New-York tribune., 1872-07-09

of principle which separates them as ehooe-
ually from their kind as might convent
wall. They utterly reject and despise the ex-
istence of sentiments as elements OF human
motives. All that powerful class OF impulses
of which the professional demagogue makes
40 ready and so bad a use these amateur re-
formers not only deride but positively refuse
n recognize. They stigmatize them all together
under the despised name OF Heart. They
adopt the counterpart OF Mrs. Skewtons
wall. and their own grievance In life
ia that there is too much Heart.
IF man dares to think of such
emotiors as gratitude, patriotism, generosity,
forgiveness, brotherhood, as possible incentives
to political action, he is called blatherskite,
q brawling talker, ferociOus sentimentalist'
Politics should be considered purely as mat
ter of facts and figures, of law and expediency.
AS long as the human race is constituted as
it is at present, the men who profess and who
act upon this theory are doomed to sterility
because they throw away most important
political and social force, and voluntarily as
sumo weight too heavy for any one to carry.
Sentiments still move men somewhat, and 1t
will be long before their influence is eradcated
even in the most intelligent classes. They
have elected many Presidents they will elect
many more.
1t is not merely because these so-called SEN
timental views of political questions are strong
and controlling that we say it is foolish to
despise and ignore them. There is deeper
reason than this. No man is great and wise
enough to say that the popular demand, based
on an apparently sentimental issue, has not
in il something authoritative and respectable.
1t will usually be found to correspond with
the result reached by the severest logic and
study of positive and intelligent men. There
was certainly a great deal of Heart in the
long struggle against Slavery, which tri-
umphed in the election of Lincoln. But there
| was also, underlying the anger and the pity and
the cant, firm though unexpressed. conviction
that the Slave Power must be met and checked
in the interest of the permanent welfare. When
the war came, our army gathered in storm
of enthusiasm which was far more effectual for
the purpose than could have been the demon
stration of the fact that Secession would be the
ruin of all our material interests. Yet this was
also true. And to-day, while the evils the
Cincinnati movement is combating with bril-
liant promise of success are as plain and posi-
tive as they can well be, being corruption,
ilegality, Capitalization, and an utter subordi-
nation of the public good to private ends;
still the life of this campaign and its highest
reliance for victory is what these frigid
critics would brand as a sentiment-the
passionate longing felt by the masses North
and South for restoration of the Union in
spirit and in truth. The war is long ago
ended. Slavery is dead, never to rise again.
| never even to stir in its ashes. Equality be-
fore the law is fully established, never again
to be disturbed. The national authority is
everywhere unquestioned The time has come
for political combination which, while saw
ing all the acquisitions Of the war, shall treat
the men of the South like men and brethren,
| with the same rights, the same privileges the
same dignity and self-respect with ourselves.
| This may be called a mere sentiment, and
sneered at as such by gentlemen who
are equally above human weaknesses and
human virtues. But it is nevertheless
powerful influence. 1t is fusing
together elements which seemed abso-
| lutelv incompatible. If the Liberal cause
this year gains the victory which seems more
| and more probable all the details of practical
reform will be rendered possible and easy by
the triumph of this fraternal sentiment And
| if it should fail, the very effort to accomplish
| this benefcent end will do more to reunite
the country and to purify our politics than
| all the icy essays of the last half century.