New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1873-04-17
Broken Images.

1t is one Of the painful experiences in lille
when we discover the objects Of our deepest
love, reverence, and admiration to have been
unworthy of our devotion, destitute of the
noble qualities that we ascribed to them, and
for whose sake We had erected affairs to them
in our hearts when we see those whom we
worshipped as heroes OF virtue, magnanimty,
and disinterestedness, stained by falsehOOd,
cupidity, and low passions, fallen from the
lofty position to which we raised them, lying
in the dust like shattered idols. There are
few men who do not carry through life the
melancholy recollection of such dsappoint-
ment, and just the better specimens of man
kind, the coniiding, the enthusiastic, the
loving natures, those Of an ideal turn of mind
are those who will be least spared in this
respect, while only the suspicious, who sup
pose every man prompted by low and selfish
motives, will escape it altogether. First
love ends but too frequently in such disap-
pointnent, which, in many cases, will leave
an indelible impression on a mans DISPOSE
ton, and Arthur Clennam, who found the
object Of his youthful passion, his ideal Of
lovely womanhood, after an interval of
twenty years, a fat, silly, and garrulOus old
lady, does by no means represent single,
isolated case, but the experience of thous-
ands and he may be called lucky who makes
the sad discovery early enough when feel
ings and powers of affection are yet fresh,
to bestow ON an object more worthy than
the fallen idol. Thus, also, a man has often
to look down with pity or contempt on him
whom he set up in his youth as his model of
manly virtue, whom, to equal at some future
day, was once the highest point to which his
aspirations rose. As with individuals, it is
with parties, classes, and even whole nations.
The man whom people made its standard
bearer, ITS leader a few years ago, may lie in
the dust to-day, a broken idol; yet it would be
unjust to accuse the people OF fickleness and
ingratitude on that account, as is often done
On the contrary, the people are generally
perseyering in their affections, and usually
their apparent desertion Of man has been
caused by his own failure to come up to the
standard of excellence they gave him credit
for.
The case OF General Fremont furnishes a
very forcible and sad illustration of such 4
failure. He was emphatically the first love
Of the Republican party in the days of its
early youth. The Gallant and chivalrous
pathfinder over the Rocky Mountains, the
antagonist Of slavery was then Ia our eyes
true hero, champion of liberty, a repre-
sentative of all that is noble, for we invested
him with all the high qualities, gave him
credit for the loitiest aspirations that we love
and value in our best representative men. II
was certainly not the fault Of the people that
he could not maintain the high position to
which their generous error had raised him,
and even when he fell rather below the aver
age of common mortals, the Republican press
generally observed dccorous silence,
prompted chiefly by regard for The feelings
Of Republicans, for the sake of the affection
we had once la,shel on him. There was
even an unwillingness to believe in the
charges that were made, and on many sides
it was thought that General Fremont was !
more Of a victim than a y.c,inizor. To-day, |
however, there is no longer room for such
deception. Fremont, in company with sew
eral notorious swinders, is convicted Of a dis |
graceful fraud by French court Of justice,
and sentenced accordingly. We do not mean
to enter upon the merits Of the case, we
neither attempt to palliate nor to magnify |
his guilt, nor to find out whether lac was used |
as a tool BY adroit swindlers, OF entered on
those fraudulent transactions with the tsll
of their crimnality at all events |
the sad fact remains that the last yestige Of
that ideal Fremont is gone, which, as we
now discover, wa. only the creature OF our
imagination that we identified with man
who In reality bore very little resemblance
TO it. His fall does by no means reflect on
the Republican party as such, since Fremont
had entirely disappeared from the political
stage, and other and better men have since !