New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-04-25
UNION ron INDEPENDENCE.

page, and they disperse, as they began, q
the instance of the same hidden powe
that brought them into being. An in
spiration, born Of some unaccountabl,
travail, stirs the heart in the west only K
find its twin conception heralded from tn,
east; and these two have scarcely time t.
acknowledge their relationship before al
immense family Of similar suggestions il
discovered to exist wherever the same or
ginating cause prevails. Life and deatl
are equally charged with these mysterious
agencies. As revolutions arise in day,
and bear themselves aloft to success and
seeming perpetuity, SO decay treads surely
upon their heels, shadowing them with
that sure destruction which follows every
earthly thing. From the smallest atom
that taxes the utmost power Of the mi
croscope to discover its existence to the
grandest conceptions that the human
builder has erected, this law applies, that
there is resistless current moving with
it, and of which it is part, that must
compass its decay and death. Whosoever
sets up his creature as beyond the reach Of
this force is vainly contending for an i'm
possible thing.
| And yet there are men who disregard
| this wisdom and weakly cling to what is
dying, with the vain hope that they can
arrest the approaching death and make
that alive and victorious again which is
already cold and crumbling in their en-
brace. And especially is this the case in
political life. Gentlemen Of acknowledged
capacity in the contests Of yesterday per-
sist in adhering to policies that are not in
issue to-day and no amount of argument
or persuasion can convince them that dur
ing the night food has washed away the
landmarks by which they proposed to pro-
coed and set up new signals for the careful
navigator. They watch the stars and for
get the changing sands that shift tie
channel.
In 1856 the signs of an impending revo-
luton in the political condition Of the
country were visible to every reasonable
inspector of the drift of public opinion.
And yet the Wings entered into the contest
of that year with full hope that their princi-
pies and their candidates were to be the
salvation of the Union. The current that
was sweeping the country into the terrible
conflict of 1860 was even then unmarked
by them, and yet it's roar was such that
its angry food responded loudest to the
names Of Douglas and Fremont. The
force of the revolution was not checked by
the election Of Buchanan, but rather
gained additional force from that event,
for the mysterious agencies that impelled
it forward gathered up greater energies to
beat down the obstacle that threatened to
arrest its progress. The Republicans,
whose name even VAS but Of yesterday,
and whose. organization seemed to be an
it was so suddenly and mex
plicably developed, were not free
agents in what they did, but
were really sthe instruments or actors
in drama of which they did not under
stand the plot. A law that was above
them, an impulse that they could not
control, drove them forward in direc-
ton that they were even 10th to 90. |
They advanced under protest, impelled |
from behind or attracted from before by |
a power that was as mysterious as it was |
irresistible. And the Democratic party |
drifted side by side with its opponents
The Wings stood in the midst Of this
current with their eyes still
lifted to. the stars, even while the rocks
and shoals were driving in the bottom Of
the ship. They held to Bell and Everett
when the elements were at war about
Lincoln and Breckenridge Nothing could
persuade them that they were clinging to
a Gfeless, hopeless wreck in the midst of
a storm when they should have been
battling for safety with one or the other Of
the gigantic forces that offered them some
hope of safety.
in Louisiana at the present time. Its
retain their positions upon the
old hulk, even while its timbers are part
ing beneath their feet, when they should
be in another vessel that is but newly
built, and which has the strength, without
heir assistance, to ride the storm, but
which can be insured of successful
struggle with the elements if they but con-
sent to help il manning her pumps and
holding up her sails. They occupy the
same relation to politics to-day that the
Wings occupied in 1860, and it'now rests
With the future to determine whether they
ire wiser than their old opponents.
The revolution that is surely and rap
dly drifting down upon the State of Lou
siana contains this problem, whether we
re to assist in centralizing the political
power of. the country at Washington, or
whether we are to retain our due proper
ion Of it as local imminent The ques-
ion is directly at issue in the matter that
s now being contested between Governor
Narmoth and the federal authorities in
louisiana, as it is being contested in Mis-
ouri with Schurz; in New York with
1reeley and Fenton; in Pennsylvania with
Mcclure and Curtin; in Massachusetts
With Sumner, and in Illinois with Trum-
,ull and Palmer. AS certainly as that
Ia of frondo,,, r,-o. ...o-1- -. |