The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1871-01-07
TnapOrta1at Eve7ats of 1870.

The year 1870 was not without its important
events. Leading topics for the future historian
will be dated from that year. Historic annals,
that were pregnant with Importance to state or
nation or people, were crowded along its path
way, and came to crisis by the memorable logic
of pressing progress or by the ill-omened direc-
ton of ilI-advised counsels. Great principles
have been established by the voice of a peoples
will or by the undeniable demand Of human
rights Great men have left the stage of action
after having played noble or an ignoble part.
They have left behind them rich legacies, that
were won by indomitable devotion to the stern
duties of life, and whose unfading garlands
wreathe their names in perpetual remembrance
for their heroic manhood.
The long developed strength of one nation has
given it a prestige its name has never worn be-
fore. The false ring that came from the metal
of another SO long undetected has, by force of
circumstances, been revealed, and that revelation
has covered the glory, the pride and the AFRO
gauce of that nation with unalleviated humilia-
ton, and unmitigated modification.
The battle for equal rights began in Boston in
March 177O. Then the first blood was shed in
the cause of equal and exact justice to all man
by the massacre Of three men in the streets by
the British soldiery. The complete triumph of
that cause came one century later-March 1870
by the final ratification and official promulga-
ton of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Consti-
tuition of the United State. This great Magma
Charta of American liberty stands second in i'm
portance to the human race to no other event of
the century. When this Republic shall have
filed the gauge of its magnificent proportions
and reached the climax of its splendor and glory,
the chronicler of our greatness will record with
exultant pride the successful adoption of this
clause in our organic law as the success of
great cause, conceived by great minds, to Grace
a great wrong from the-record of great nation
During the year, the death angel, with his de.
stroying scythe, has been busy Staying his vic
Tins. Bells have been toled and flags draped
in mourning flying at halfmast in honor of the
departed great. The illustrius Burlingame the
heroic Thomas, the gallant Farragut have fallen,
like brave men, at their post, with their armor
on. The regrets of grateful nation have strewn
immortal flowers on the evergreen sward that
covers their DUST The sickle of the reaper that
took these shining sheaves harvested him whose
sword was the strength of the rebellion, and
whose inhexible devotion to an ignoble cause
doubled the life of the confederacy. That death
that ''seeks a shining mark" struck the immor-
tai Dickens and 'iarred two continents with the
bel Tbo a. A.
rial pens set the press a-blaze with rich euloges
on the name and fame of him whose remains
were laid tenderly and privately at rest in West
Minister Abby, while the heart of sorrowing
nation was bowed with grief that could not be
assuaged. The English heart is smitten in June,
and all English speaking lands are yelled in
mourning. In December, France, as if to inten-
sify her Affections sees her brilliant Dumas pill
lowed in death and her sobbing heart overfows
the cup of her grief
The prestige of her Empire, whose imperial
eagles, for more than half century kept the
continent of Europe at bay, vanishes as myth,
with the capture of him who usurped her throne.
Her weakness is revealed by the mastery strategy
of Molike, and her reputed glory paled by the
deep diplomacy of Bismarck. The Empires fall
is Simultaneous with that of him who wrought
neI Iuln.
By virtue of the elements of natural superior
ity Prussia, hitherto dispised by France, as
weak thing, is to-day her master, and will
eventually dictate her policy. The fountain of
the great deep has been broken up in Europe
and new diplomacy pervades her cabinets
Bismarck is Prime Minister of the continent.
A great concourse of fallible men, called from
every Catholic locality under the hand of fall-
BILE man, convened at the Vatican of the "Eter-
nal City" of Rome, conferred upon a fallible old
man the ecclesiastical degree of infallibility
His civic sceptre falls from his hands; his civic
crown crumbles at the touch his civic power
vanishes as the breath of the morning before the
rising sun.
In 1860 the first star fell from the national gal
axy. In 1870 the last "wayward sister''-Geor-
gals restored to the fold And now we have
"Thirty''-seven ''nations
Confederate in one!
That keep "ther'' starry stations