The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-09-26

Forty years ago there was "crisis'' in the
affairs of the nation. For weeks the skies had
been overcast; the air had been oppressive;
the rumbling of distant thunder had made
itself heard like the threatening growl of q
wild beast prepared to spring upon its prey;
the lightning had at intervals flashed angrily
through the clouds. The indications of q
people disregarded the omens and continued
on in the qualification of passion and the en-
| joyment of pleasure. One day the tempest
burst over them in all its fury. It's pent up
forces were let loose to sweep over the
land, and the governmental fabric seemed
| to be shaken to its foundation by
their unrestrained violence. Then panic"
seized upon the people. and their alarm be-
came as extravagant as their former indiffer-
ence had been indiscreet The bond of union
seemed to them to be worthless parchment,
because one desperate State, for its own pur-
poses and in pursuance of its supposed in
| terests, had declared its determination to dis
No path out of the danger was visible to their
eyes; they CROPPED about in the darkness and
shouted for help, although ignorant of the
direction from which it was to come 1t did
come, suddenly and effectively. The son of
the Waxhaw pioneer, whose mixed Scottish
and Irish blood had united in him those quail
ties Of obstinacy and enthusiasm to which
border life had added indomitable courage and
iron will, was then the Chief Magistrate of
the Republic. Conflicting interests gathered
around President jackson and sought to infu-
ence his action. The friends and accomplices
Of the nullifers, even then indulging in the
seductive dream of a slave confederacy, were
violent political opponents were as anxious for
the adoption of measures of extreme severity.
Partisans were striving, each in his own way,
to make political capital out of the crisis, and
while the interests of cliques and factions were
actively pushed the safety of the nation was
disregarded Up to that point in his history
the character of Andrew jackson had been
variously interpreted. His friends had been
loud in praise Of his frmness; his enemies had
insisted that he was despot in theory and
in practice. The announcement Of that doc
trine, from which dates the birth of Casarism
in America, ''to the victor belongs the spoils,"
had divided the nation into the two agitating
elements of the sins" and the eouts," and
had impressed the latter with the idea that
the national government was their natural
enemy. 1t had done more than this; it had
foreshadowed in the thought of prudent men
those bitter political struggles which have
SO frequently scandalized the nation in more
recent years, and had induced doubt of the
unselfshness of Jackson's patriotism. But
suddenly the President doomed high through
the gloom and took the proportions of a giant
among pigmies in the eyes of the world. In
one immortal, monumental, ringing sentence
sentence that has passed into history as q
proverb, never to die while the Republic has
an existence-he electrified the country,
checked the sinister designs of adventures,
cowed the rebellious, treasured the wavering,
and brought back the people to sense of
duty and honor-''By the Eternal, the Union
must and shall be preserved !"
These memorable words mark an era in
American history. They allayed the angry
passions of the hour; they bore good fruit in
after years when the demon of civil war fas-
tened his bloody grasp upon the throat of the
Republic. "By the Eternal the Union must
and shall be preserved - The inspiriting
words, as they issued from the firm lips of
Andrew Jackson, gave assurance to the
agitated country that the danger Immediately
threatening was at an end, and prepared men
60 h. u 4
sequently resisted the assaults and struggles
OF a monster moneyed corporation. The
power of the United States Bank in those
days was equal to that of the great railroads
at the present time. Nicholas Biddle was the
Cakes Ames of the hour. His political infu-
his gold subsidized Congress; he held the
lobby at his command he stretched his long
fingers into the Cabinet and his long arms
into the Treasury But the President, whose
glowing words had killed the serpent of multi
fication, was not to be overcome by the cor
morant of moneyed monopoly. The re-
newed charter was vetoed the government
deposits were withdrawn, and the monster
whose stride had been over the Union fell to
the earth, writhed for while on the soil of o
single State, and died. 'By the Eternal, the
Union must and shall be preserved" To the
music of that immortal sentence, more ring
ing than the bugle call, the 'boys in blue" at
later day, mustered in the valleys and in the
cities, on the Western prairies and in the
Eastern mountains. 1t was their cheering
hope in the hour of darkness-their rallying
cry on the field Of battle 1t helped to win
the victories that have crowned General Grant
with such undying fame.
During the troubled days of the last two
weeks we have had our premonitions of
tempest in gathering clouds and distant mutt
terines and the storm has finally burst over
ma with startling violence. The crashing of