The New York herald., 1868-03-31


his attention to the more practical business of
the road itself; and thus learning from the ex-
ample of the enemy Drew may be able to make
a stubborn, well contested and protracted
| fight. The Bloomingdale road is certainly q
better place of diversion for railway men than
Wall street. We care nothing whatever for
the Drew party or the Vanderbilt party, so far
as their selfish interests are concerned, but as
we perceive that from this conflict the public
interests have not suffered and will probably
| be promoted, we have only to say, let the
battle 60 on. 1t pnts money into circulation
and keeps things lively.
Revolution at Washington-A Government
Outside the Constitution.
Revolution is going on everywhere. Through
| the whole Continent of Europe there is hardly
form or an institution that is even prox-
| imately deinitiye that can be counted upon
to remain as it is for ten years to come. Eng
land is especially in the very tumult and uproar
| of change, and revolution has 80 successfully
shaken the foundation of many ancient facts
that it only considers which to try next. But
in all the movement is in sympathy with the
intellectual tendency of the age and is toward
| the greater freedom of the people An ancient
aristocracy relinquishes the stand it has ever
taken against popular rights. Supreme culture
and generous enthusiasm push equally toward
| the same goal, and too ardent advocates have
the reign frightened on them only for fear that
| their precipitation should lose all and indefi-
| nitely retard the emancipation of the people
| from repressive laws. On this side the Allan
tic the revolutionary ferment is active also; but
strangely enough, the tendency and movement
| is quite in the other direction. 1t is not
| toward their enslavement-t0ward the crush
ing out of popular liberty, and the setting up in
| its place the rule of an oligarchy and despot-
ism made manifest in military power. Here,
in the very home and birthplace of modern
freedom-here, where popular institutions had
such success that the result of their working
was what first disturbed Europe-here they
are already tumbling to ruin, as If to give other
nations a timely warning against modelling
| their institutions on the example Of ours.
| Never had q people such prosperity, such
| happiness, such absolute personal indepen-
dence and command of their own destinies,
such positive political freedom as we had. But
practically free and great, we listened to the
gibes Of our enemies, who, mad that we had
gone so far, taunted us to go further, and
pointed us for an ultimate goal to the wild
theories of the Declaration Of Indepen-
dence. Lunatics in New England caught
at the fancy, and worked with maniac
energy to force it on the nation. Other luna
tics in the South met these half way, and be-
tween the two the country was hurried into
war. Four years the struggle ragged with hor
rors that fortunately can never be recited-a
war FOR greater freedom-and now it ends in
the loss of all freedom for the people of ten
States; war originating in q sentimental
sympathy with the oppressed, and resulting In
the most terrible oppression ever known .
war begun because the negro was not free, and,
behold. ut its close, the white man is a slave !
All that blood and treasure was given for
freedom as we were told, and the life Of ten
States is blotted out and the terrible precedent
Of governing the people of the Union by mill
tary dcspotism remains. And this results from
the fact that we are, as Mr.. Stevens says,
soutside the constitution" On Saturday, in
| Congress, this gentleman said:-'I am often
reminded by gentlemen around me, some
very wise and some otherwise, that have
said more than once that all this is outside
the constitution. He is otherwise who
| thinks that that assertion Is not true. 7"
Here is the deliberately repeated declara-
| ton Of the representative man Of the repub-
| lican party-the man who inspires its purpose
and declares its will, as to the character. Of
puny thinkers who hold that the republican
| party il not outside the constitution; for he
knows that il is, and he is right. II began
| existence in wild theories and lives In them
still. Il is outside the constitution, because
| inside the constitution there is no room for
despotism, no way by which the whole people
of sovereign State can be made subject to the
whim and caprice of dozen demagogues in
Congress-; and so we drive on in the full career
of revolutionary fury; and since we are in alb
solute fact outside the constitution, since the
law is no longer rule of action, since there is
no President of the United States and no
Supreme Court, and since Jacobin club in
Washington is all that remains of our govern
ment who shall say where the revolution will
leave us?
We may end anywhere. Thanks TO the
fact that we are 'outside the constitu-
tion," we are in that helpless and de-
fenccless state when nations fall into the
hands OF the strongest. Our whole history
just now is comprised in the struggle Of eccen-
trio forces Three Of these are personal