The Ebensburg Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1865-1871, 1868-12-03
Tho A11eghan1an,
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1868.
eVOIutIOn.

snail say nothing, at any rate, Just now
to do hurt to so fine fancy. Egotisn
fits so nicely on us all, and Gin our own
conception) makes us such important crea-
lures, that it's pity to burst the beauti-
ful, though anescent, soap bubble. Yet
we do live in an important era, if for no
other reason than that it as an era and
Que ia which everything seems to be
doubted, always excepting our own impor-
tance-to the universe and everythino,
else. We live in an important era for
another reason-we are making changes
by the wholesale, whether for the better
or worse in the long run, probably no per-
son now born will live to know. Of course,
we all say they are for the better, meaning
thereby that we are truely convinced they
are so, and our hope is rs buoyant as a
fish bladder. All the political changes of
our age, we might say within the confines
Of truth, the world over, really constitute
but one change, drifting towards and
practical application of the idea that all
political power is inherent in the people.
Our own country, within the past seven
years, has undergone revolution as wide
spread in its nature and thorough in its
results as any that ever happened TO any
people. From the moment the rebellion
began, the avoidance Of a revolution
Gudging now from past evcnts,) became
impossible. After the issuing of the
emancipation proclamation, the success of
the national arms implied revolution in
the legislation of the country, and in the So
cial structure and the political theory Of |
great part of it, so great, so wonderful |
and far reaching, that probably no single |
mind in the land is able to contemplate all |
its necessary results. The success of the |
rebellion would have made two nations |
where had been but one,-one founded !
on slavery, the other on universal free
dom. The suppression of the rebellion
maintained the one original nation, but |
destroyed slavery within its limits, and |
In fourteen States uprooted social condi-
ton that was the growth of two hundred |
and forty years. For years previous to
the rebellion, the coming of this revolu-
tlon was present to every philosophical
mind that STUDIED the signs. This gener-
ation and the last, had witnessed the con-
test for the domination in the national
councils of ideas On the one hand that
grew out of a society founded on human
bondage, and on the ether of ideas found
ed on freedom, or, rather, on which free
dom itself is built The late amendments
to the constitution played, in one sense,
3ut small part in the great drama They
merely fixed part of the statute law
what had been before decreed by the logic
of events. He is either a coward or an
imbecile who approves the great fact of
this revolution, and yet shrinks from fol-
lowing it to all its necessary and logical
results.
We now stand, as we never stood before,
on plain trial of Republican principles.
Had we failed in the rebellion. and had ,
our country sunk forever, the world would
have called it the failure Of popu,'r gov
ernment, although, in fact, it would not
have been so, but merely the death of a |
republic from the contest of two great sec
tIons, fighting for the supremacy, on the
one hand, of true Republicanism. and on
the other, of landed, slave-owning oil
ca~chy. In 1915 we asserted the truth /
that ali men are created alike free and I
equal, and in 1867 we gave it its broadcst
application by bestowing upon all who :
choose to avail themselves of it, the priv
lege Of citizenship, md voice in making
the laws. Whatever virtue eAi-ts in
Democracy, we shall now experience
whatever vice: we shall know :,
Our example has been, and is, so to Z
peak, contagious. OF this truth, Eng 9
anI affords the most remarkable example ',
Ter people do not know oppression They :
awe enjoyed as much substantial freedom /.
IS any ether. Yet the majority of the L
Queens subjects have had until lately no =
Tnicc in making tho laws They have
made their own influence felt, but by the T
gcncy Of brute force rather than by any r
cgal expression of their viii. But this
; changed. Three hundred thousand "
have, within month past,
Exercised the elective privilege for the
rSt time in their lives This one change
makes numerous others, no less important, :
ot only possible or probable, but inevita- - -
le. These pew voters are all of the