Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1866-04-18
SIGNS OF A STORM.

The typhoon which sweeps the Chl-
IA seas-the dread Of mariners is
thrice terrible, because the skies give
no warning Of its coming Pleasant
Gephyrs Iazi9y flap the loose canvas
and gently swell the sails. No cloud,
save perhaps a heeey tangle Of Tapor,
dims the bH ght sunshine. The sea is
smoothe, and there is not air enough
to toss q white. cap on its waves. But
suddenly, almost in the twinkling Of
an eye, the shock of the hurricane
sends the vesselreeling over the stormy
waters. Sails and eordage are reDt,
masts 20 by the board, and the dis
mantlcd hulk which lives through the
gale owes It's safety either TO the sur
passing strength OF its timbcrs, or to
the forethought of the seaman in
watehing the fall of the barometer,
which alone fereiells tAc coming OF
TIE mighty wind.
Tiv .A.,.~.:s->-. r~orl~ h"-.~ haan
taught by hard experience lesson
which they should haze learned from
history, that there Is such a thing as
political typhoon--a storm which
sends rot clouds nor lightning as its
herald. and which makes its work Of
ruin. thrice disastrous, because thena-
ton which lies in its path is unpre-
pared to meet it. 1t is possible, as
we all know from the bloody lesson
OF 1864, that a nation shall be on the
eve of revolution in which million
of lives are destined to be sacrificed,
and vet that its people shall be blind
to tlse eomiRg of ''the destroying an
gel, tho watt OF whose wings is thun-
der, and the tremor of whose piumes
l. storm" And yet we had warnings
enough. The fathcrs of the Republic,
and AL the great statesmen who came
after them, had foretold many times
that the contentious of sectional par
ties, il such were ever established,
would eliminate in the terrible strife
of the battlefield On the 4th OF
March 1861, the day Of which they
had had prophetic vision had come
A sectional patty had got control OF
the general government, Mr. Lincoln
had been inaugurated as President o.
States already divided against each
other, although there had as yet been
no open war save that which John
Brown aad his followers, under the
sanction of the Abolitionists, had
made upon the commonwealth of Vir
ginia. Ordinances of secession, held
to be perfectly valid by the people
who passed .hem, and by large num
bers of persons in the North of whom
MI. divvlvy ~as the spois~sms,f, i'",
temporarily deranged the relations
, Of the Guh States to the general gov
) ernment, although, as the Democracy
held then, and hold now, these enact
ments were altogether impotent &
carry them oRt of the Union. Their
: was arming and drilling all over tn
. South. Threateniag and angry word
y were the Language of the dominan
!, marty in the North. Radical Senator
d sneered at honorable compromise an
: demanded speedy "blood letting,
: without which they declared th
: Union would not be worth bo wort
rush" Madness ruled supreme e'
erywhere, and tho brave and goo,
and conservative men in both section
who lifted their voices in behalf
!. peace and good will, found themselvc
: either despised as visionary fools, {
oi o threatened with popular violence ;
ID public enemies. This was the stat
r. OF things when Mr.. Lincoln becam
> President, and for six weeks afte
!, wards it grew worse. The polite
n barometer kept falling, falling. III
b mercury sunk into the bulb. b
n there was a bright sky overhead, al
d. not a cap,full OF wind to raise the fea
I'd of people who rolled on mere mater
and outward signs Of storm, "
lwero so rich, and 80 strong, and