The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-07-19
The Fourth Of July in London
From the London Times, July ST.

The birth day of the American INDIE
pendence was duly celebrated yesterday,
and never, sincethe 4th of July 1776,
has that famous anniversary been ush-
cred in by events so gratifying to nation
al pride. During the last four years the
most sanguine of American patriots
must have welcomed its recurrence with
mingled feelings. However robust his
aith IN the destiny of his country, he
could not shut his eyes to the evidences
of actual disruption and possible dis.
solution. The foundations laid by
Washington, Franklin and Jefferson,
had been violently displaced, and no one
could predict with confidence that they
could ever be restored to their original
position. No wise man would even now
commit himself to such a prediction:
But experience has abundantly proved
the extraordinary strength Of the fabric.
So far, those who believed in the native
vitality of the great Federal Republic,
have right to eXult, but we venture TO
think that one of two speakers at VIII
lis's Rooms last night, somewhat mis-
stated the nature OF their victory. Its
not Democracy that has vanquished aris-
tocracy, but Federalismt that has triumph
ed over State sovereignty, and establish
ed the subordination of all other consti-
tutional rights to those of the central
power The result must be the recon-
struction of the American Union, and
it is difficult to believe that any future
secession can be more formidable than
that organized by Jefferson Davis. The
federal tie will probably bestrengthened,
and the American people may gradually
become one and indivisible, but 1t re-
mains to be shown whether that unity
l,nv lad tV,
principles laid down in the Declaration
of Independence.
The subsection of the South, however,
is as much a fat dccon,pi as the Decla-
ration of Independence itself, and new
chapter has thereby been opened in the
history of the United States. Hence
forward other battles, sieges and capitu-
lations will take the place of Bunker's
HILL Saratoga and Yorktown. Corn
wallis and Burgoyne will be dwarfed by
Jackson and Lee, and it will not surprise
us if Lincoln occupies pedestal OF
equal height with that of Washington.
! IT. indeed, the importance of occur
l rences be determined by their scale, the
War of Independence hardly admits Of
comparison with that which has just
terminated. The forces collected on eth
er side, the distances traversed, the lists
Il VI hiicu WOuhuSuy huA thC Auin
4 wrought in the former, are as nothing
4 by the side of the records of the late civ
/ il war The tales of outrage and havoc
inflicted by the British troops which
have Mortified three generations of
\ Americans are already being superseded
by more recent and vivid memories, and
4 the heroic age of America will soon be
i transferred from the eighteenth to the
nineteenth century. For years to come
novelists will lay their plots in this rev.
olutionary period, and orators will draw
\ their most exciting materials from the
4 same source. Nor can it be denied that
\ the issues at stake Were in proportion to
the magnitude and desperation of the
contest. Whether or not there should
be balance of power on the North
American continent, and whether slave
ry should be accepted by modern civili-
| cation, were questions inevitably In
| volved in it, though thrust out of sight
J, by more obtrusive motives. Upon these
questions, and upon the further ques-
ton whether the sudden abolition of
/ slavery was to be desired for the sake Of
the negroes themselves, opinions may still
differ, but that the settlement of them
will be the effect, if it was not the Oh.
ject of the war, admits of no reasonable
doubt. If the French Revolution, with
all its manifold influences on society.
| was the indirect consequence of Ameri.
can independence, no one can say what
changes may hereafter be traced back to
the crisis now in course of development.