Baltimore daily commercial. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1865-1867, 1865-10-04

forms of expenditure required to keep it in
active existence, are, if possible, still more
noticeable. A prudence and vigor has been
exhibited by the Government in winding up
the business Of the late conflict which has no
parallel in the history of nations. What has
always been found difficult and dangerous in
other countries was marked by no unusual dis
order in our own.
The thousands and hundreds of thousands
OF troops, who but few mouths ago passed
their days in camps, surrounded by number
less sources of decentralization, or amid the
shock OF battle and the carnage of war, have
suddenly but silently returned to the civil pur-
suits of life. Instead of the predicted bur
glaries arsons and murders which were to
swell the annals af crime we note in our rural
districts and overcrowded cities an extraordi-
nary exemption from crimes of every descrip-
ton. The loterer on the purlieus or in the
| narrow lanes of the thronged metropolis, is as
safe now as he was in 1864, when it seemed
cause for congratuation that the depraved
and dangerous elements of society had been
enlisted in the ranks and transported to distant
| fields of service. No man considers his pro-
| perry or life less safe now than then Under
all the circumstances of the case this result is
certainly remarkable. 1t is at once an indica-
ton of the virtue and good sense of the
American people, and of the industry tact
and ability of those occupying official stations
| While the various departments of the Gov
eminent are entitled to high commentator for
the skill and energy they have displayed to
the Secretary of War is eminently due the
credit of having given prompt direction to the
measures of reduction and retrenchment de-
manded by the emergency Whatever honest
difference ofopinion may exist as to certain
acts of Mr.. Stanton, none will deny that to his
promptness, nerve and comprehensive intel
lect owe in large degree the early success
of our arms, as well as the rapid disposition
of the military material at its close.
1t is pleasant, too, to observe the thrift and
enterprise of peace follow so rapidly upon
the depressions and disabilities of war. The
soldier has gone home to find abundant ave-
nucs of labor and good wages accessible to his
willing hands;-thc officer has re-opened his
city office and warerOom to discover with sur
prise more clients and purchasers than when
he left for the camp. New life has been in
fused into every department of industry, man
ufacturing, mechanical, mercantile and pro-
fessonal. Every man seems animated by the
resolve to make up, so far as in him lies, what
has been lost by Interruptions and changes in
cident TO the unhappy struggle Of arms from
which we have just emerged.
But more refreshing than all else is the evil
dent decline in the personal differences, at one
time so appalling. Heart burning and bitter
ness are found in fewer hearts. Old preiudi-
ces are fast dying out. Forgiveness and for
bearance are taking the place of intolerance
and vindictiveness, and under the wise and
humane policy of the Government we are fast
returning once more to a Union not of mere
State lines, but of hands and of hearts, The
streets Of our cities swarm with the residents
of the sunny South, for the past four years
strangers TO Northern soil On the thorough
fares and by the social firesides mingle forms
long separated by the dreary years of fratrici-
dial strife, and the time approaches when the
dead past buried out of sight, we shall take
a higher and prouder step upon the great
highway Of National power, prosperity and
| renown.