The Portland daily press., 1866-02-19

1t was wittily said OF the French Bourbons
that the reason why their throne and their
power have so utterly slipped from their Grasp
was to be found in the fact that they could
learn nothing and forget nothing 1t seems
to us that no one who is familiar with the gen.
eral tenor of the copperhead press of to-day
can be at any loss for an answer to the ques-
ton, "Have we a Bourbon among us" The
entire inability to profit by the teachings of
the past, either in learning pew wisdom or in
forgetting old folly, which that party mani
tests, is something beyond the reach Of ordi
dence OF this popularity may be found in the
attempts which are at present being made to
raise the old cry of "disunion" against all
who manifest the slightest disinclination to al
lowing the unrepentant rebels of the South to
dictate their own terms to the country they
have done their best to ruin. In the long,
weary years of wordy contention before the
war, this was the weapon with which they
won all their victories. Whenever the free
spirit and the better moral sentiment of the
North relucted at some new aggression of the
insolent slave-power, the cry of THE Union
Union is in danger; would you destroy the
Union" was sufficient to quell the murmurs
OF patriotic people, and make them bear pa
tiently with much which they could neither
desire nor approve. But the game was tried
too many times. This hobgoblin of Disunion
has lost all its terrors for people who now
know just what it amounts to. When it was
brought before their faces too constantly they
lost their patience, and having finally beaten
the breath out of its body, they are not going
to be frightened at its old clothes. They have
been fighting four years to prove to the South
ern rebels and their Northern allies that their
threat Of Disunion could not be realized; and
the point is too well demonstrated to be
source of much anxiety at present. The ma
ton has got its foot upon both these factiUus
and mischievous elements, and despite of all
the howls of the copperhead press, it is re-
solved to hold them fast until it has establish
ed some measures of security for the future"
The representatives of the people are not to
be scared from their duty by the repetition of
old cries. They have the power, and we be-
lieve it will be found that they also have the
viii, to legislate as the exigencies of the case
demand, and to make no pause until they
shall have secured substantial guarantees for
the safety of the oft-threatened Union. The
process is necessarily slow; but this is one of
the cases in which haste is the worst possible
speed. The object is not that the business of
reconstruction should be speedily accomplish
ed, but that the work should be done so soeU as
to impose no necessity for doing it over again.
Those impatient spirits who are so eager tosee
It quickly finished that they are ready to for
get all the lessons so dearly taught by the re-
bellion would do well to bear this point in
mind. That the South should be restless un-
der the disabilities to which delay condemns
her is not strange; but having so long ex-
pressed desire to be 'let alone," she should
not complain if that kind of treatment is for
time awarded her. And neither she nor her
sympathizers at the North need hope to ac-
complish their ends by raising the old worm
out cries of Disunion and Secession. The
people have whipped that thing into silence
once; they can do it again.