The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-31
Are We n NatiOng

pOltlCdl party
Are We Nation!
From The ". y World
MIR. Bancroft must look to himself, or, on
his return, the Hon. Charles Sumner will have
a long account with him. AS is we'll known
the lion. Charles is precise in matters of pro.
nunciation; capable, even, of a spasm on
spondee, and what, therefore, must be his
emotions at seeing his historical friend permit
himself to be called, without question, "Ame-
ricanarum Civitatum Confe teratarum ad Au-
gustisimum Borusse Rege in Legatum," as he
is in his late German degree.
There is something in this that is awful;
something that begs the whole question, and
if permitted, forever puts out of SAVIOR that
choky little Sumneristio conundrum, Are we
a nation : If the latinty of the Bonn docto-
rate be admissible, we are not nation, for
civdatum confTderatarum is, as the learned
Charles must ere this have seen with pangs,
the States united by a league. This being
that rank heresy in which Copperheads de-
light, its appartion in foreign mark of
honor shown this ambulatory ambassador of
ours, must have had grievous effects on
Charles. And, furthermore, since Mr. Ban
croft takes, as we believe, the national view Of
it, how comes it that the attention of the
learned inditers of this instrument was not
drawn by him to the peculiar technology by
them employedH According to this toadying
philosophy of the day, which apes after for
eign mOnarohies in its use Of such words as
"Ioyaln and "rebel,' - the titular designation
of this country, ''The United States of Anne
rica,' does not mean the United States, but
the unified States. The idea is that the
States are not simply Joined together,
but that they are so inextricably
homogeneifsd that they are not, pro-
perly speaking, States at all, but rather a
nation; and 1t is pleasant to find that even in
the iar-off University of Bonn the true orgi-
nal Of this Government is so far kept up as
to find expression in its academical degrees.
The contCeder0tarum OF Mr.. Bancroft's doctorate
gives the exact idea of this Government, con-
veying in the con the fact, and in the teCluS the
manner of Union. These United States are
not nation. 1t was never intended that they
should be. 1t would provoke smile to speak
of the Roman nation as it was in the days of
the Gracchi The Roman republic is the title
by which it is great in history. 1t did not be-
come nation till Domitian, Caligula, and Nero
sat upon the throne. Thrones, body guards,
huge armies, golden crowns, the will of the
man on horseback 60 with nation-they are
incompatible with the name or idea of re-
public, and the American republic, and not
nation, let us hope it will continue to be as
long as We, the People, remain the first words
of that instrument which forms the bond of
union between otherwise independent and au-
tonomc States.
Bonn has said good word and the atten-
tiOn thereto of the nation -mongers is invited.
Senator Wilson on the Stump-A Sledge-
Hammer Speech.
From The NJ Y Herald.
Senator Wilson, as a stump speaker is
mighty man in Israel. His late effort at Ban
gor, Me-, was sedge-hammer speech. 1t is
the condensed milk of Greeley's two ponder
Gus volumes on "The American Conflict" 1t
gives us a graphic picture of the decline and
fall of the prO-slavery Democratic party and of
the causes and consequences Of the slave
holders rebellion, appropriately beginning
with poor Pierce. The speaker reminds us
that in his first message to Congress, Pierce
gave his pledge that the repose of the coun-
try should receive no shock during his Off
cial term, and the orator then enlarges upon
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise as
the fatal shock to the domineeripg, slavery
propagating Democratic party. He dWells
upon the ominous border ruffan conflict in
Kansas, which may be called the bloody
overture of the great Rebellion, and he
reproduces the Southern and Democratic
threats of disunion, secession, and civil war in
the event of Fremont's election in 1856. He
reproduces the promises of Northern Demo-
Gratis to Southern revolutionists in 1860 and
1861, the political events which marked the
beginning of the war and its progress to the
end, including the various forms and shapes
of the Northern Democratic opposition to Con-
gress, the administration, the army, and the
loyal masses Oft the North, while engaged in the
work OF suppressing the Southern Rebellion,
and in all this to the close of the war the his
torical sketch of the political issues, parties
and conflicts involved is not only exceedingly
like the tatteniDg of piece of red-hot iron
with sledge-hammer by rapid blows well
laid on, but 1t is substantially true.
But upon the issues and conflicts which have
arisen since the war, and especially upon the
great underlying and Overshadowing issues of
this Presidential contest, Mr.. Wilson ceases in
great degree to give us the truth of history,
and deals too largely in the assumptions and
conclusions of the mere party politician for
clear exhibit of the political situation. He
tells us that the Southern Rebsl elements were
predominant in the late Democratic National
Convention, and he undertakes to prove from
Northern and Southern Democratic stump
speeches that the whole party, rank and file,
under the sway again of their old Southern
leaders, are in this campaign simply fighting
to revive and establish "the lost cause" of the
Southern Confederacy. In this presentation
of his case Mr.. Wilson makes the most of the
abundant capital furnished by such intractable
and hopeless fire. eaters as the Rebel Generals
Forrest, Albert Pike, Henry A. Wise, and
Wade Hampton, and the unlucky Rebel Ad-
miral Semmes but still the great Massachu-
setts stumper in Maine does not meet the great
issues of this canvass.
What are they They are the great issues
arising from the measures and the policy de-
velOped by Congress since the war. The peo-
pie have the heavy burden to bear of an