The Cairo daily bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1870-1872, 1871-06-13


sire to live in the living present and let
, the dead past bury its dead, to use
words of abuse and hold up the past as
model for the present and future.
We arc of those who care nothing for
Bourbonic yituperation, and we do not
hesitate TO take issue with those who
laud the past at the expense of the
present aud future. We know that
the past history of the republic has
been as glorious az its most feryid eu-
gists declare it TO have been-that
Washington and jefferson and Madi.
son and jackson and fancy and Clay
and Webster lived and ded--that
model constitution was adopted by the
fathers--that under that instrument we
hourished for nearly three. quarters of
a century; but, while remembering
these facts, we cannot forget that the
republic has lately passed through a
| great civil convulsion in which the in.
stitution Of slavery went down and four
millions of bondsmen became free. Dur.
ing that strife Passion did much that
was wicked and declared ou,ragcs
against liberty to be necessary to the
preservation of the union; but, while
deprecating these facts, we recognize
the folly Of attempting to convince the
world that the scars upon the constitu
ton are not scars, and that the funda.
mental law is what it was before the
war began-the same in all lite parts.
with nothing taken away and nothing
thereto added. 1t does seem to US that
only daft men--those who came from
their mothers wombs without reason
can hold with tenacity to such
an untenable position. As we'll
might the disconsolate Partisan
stand to-day among the ruins
Of his city, over which tempest of war
has swept, and declare that he would
recognize no Paris marred BY fire,
Scared by the mailed hand Of the war
rior and shrinking 10 the humiliation
OF defeat--that he must have the Paris
of 1870, happy, beautiful and defiant.
His declaration would amount to moth.
ing. After he had shouted until his
voice failed, Paris would still stand
war-scarred-ruined, but not beyond
recovery-deI ressed, but hopeful.
We must accept accomplished facts.
All wise men do. But politicians of
the Herald school do not, and with
persistency most wonderful to behold
kick against the pricks until they cry
out in rage and pain. What wonder,
then, that the Herald should declare
that "the Democratic party stands to.
day, as it always has stood, by the
constitution as it was in 1861, as elu.
'cidated by the resolutions of '9S and
'99. And it will ever stand there, in
spite Of the vile crew who are attempt
ing to corrupt and degrade it to level
with radicalism."
Wherefore should any man. not
gifted with patience that would shame
that Of job, attempt to reason with men
who talk in this foolish manner? The
constitution as it was in 1861 can never
be restored. Slavery has passed
away forever, and its perturbed spirit
should be exercised and driven out
of the republic to find congcnial COM
pany among the ghosts Of the other
wrongs which have fallen in the past
under the hand Of Christian civiliza-
ton. No party can stand that places
its foot for support upon the carcass of
human slavery, and should not. The
democratic party will do no such thing
1t will accept the situation and out
Of the evil of the present bring good
for the future The Bourbons who can
not 60 with it, now that it has turned
its back upon the past and is looking to
the future, may tarry with their old no.
tons and become lnaudlin as they weep
over the past. With them hereafter the
true democracy can hold no parley, can
have no sympathy, They will become
the lshmaelites of American politics,
and go down to their political graves
unwept, and their epitaph should be
" Foolish, but game