Wyoming democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Wyoming Co., Pa.) 1867-1940, 1869-04-21
Imperial Government.

Quite recently the New York Citizen stat
/ ed that newspaper was about to be estao-
lshed in that commercial Metropolis for
the avowed purpose of promoting the trans
| formation of this Republic into an Empire.
| The first number, under the title of The I'M
perialist, was issued on Tuesday last. We
have not vet seen it, but its prospectus
boldly avows that Its creed is revolution
ary-its mission being to prepare the minds
of the American people for the revolution
that has already begun" 1t courts the
support of the bondholding interests OF
the country Ly declaring that the public
debt, ''if left to the keeping of the popu-
lace, " will surely be repudiated, and that
tho rights of public creditors can only be
protected 10y an Imperial Government. 1t
charges that "the Republic means lawless-
ness, corruption, insecurity to person and
property, robbery of the public creditors
and civil war;" and that g the Empire
means law, order, security, faith and
peace
The Citizen went on to assert that anoth
er newspaper, to be called The Empire, en-
tertainig similar views and purposes, is
soon to be established in Philadelphia un-
der the auspices of the Union League, and
that the movement sis back by powerful
secret organization, having affiliated So
cieties in different parts of the country.
Gravely as all this is told, the story,
whether true or false, as Il whole, is not
without its lesson and its warning. The
mere announcement Of u movement of this
kind indicates, to some extent, the drift of
things, and foreshadows possibilities which
twenty years age would have been rejected
with scorn by tie great mass of our people
The whole tendency Of Radical legislation
during the war, and up to the present day,
has been to break down the barriers that
protected the States from. Federal aggres-
sion, to abridge the rights of the citizen,
and concentrate in the hands OF few lead
ing men all the power OF the Government.
Ii we have not yet quite reached central
lied despotlsm, we are at least on the verge
of it. A vast and wide Spread system of"
corruption has debauched the moral sense
of large portion Of the people, gigantic
money power has subsidized or overawed
another portion, jobs and contracts, the
emoluments Of office, and the opportuni
ties of plumber third In the midst of
this saturnalia of rascality all the old land
marks are being broken down ; all the wise
admonitions of the founders of the Repub-
lie either forgotten or sccrned, and men
Witness almost daily, the boldest usurpa-
tons of authority, if not with actual ap-
plause, yet with apathy and indifference.
By shallow fools and knavish partisans
this condition of things is called progress.
But it is that sort of progress which is fatal
to liberty. We are travelling the same
downward road that other Republics travel
ed before us. We are undergoing the
same ordeal through which they also pass
ell, and to which every one OF them event
ually succumbed. Like Ills, they once were
prosperous. Like MS, they grew conten-
tious, and like us their quarrel eliminated
in civil war with its passions and its unim-
aginable horrors. Next followed the clam
or for q strong Government, and the usur-
patton of supreme power by despotic oil
garcly. When this point was reach, it was
but one step more to the elevation of mil
itary dictator, and the establishment of an
Empire upon the ruins of a Republic. All
these changes we have undergone but the
last. We have the controlling oligarchy
and something that very nearly approx
mates to centralized despotism. What
afterwards