New Oregon plaindealer. (New Oregon, Iowa) 1859-1866, 1865-03-03
STRIKING CONTRAST,

sTNlA1N0 CONTRA6T.
To those who contrast the men and
circumstances Of few years ago with
the men and circumstances Of the pres
sns, the change must be apparent that
has come over the nation. AsCharles
Kingsley says somewhere, we think in
his Essay on Sir Walter Raleigh and
His Time, when speaking Of the period
in which the young courtier vas ush-
cred on the stage Call is lio, court,
church, statesmen, courtisrs, Wit and
science, town and country, all are shsms;
tho days are evil. the cAnker is at the
r"o1 Of all things; the old heroes are
dying one by one; the Elisabethsn .ge
is rot.ing down as at human things do,
and acthingis left but to bewal: with Spsa
ser, The Ruins Of Time the glory and
vir'ue which have beer, the greater glory
which might have been. No thought
full student of the lessons taught by the
worlds history, can be FIR a moment
surprised At the present position Of af-
fairs, both public anl private. The
corruption, both in church aud state,
the gambling spirit that IS turning
business persuts into mere games of
chance aud huxard, ihe reck less disre-
gard Of truth manifested in high official
circles and permsating all ranks Of So
ciety, the reckless prodignlisy that is
sapping to its foundations the old time
morality of this natien~-all of these
are the perui.ious fruits Of civil war.
Such connections have ever produced
them, and ever will. The men of the
past, those great minds who laid the
Of this Government, mover
thought Of Office but ~ sacred trust
borne for the common good.
Tn ey never locked on war but as the
last necessity for selEdefense and self
against a conmon foe.
They never hoped for victory but as
the blessing of the God of Battles Oh a
righteous cause. Under such inAuen-
ces show did a little one beceme a
thousand, and a small one strong ma
ton" How did the soea they r1we
in tears ewel! to a golden harvest.
How did the tree they planted in the
night, and watered with their blood,
spread out and fill the land. For alb
jsct poverty more than Oriental
wealth! For growing forests, scatter
Cd hsmlets and towns impoverished by
the struggles of the revolution, fields
white unto the sickle, fair villages IN
smiling beauty, dotting the land. cities
whcsc commerce filled the earth. And,
now, this large-hearted craftsmanship
has vanished, and pigmies fill the seats
whore giants were wont to sit. All
this lofty patriotism and prosperity
has disappeared, blown away BY tho
sulphsrous breath Of the most ezhaNss
ting civil war the world has ever
known, Deceived; cajoled by tho
promises Of fiendlsh fanaticism tho
people Of the North have been led step
by step into the furious whirl Of an an
natural and unconstitutional struggle
with men once their breth rem,
and into its dark and bloody
depths have gone down the
aeeamulations Of more than half a cen.
tury of wealth and prosperity, and the
precious lives of more than million of
men. The insane idealism Of "liberty
fraternity and equality" made shio-
wreck of France. It is the same ideal
ism that to-day rules the hour in this
distracted land, and is fast Turing Us on
.oruin. Will not tho people shake Of
the spell of this abolition delusion that
has go long taken captive their senses
and awake to the peril Of the hopr?-
New York Ne,cs.
The admirers Of Beast Butler were
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