The New York herald., 1868-05-16
Progress Of the Revolution In the United
States.

Revolutions move by definite laws. Essen
italy they are always the same, having an orr
gin, a career and an object that differ only as
the ages and peoples differ in whose history
the most notable revolutions occur. RevOlu-
tions are, in their rise, natural national
impulses-efforts of people always sincere,
even if sometimes mistaken, to force the facts
of national life, to force laws and institutions
to accept such changes as will put the State in
harmony with the intellectual character of the
age. So the people of England, in the great
and real power in the State was not recognized
in the laws; finding that system and statutes
that were centuries old could be practically
produced at any moment to oppress an age
that had altogether outgrown the system and
the statutes; finding fact and law at exact
contraries, revolted and rewrote the law, cor
recting it down to that date. So the people of
France, finding one day that they were the
great vitality Of the nation, while in the writ
ten law there could scarcely be seen anything
but mobiles and priests, arose and changed the
law; and since that change no one has dared
to attempt the government of France without
at least pretending to found the structure on
the people. And so in our own country, the
inevitable development of the free States
having brought them into direct conflict for
supremacy in the government with the slave
States, and these latter making war, the
people saw that il was no longer possible to
live in peace with slavery, and they arose and
destroyed it, determined to reorganize the gov
ernment with that power left out. This is the
essence of the three great revolutions OF mod
ern times.
But revolution does not accomplish its
object at once, and it's progress, its Interrupt
tions, its final success, depend upon the root
the obnoxious institutions have taken in the
national life, as well as upon the honesty Of
the men who become its leaders. If laws are
deeply based in the social fabric; If their pre-
servation coincide with the interests of power
ini classes; it, as in England, all the royal
prerogatives and nearly all the great families
are against the coming change; or, as in
|
Ohurch-heaven and earth at once-are
against II; or, as in the United States, polti-
cal hierarchy, and an oligarchy prouder and
richer than any ever before known. see in IL
the inevitable destruction of their wealth and
Importance, in such cases the movement will
meet with stubborn resistance, and the struggle
by which it finally carries it's great points must
be prolonged and desperate. During that
struggle there must be many halts. and alwavs
are-halts and hesitatons-tmes when Tho
nation beats about for its object. when the
original impulse is for time lost, and the
revolution stands still or goes on AZ random
This is never the hour that is seized bv tho
old abuses to make head against the revolo-
ton. They accept IL as an hour of grace. and
hope that the struggle is done with. But il il
the chosen hour of more dangerous foe Il
is the hour of faction. II is the time when
the ambitious, the INSCRIPTIONS
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