Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1868-07-01


ready for him. AZ every one can tell what is
coming VIXEN he gets W to declaim his second
hand piece, il does lot Tuf1e his vanity if he
IS obliged to begin in silence and sit down
In solitude Iii the research md investiga-
ton has been done thoroughly. He has only
to collect and repeat the arguments already
urged, end then get all the praise and reward
fer having made mastery effort-draw his
pay and secure q re nomination if he can
We are young nation, and like all young
nations we have been restless and ambitious
--allured by the boundless hopes and aspira-
tions of youth-perpetually agitated by
passion for change-distracted by conf letting
interests contending for the ascendency
Even cur seasons &C imperative repose are
only intervals Of rest In which to concen-
trate our energies for q fresh aud more alb
corhing contest We have had a war Of revo-
luton, war Of defence a war of conquest,
war of secession, and Indian wars unnum-
b cred. As we had first to organize our gov
eminent, start hitherto untried career,
and mark cut tor ourselves an untrodden
political course, mistakes we're inevitable, and
these we have had to learn and correct by the
severe ana costly teachings of experience
ITO govern, is to foresee and provide is one
of those flashes of clear insight which some
times shone through the electric sentences of
the first Napoleon, but the trainers Of our
constitution, practical and comprehensive as
was their wisdom, could not anticipate all the
wants Of people who were to increase from
four to forty millions in three quarters of a
century, and spread from the Atlantic to the
Pacific They could and did lay the founda-
ton broad and deep, but they could not give
the fair and stately structure all It's grace and
completeness that they had to leave to their
hut IL tha MI IF
they intended their political edifce should
endure Consider the vital and momentous
questions that have arisen, one after another,
to be settled before we arrived at our present
Gondition-some of them hurrying US to the
very verge of notification, and afterwards
plunging Us into the sanguinary conyulsions
Of civil war, with resolute and determined
North clinched in deadly fight with fiery
and vehement South, for combattants-the
one striking for the Union and the other for
Slavery. When we have not been resisting
foreign enemies we have been engaged gin
what may be termed political hostility among
ourselves, with scarcely a year Of truce.
Notwithstanding this state Of things, our ma
terial interests have prospered and aug
mented as they never prospered aud aug
mented in any other country. How thickly
filed are the pages Of our history with event
croWding event, every one Of which brought
its difficulties and divisions, and was DOM
mated by the effect it would have on the
peculiar institution as we used to tenderly
refer to the determination. of desolation, = that
recently bIighted half our country and
disgraced the whole. The raging and in
fammable elements Of diseord and dissension,
at last burst out in fierce and consuming
flames, and the two rival sections of the
Union grappled with each other in a life and
hokk For han fol-
ed the most gigantic struggle Il at ever shook
and threatened to oVerwhelm civil society in
ruin. Vast armies were marshalled AMI
arrayed against each o; her to decide ques-
lions which had passed from the arena OF
debate to the abitrament of the sword. The
storm Of war has passed away, but all around
us are the sad wrecks of devastation and
melancholy emorials of suffering. We have
seen. African Slavery, which was introduced
into Virginia before the Pilgrims landed in
New England, and which had been interviewer
and intertwisted into the frame work of our
institutions, abolished and prohibited, at the
most fearful price people were ever com
PEELED to pay for the Providential opportunity
Of doing signal and sublime act Of min led sal
walton and ri ghteousness-an act that will for
ever stand out and stand apart IN shining relief
among the worlds deeds Of moral heroism,
memorable as it will be lastingly bene6cent,
even to those who think themselves most in
iured by the violent removal of the leporous
iniquity and loathsome gangrene, that was
enervating and corrupting and paraly ling
whatever it touched, and carrying the ele-
ments of destruction in its own bosom.
Confronted with such antagonistio issues,
and irresistably driven, by the angry waves of
action and reaction wildly dashing backward
and forward, to assume one side or the
other on every question that came before
the tribunal of public opinion, the Iress
Of the United States has bad its full
share of labor and responsibility, and it
has feGrlessly ischarged its whole duty.
Whoever was light or whoever was wrong in
our late controversies--and most Of US have
occasionally been in either position--we all
rejoice that Humanity, Liberty and Justice
have been blended together in one browning
and glorious triumph, which bore aloft our
& light, q land marx on the cliffs Of fame"
and proclaimed to the nations and the ages
that Freedom is the gift Of Con 10 every man,
aud what Cop gives, every man has right to
enjoy Tie ship of state is entering the har-
Dor Of safety, after teEnpestuous and peril
Gus voyage. The Union will be preserved,
our institutions perpetuated, the Republic
remain one and indivisible, and the Stars and
Stripes our nations emblem.
Though only in the bright dawn and dewey
freshness of our morning march to empire,
what memories are behind us when we look
backward, and what prospects are before US
when we look forward. We have closed
one stage of our nation Il career, and reached
the commencement of another-Iausing for
moment, as it were, between a receding and an
opening era, where the lingering echos of the
departing footsteps of the passing generation
seem to meet and minglo with the sound of
the approaching footsteps of the coming mil
lions, who will take possession of the MAJ nif