The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1868-04-17
from the Nclo York Herald.
IcW ttC NtW Urn LItfuW
Revolution at sS'GShingfGH-.E
GOrrrmenf Outside Inc COnstj-
tuition.

Revolution at sS'GShingtGm-a
GOrFrmenf Outside me COMstj-
tuition.
Revolution is going on everywhere
Through the whole Continent of Europe
there is hardly form or an institution that
is even proXimately defnitive that can be
counted upon TO remain as ii is for ten years
10 come. England is especially in the very
tumult and uproar of change, and revolution
has so 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 rcin-
pushes the stand it has ever taken against
popular rights. Supreme culture and gener-
Gus enthusiasm push equally toward the same
goal, and too ardent advocates have the rein
frightened on them only for fear that their
precipitation should lose all and indefinitely
retard the emancipation of the people from
repressive laws. On this side the Atlantic
the revolutionary terment is active also but,
strangely enough, the tendency and move
ment is quite IN the other direction. 1t is
not toward the greater freedom of the pco-
pie, but toward their nsavemcnt-toward
the crushing out Unpopular liberty, and the
setting up in its place the rule of an oligarchy
and dcspotsm made manifest in military
power. Here, in the very home and birth
place of modern freedom-here, where popu-
lar institutions had such success that the re-
suit of their working was what first disturbed
Europe-here they are already tumbling to
ruin, as if to give other nations timely
warning against modelling their institutions
on the example of ours.
Maven bol nppp1p eI,cb r1ipSDnrity ia
happiness, such absolute personal indcpen-
dence and command of their own destinies,
such positive political freedom as we had. -
But we were not content. Not satisfied with
being practically free and great, we listened
TO the gibes of our enemies, who, mad that
we had gone SO far, tainted us to go farther,
and pointed lis for On ultimate goal to the
wild theories of the Declaration of Indepen-
dence. Lunatcs in New England caught at
the fancy, and worked with fnanac energy
to force it on the nation. Other lunatics in
the South met these half way and between
the two the country was hurried into war
-Four years the struggle ragged with horrors
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
III tiiC hlOop ttlilplS OppiSselol CNCl hHONH
a war begun because the negro was not free,
and, behold, at its close, the white man is a
slave ! All that blood and treasure was Civ
en- 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 military despotism remains. And
! this results from the fact that we are, as Mr.
| Stevens says, "outside the constitution" On
Saturday, in Congress, this gentleman said
81 am often reminded by gentlemen around
HE, 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 the assertion is not true
Here is the deliberately repeated declaration
of the representative man of the republican
party-the man who inspires its purpose and
declares its will, as to the character of its acts
this typical republican scorns the puny
thinkers who hold that the party is not out
side the constitution for he knows that il is
and he is right. 1t began existence in wild
theories and lives in them still. 1t is outside
the constitution, because inside the constitu
ton there is no room for despotism
no way by which the whole people of q
| sovereign State can be made subject to the
within and caprice of a dozen demagogues il
| Congress and so we drive ON in the full ca
reer of revolutionary fury; and since we are
in absolute fact outside the constitution, since
| there is no President of the United States anC
no Supreme Court, and since a Jacobin club il
Washington is all that remains of our gov
eminent, who shall say where the revolution
will leave us
We may end anywhere. Thanks to tn,
fact that we were "outside the constitution,
we are in that helpless and defenceless STATE
when nations fall into the hands of til,
,I,N1a l. or
now comprised in the struggle of ecccntri,
forces. Three of these are personal-John
son, Stevens and Grant stand forward as i
with more moral courage and fidelity, eacl
to his own convictions, than all the othe
men in the country together. johnson ha
been called obstinate and fool but he pur
sues with grand moral heroism his own per
ception of what his duty demands. Steven!
! goes forward with vast energy, no doubt ear
nest in his own conviction-too sincere to pre-
tend respect for the law when he does no
feel it, Grant pursues a positive course also
from which nothing can swerve him-adhe
rent to his own idea, as he was through tn,
WARMTH something in his character of tina
silent majesty with which fate itself wa
clothed in Greek poetry And aside from
these, social and economical elements striv,
for supremacy in the fabric of the future
Here are the banks working persstently TO
the concentration of wealth in few hands
the railroads striving toward the same end b,
another route the telegraph, as the absolut,
master of the interchange of thought, de
manding recognition gifts power in tangible
shape Who shall rule, and how shall al
come out ? The democratic party, that one
welded the power of the people, is rottet
away and crumbles at touch. Popula
right has no apparent champion law i
laughed at the revolution RACES, and on
future only depends upon how much of TIN
national vitality shall be left when the wa
of personal leaders shall be closed and gov
eminent "outside the constitution" shall hav
spent its force.