The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1870-07-04
The Fourth of Ju!y-The Position. of the
Republic.

| occasion for national self-gratulation than any
the American people have ever seen, not even
excepting the days in which they Immediately
celebrated the assured fact Of Independence.
1t is the first return Of our great anniversary
that sees all the States in the enjoyment of the
rights that constitute them equal members OF
the Union, after the privation of these rights
in a struggle Of greater danger TO us and
greater moment to humanity than that
against the British tyranny. Had our
forefathers failed TO make good against
Britain the claim of 1776, that they
were of right entitled to the control Of
their own destinies, that failure would not
have given the English domination respite
of twenty years. In that early age we were
| already resolute race, and il ever there was
| people fitted to bequeath ''from bleeding sire
to son" the unfinished fight for freedom it was
the people that bred their cool temper and
firm will on every slope from the cold shores
of Maine to the blue hills Of the old Mother Of
States. The power competent to hold this
people in system of government against the
general consent has not yet grown upon the
earth. Looked at justly, therefore, our
independence of u domination beyond
the Atlantic, if it had been deferred
in one decade, would have been Sc
cured in another; it was simply no more than
a question of time as to who should prevail;
and we cannot believe that our defeat in the
first war would have ultimately imperilled this
grandest humane experiment of all the ages
by which we are endeavoring to demonstrate
that the best government is that which
views humanity from what we may suppose to
be the standpoint of God Almighty himself,
and recognizes no distinction between his crea-
lures but such as we must believe He also
would recognize.
But there was greater danger than that
with which we were menaced by the govern
ment of the country from which the first colonies
came. 1t was danger that was great only
because ii had its growth among ourselves
because it was rooted in our vices weak
nesses, passions and vanities. This danger
was that the consent of the whole people to
single system of government would not con-
tinue long enough to give our experiment
fair trial-that il would fail not on test of its
merits, but because on minor points the great
nation would split up into half dozen or
more parts as contemplate as the worst of an
tiquity in their pitiful chickering's and wasted
wars. This danger arose from two facts.
Slavery was one of these the other was that
mischievous invention Of small politicians,
inspired with geographical prejudices-the
notion Of State rights. In the organization of
the country there was a seed of civil war--of
bitter collision between the parts-which
needed for its termination only the heat Of
party contests. The States, il was conceded,
were separately sovereign within certain
limits. The whole nation was sovereign also
within certain limits. If either power should
pass its assigned limit it must collide with the
other. Here, then, were hostile sovereignties
operating within the same circle, and each
kept in its proper sphere only by the intelec-
tual restraint of set of legal definitions.
Legal definitions are an infinite subject of dis
pute and it therefore could not but happen
that such differences Of opinion should arise
touching the respective theatres of the two
systems of government as would put the
whole people by the ears. Cancellation,
mutual deference-a spirit of giving way on
moderate tone Of public thought which was
not swayed by party passion from the regard
to public welfare-all these things kept the
national harmony until the fight arose and the
quarrel was pashed on the topic Of slavery.
Here the time had come when there could
no longer be any compromise. The founders
of the government had first assented to this
institution from the necessity of the case On
no other terms could the slave States have
been brought into the same unity of govern
ment with the free States But undoubtedly
the true spirit and aims of the American
republic were more nearly laid down in
the Declaration of independence than
in the constitution, and it was the
aspiration and tendency of the national
thought to grow toward the better ideal. Half
a century made sentiment against the insti-
tuition, which, while it was morally praise
worthy, was fanatically aggressive in taking
no regard to the right of the other side and to
the compromises that bound us to respect that
right Some were thrust into war to
determine whether slavery should perish,
or whether, slavery surviving, the Union of
the States should give way and the future
should see on one hand slave republic, on
the other fanatical puritan republic, with a
great group of commercial States growing be-
tween, and the West behind all with q destiny
vague and underlined. No human creature
can doubt but that we have reached the better
this but those to whom the issue was individ-
nay oppressive in crushing aspirations of
personal ambition and pride that could only
have been gratified at price that no pride is