The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1867-08-29
The Three Great Forces of This Revolu
tiOunry Age.

tionnry Age.
| What are the leading characteristics of this
| age? This is question to which many differ
ent yet appropriate answers might be given.
| We know only one answer which is at once
distinctive and exhaustive. 1t is the age of the
| printing press, the steam engine and the cleo
| trio telegraph. We might put it in another
| form, and say it is an age in which all men
| think, some with greater, some with less inten-
sity; some to greater, some to less purpose; in
which the thoughts of thinkers are common
and public property, and in which the mys-
terious and mighty forces of nature are yoked
to the car of humanity. Men think now not in
a corner, in cell or in a cave, but in the eye
and ear Of the world. Thoughts are not now
buried, as they once were, for centuries; they
obtain prompt and immediate and universal
publicity, and the principal agents in giving
effec! to thought in modern times are printing,
steam and electricity. These are at once the
types and the means of human progress in the
latter half Of the nineteenth century.
A natural and necessary result of this state
Of things is that everything is at once con-
Quoted on more gigantic scale and brought to
more speedy issue. Witness our late civil war.
Witness Napoleon's Italian campaign. Witness
the recent struggle in Germany. Questions
which in former times it required ages to ripen
now rush to maturity at once; and those which
it took years to settle are settled in as many
days. Compared with the gigantic struggles
of modern times the wars Of an earlier period
Il ;uta
years. war in any part of the world where
modern forces are at work is no longer pos
sible.
These thoughts are not without q certain
value as applied to the situation both in the
Old World and the New. Europe, at the pre-
sent moment. is evidently on the eve of great
crisis. War may be spoken of "a an almost
absolute certainty. We know not what day
or an hour may bring forth. This we do know:
that war. when il does break out, will be on
grander scale, and will be shorter, sharper and
more decisive than anything which we have
yet seen. Europe to-day is very different from
Europe in the days of Wallenstein, of the
Great Frederick OF even of the First Napoleon
The iron road and the putting engine are every
where. Everywhere, too, is seen the electric
wire, tremulous with passing thought. The
railway car has supplanted the slow and vast
ing march; and what was done by the tardy
| messenger Is now done by the swift and well
trained lgh thing. Europe, therefore, may
have greater, but she cannot have such lasting
wars.
The same forces which have revolutionzed
Europe are at work here. They have already
placed us in the front rank Of the nations, and
the time Is not distant when directed by
Anglo-Saxon skill, they will give us the com.
mand OF the entire American continent
Mexico will come in and extend our borders
to the South. Canada will come in with It's
Anglo-Saxon energy and increase at once our
territory and the vital forces Of the Union.
| Spain must look out for Cuba, already ours by
| electric contact, must soon be ours in fact The
West Indies and the South American States
will follow; nor will there be any hating in
this triumphal career until the entire continent
IL sheltered beneath the folds Of the Stat
Spangled Banner. Is this mighty people-ths
possessors Of 50 much power, the destined in.
hsritors Of 30 much fame and power-to be
subjected In their onward march 10 the control
Of the negro' II must not be.
Il