
to be commenced anew; one by one, the |
rebel countries are overrun-tribute is re-
mposed-submission reinforced. Progress |
Is of course slow and uncertain where the |
empire has to be built up again from its |
and where at any time, day |
may undo the work it has taken centuries |
to accomplish" -.-.
Shall this chapter be the record of our |
history? Already we approach its fulfill |
ment. l will not 60 to Virginia, or Tennes-
see, or Arkansas. Let me take Louisiana, I
and from one State, learn the fate of others. |
Go to-day into the rich heart of that tropi- /
cal State-where the orange blooms in the |
air of winter-or visit it in the summer,
when the woods and fields are luxuriant |
with their leafy life. You will find the |
fields, no longer opulent with corn, cane or |
the cotton. There is the luxuriance of |
weeds and decay. The undrained planta- |
ion is becoming the swampy pleasure |
ground of the alligator and mOccasin. A |
ew acres of corn, few bursting pods of |
cotton, mark the spot where government
arms, with disinterested benevolence, by |
means of freed labor! The sparse crops are
,hoked by the growth of weeds. The spec
ilatOr with his haste for zone crop any how"
s despoiling ALL. The infusion of new life,
he restoration of the past prosperity which
We were promised, Is sadly evidenced by
he ruin of housesand estates and the ap-
,earance of speckled population--the.
lalf-breed bastards born of barbarism,
whose mothers have ceased to be slaves
With the largest liberty to be-worsel The
imperial city of New Orleans, which was
he fitting eptrepot for the resources of the
,reat valley of the Mississippi, still remains,
,ut alas! how changed! The scream of the