The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-23
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF THE LRADINe JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT ToPICs-CoMPIJKD EVERY
DAY ron THB EVENING TBLEGRAPH.
The Last Eight Years.


From he N. Y. sun.
Blight years ago yesterday South Carolina
promul gated the Ordinance OF Secession,
whereby that State dissolved its practical rela-
tions TO the Union. What volume in the
history of the nation those eight years have
written Scarcely any country in all time
has passed through 30 many great events in
80 short period. The very structure of the
Government has been radically changed. We
have fought ont the most formidable civil war
that has occurred since the Christian era.
Four M lions Of slaves have been emanoi-
pated, and a system Of servitude which had
dominated the politics and dictated the policy
Of the Republic for half a century has been
blotted out forever.
In no department is the change more SEN
sibly and seriously felt than in the finances of
the country. When South Carolina entered
npon this wild crusade, the Federal Govern
ment and the several States were almost free
from debt. Now, in addition to the thousands
of millions sunk at the South, and the vast
sums wasted at the North during the Rebel
lion, the Union owes a debt of nearly three
thousand millions, while the obligations Of
States, counties, and cities arising ont OF the
same cause tower to startling height.
These immense expenditures and losses
have cast unprecedented burdens upon all
classes of the people. The price of living has,
on the average, more than tripled, though the
wages OI ldDOT, duNauCiuR WIN q blOW6E ol6p,
have only doubled. The income which ena-
bled one to live luxuriously before the war
will now scarcely suffice to bring the two ends
Of the year together. The poor feel the pinch
ings of a severe poverty, and the man of
moderate means can barely meet current de-
mands through assiduous industry and rigid
economy. Old men, who by years of toll and
frugality fondly hoped they laid up in store
suflicieney for their declining days, find them
aaluaa oOrnnallad IN aotiVa nIIrgnife
that they may exc out their existence; while
young men, who are now commencing to fight
the fe-battle, are learning that they are citi-
zens of very different country from that in
which their fathers dwelt when they attained
their majority.
In nothing, however, has the great revolu-
tion produced such bswildering changes as ia
its effect upon the public men of the time.
Statesmen and politicians, whose word ante
rior to the Rebellion had long been obeyed as
irrevoGable law in the councils of the Govern
ment and the conventions of parties, have
lapsed into oblivion or wander as fugitives in
their own or foreign lands, with the mark Of
Cain on their foreheads. Davis, Slidell, Mason,
Toombs, Hunter, Stephens, Benjamin, and
their compeers at whose beck rulers rose and
fell, and parties organized and disbanded-
where and what are they nowa Indeed, who
cares where and what they arel Practically
they are as dead to-day as they will be on the
opening morning of the twentieth century.
On the other hand, a new generation Of men
has risen up to take the seats of those whom
the late bloody convulsion pushed from their
stools. Probably no names are more generally
known throughout the civilized world than
those of Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, Stanton,
and Farrsgut. All have acquired fame since
the firing Of the Sumter gun. Lincoln was
then entering upon the experiment Of seeing
whether an almost unknown politician, from
an obscure Western village, could save great
republic just plunging into civil war of un-
precedented dimensions. The very names Of
Grant and Sherman were unknown to one in
ten thousand of the best-informed citizens of
the Union. Stanton was quietly pursuing the
profession of the law in Washington, while
Farragut was an unheralded captain in the
navy. There is scarcely an intelligent man
now dwelling in any foreign land who is not
familiar with their great deeds, while their
genius has shaped the destinies of their own
country for the last eight years, and will con-
tinue to exert a moulding influence upon its
institutions through long future.
Emerging from this period of great trials,
the Republic, inspired by new ideas and guided
by new men, is prepared to enter upon an
unprecedented career of power and glory.
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