The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1865-04-17

fONDAY. APRIL II. 1865.
on which we 1--we into new and perhaps hap
|pier-perhaps sadder-era; and Jefferson Davis,
with his subordinate conspira.ors, flying from
their capital before the armed hosts Of the
!nation which had elected and reelected
Abraham Lincoln, may be regarded as trans
fgvtation OF Imperialism, with its satellite
missionaries, throwing down the fragments Of
la broken sceptre at the feet of our American
the democratic-principle of selfrule.
The patriarchal system of government was,
we may presume, as simple as the lives Of those
over whom 1t was exercised, and has left but
very imperfect traces of its existence. OF the
theooratio or priestly form Of government, we
have had types In the characters of Moses and
Mohammed- powerful and original men,
and true representatives of the ambitions, needs
and POLITICALLY superstitious temperaments of
the nations they respectively ruled. With Rome
came the full development Of the imperial sys-
tenn. based on military subjugation and absorp-
ton; the system which Louis Napoleon believes
is about being revived WHOLLY obliviOus, appa-
rently, that his volume of moody and fantastic
dreams is printed on steam press, and not
copied painfully from waxen tablets. as were
the memoirs Of Julius Cesar, by the stylus Of
single copyist With the spread of Catholicity
came the feudal system, Of which Charlemagne
was but an accident and BY no means
the creator-that system having been Q
necessity for the perpetuaHon Of Church pro-
perry and the protection Of tho acknowledgement
religious Orders. With the discovery of print
ling, Immediately followed by Luther's insur-
|rectionary upheaval In the religious world,
commenced the mental and moral preparation
|of mankind for the acceptance of popular insti-
tutions and the right of selfgovernment-in a
word, for the democratic principle of which
Cromwell was the first forcible expression, and
Napoleon Bonaparte, in his earlier triumphs
over kings and empires, the armed and ire
sistible assertion. False to the ideas which
caused his elevation, this Napoleon was hurled
from the throne he sought to build on the ruins
and with the materials of PROSTATE popular
liberty; and it was thus reserved by an All-wise
nents of our earth, to give the first successful
example of that truly popular system of gov
|ernment-soon to be in control of oil nation
alities which had the moral sublimity and
practical virtues of George Washington to
guide it through its experimental stage; and
the perhaps externally grotesque, but morally
magnificent, figure Of Abraham Lincoln to be
both its representative and martyr in the
present supreme moment Of its permanent
browning.
This estimate of the place inevitably to be
OCCUPIED in the worlds history by the great
National Chief whose loss we mourn may not
prove either familiar or pleasant idea for the
mere partisans Of the present day to contem-
plate; but it will be found none the less true
and philosophical estimate. In the retrospect
tive glance of history the accidents" as they
are called, of his elevation will oil have faded out
of sight; and the pen of the historian will only
chronicle some such record as the following:-
From the very humblest position in family
subsisting by agricultural labor, and himself
toiling for daily bread in his early youth, this
extraordinary man, by the gifts of self-educa-
ton, absolute honesty Of purpose, perfect sym
|pathy with the popular heart and great natural
|endowments, first rose 70 eminence as q
lawyer; then graduated In Congress; was next
heard Of as the powerful though unsuccessful
rival for national Senatorial honors of the
democratic candidate for the Presidency, over
whom he subsequently triumphed In 1860; and
four years later we find him, in the midst Of
Overwhelming financial embarrassments, and
during the uncertain progress Of the bloodiest
and most desolating civil war ever waged, so
retaining the confidence of the
American people as to be triumphantly re-
elected to the first Office in their gift They
will claim for him all the moral Influences,
whioh-acting through material forces and
agencies led to the abolition Of slavery,
and the permanent entbroning Of popular in
stitutions on this continent; and, in their gene
raj summing up Of this now unappreciated
age in which we have our feverish being, and
in their pictures Of those events wherein the
clamorous partinns of the past week were
prone to urge that Mr.. Lincoln had been but
10 passive instrument, his name and figure will
be brought forward in glowing colors on their
canvass, a. the chief impelling power and CEN
trail organizer of the vast results which cannot
fail to follow our vindicstion Of the popular
form Of government.
And surely some hundred years hence, when
the staid and scholarly disciples Of the
historic Muse, bring their grave eyes to scan
and their brief tapelines to measure the alti-
tude and attitude, properties and proportions
Of our deceased Chief Magistrate, their sur
|prise-taking them to be historians Of the pre-
sent type-will be intense beyond expression.
II has been for centuries the tradition of their
tribe to model every public character after the
|style of the heroic antique. Their nation
founders, warriors and lawmakers have been
invariably clad in flowing togas, crowned with
laurel or oak wreaths, and carrying papyrus