The New York herald., 1867-04-17
Tho Old Regime and the Ncw-Oar Manifest
Denflnv.

Tho Old Regime and the Ncw-Our Manifest
Destiny.
"Stands Scotland where 1t did Z" or are we
drifting headlong to sure destruction! Where
are the old landmarks of the constitution? What
hope is there Of the Union as 1t was 2" These
questions, in various notifications, banded
about among our democratic Bourbons, are at
length answered by their favorite oracle, VAL
landighsm with the assurance that there is a
CLEAN of light from Connecticut, that the
inevitable reaction has set In, and that the
ancient regime of the old democratic dynasty
will surely be revived. This is the ruling
idea, even at this late day, Of all that class Of
democratic politicians who stupidity shut their
eyes to all that the country has gained from
mighty revolution, in lamenting the power and
prestige and the spoils and plunder which
their party has lost In word, they hold that
the Bourbons must be restored or that France
must be utterly destroyed.
Was there ever q delusion, Jack o. lantern
or monomania of fanatic or lunatic more
absurd than this? Yet II is only the old story
Of the standstill party against the party of
progress from the time Of Moses down to the
dispensation of Andrew Johnson. Equally
preposterous, too, in the United States at
this day, "with all our modern i'm
provements," is the fear entertained by
our old time, slow-coach conservatives, that
with the expansion Of our boundaries the
cohesion Of States and sections must be more
and more weakened until they fall to pieces.
From the empire of Assyria down to our late
Southern rebellion the fatal examples Of too
much territory are held up to warn us against
this greatest Of dangers to great nation.
But the difficulties which thus affected the
territorial enlargement Of any government
under the old regime OF dromedaries, horses
and sailing vessels, ss the means Of intercom-
munication, have been swept away by the in
| PRODUCTION In harness of steam and electricity.
Within the last twenty-five years these two
powerful agents of modern development and
national cohesion have worked out, In this
country, the most amazing political revolution
In the history Of mankind.
Many Of our readers will grasp all its details
| from brief glance at some Of the old land
marks. For instance, twenty-five years ago .
half dozen democratic party newspapers, In
cluding one at Washington, one at Richmond,
one In Philadelphia, one in New York, one at
Albany and another at Boston, controlled the
politics OF the United States The Washington
Globe and the Albany Regency Of that day
welded the power Of Cardinal wolsey in all
his glory, and the word OF Old Hickory was the
will Of Harry the Eighth. This was before
the railway train had superseded anywhere
the old stsgecoach. Nextcame the innovations
of the locomotive and the independent press,
and then the power Of the anointed party
newspaper organs began to wane. Then the
slaveholding oligarchy Of the South (ls44)
undertook to "run the democratic machine"
They maintained the fight with varying for
tunes till 1860, when they broke up the national
democracy into fragments in the Charleston
Convention. Then came the rebellion for
slavery Of the Confederate slave States; but
the very agents--steam and electricity-upon
which they most confidently relied for success,
were the most efacient In their overthrow,
slavery included.
! steam, electricity, an independent press and