The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-03-20
Whittier We Are Tending.
From, ths ", y. World,

frons he ~, Y. World.
We do not suppose that General Grant or
the Republican party have, at present, any
intention of transforming the American repub-
lo into monarchy. General Grant merely
aims at reelection, and the Republican party
at the perpetuation of its power by making
voters of all the negroes, in the expectation
that the great body of them will always vote
with the party to which they are indebted for
their emancipation. The mass of our people
have had SO long training in free institu-
tions, and are 80 strongly attached to them,
that it would be a folly little short of madness
for any body, at present, to entertain hopes OF
supplanting repu blicanism in this country.
But the radical party has, nevertheless, set
train of causes at work which tend irresistibly
to the establishment of a monarchy, and by
the shortest and speediest route by which that
result could be reached.
The seeds Of great political changes are
always sown some time before they bear their
fruit. Our great civil war and the overthrow
of slavery were not seriously anticipated by
any considerable proportion of our people
until those mighty events were close upon u.s.
but their causes had long been in active ope-
ration. Even our independence was an un-
looked for event up to within few months Of
the Declaration; although, when we now turn
our view back upon the previous history Of
the country, It Is easy to see that the colonies
had long been advancing steadily in that
direction. De T0cqueville, in his able work
on the "Ancient Regime and the Revolu-
tion," remarks that the keenest political
observers of Europe just before the out
break Of the French Revolution Che men,
tiops Frederick the Great as one example)
had no foresight or conception OF the stupen-
dous throes which were about to oonvulse
France and Europe; yet 1t was the main
purpose of De Tocqueville's book to prove
that the causes of that desolating upheaval
tlu ha in ha III NOT ~
the ancient regime. In like manner, the
English Revolution of $685. which expelled
James the Second and brought in William
| the Third, was not anticipated by the great
body Of the English people until the change
OF dynasty was close upon them; but its
| causes have been in operation ever since the
| restoration of the Stuarts. These examples
will suffice to show how undiscerning oon-
temporaries commonly are Of the signs OF
approaching changes in the character OF their
| Institutions.
We have fully acquitted General Grant of
any intention to substitute monarchy for re-
| publioanism in this country. Ii any such a
purpose should ever enter his mind, II will
| be suggested by future circumstances. But
no calm observer, who will be at the pains to
reflect on the tendencies OF recent measures,
| can doubt that the country 10 being borne
along, on a strong current, In an imperial
| direction. The war has done much to infuse
vague imperial ideas, and fill the public
imagination with the idea that the central
| authority at Washington 10 supreme and all
controlling. This resistless ascendancy OF
the Federal Government is, as yet, as the
| De ople conceive II, a republican asoeDdancy-
a dwsr1pg and weakening OF the numerous
| small republics which we call States, and
an absorption OF their powers into that
greater and more expansive republic which
| we call the Union. Previous to 1850, slavery
| lad hu all bpVOld
! the reach OF the Federal Government but
the Federal Government has abolished 1t. A
CONSUMPTION by State authority to serve in
the State militia was always held legal; but
1t was not until the late war that any body sup
posed that conscription could take place by
! Federal authority. The overthrow OF the
banking systems OF all the States by tn o
General Government, and the establishment
OF paper legal tender by Federal laws, mark
another great innovation, which no states
man or jurist ten years ago believed to be
within the scope OF the Federal power. The
governing of numerous States by sheer mill
tAry authority, and their exclusion from
representation, would have been regarded,
even five years ago, as an Incredible
stretch of federal power. The regu-
lation of the suffrage by the same
power does equal violence to all former no
tions upon this subject. The idea that the
States have any rights which the Federal Gov
eminent ls bound 10 respect mas Decome sV
broken down in the estimation OF the Republi.
can party that the popular Imagination cannon
hereafter be greatly shocked by any new as
sumptions of authority by the central power
~ is true that the greater sovereignty In which
oil the independent powers OF the lesser soye-
reignties have been swallowed up is as yet
,, republic, with an elective Legislature and exc
ontlye. But 1t is equally true that the mass
: OF the people have become famiiarized with
the Idea of one imperial central power, which
takes All the authority 1t sees III to exercise
. and against which the protests of the weak
ened States are vain and idle.
The only questions which remain (unlesi