The New York herald., 1876-03-16

history. of man as well a. Of nations. "As
saith the Lord We bud. blossom. flourish
in leafy strength and majesty and die.
There are no chapters Of modern or ancient
history SO suggestive and At the same time
so sad as those which tell of tho rise and fall
and decay of empires. Carthage, once con-
tending for the mastery Of the world. Is only
name. Assyria, Greece, Egypt. Rome.
have all faded or live only in the ruins Of a
former splendor. The genius of an illus
trious historian has told of the decline and
fall of the greatest of these empires, an en-
pire that once was mistress of the world and
which leaves no monument Of its pride and
power If we study the lessons OF the brill
liant Gibbon they will be found full Of in
struction even in this centennial year.
Our orators from now until we have
celebrated the formation of the constitu-
tion, will be full of what we have done in
these hundred years, and of what we may do
if we last for two or three centuries. Ger
tainly no theme is so inspiring to the
imagination of orator or poet In n century
we have grown from sparse and feeble
colonial condition to be one of the great
Powers of the world, and even envy, which
is as much passion among nations as among
men, cannot refuse to acknowledge our
wealth and our power.
In the course of our national life the next
Centennial should rank us not only among
the largest but among the most populous of
the nations of the world. When we think Of
an empire stretching from the Gulf to the
lakes and from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
with every advantage of climate and soil,
with rivers and lakes and oceans to float our
commerce, with mountains and prairies,
with wheat and corn and iron and coal and
gold, we can easily imagine, even without
the stimulus of centennial fervor, how we
could have within our borders q nation
larger more powerful and more prosperous
than all the nations of Europe. Europe
is under the dominion of struggling and rival
races. Hero we have one race and one Ian
guage 1t is the advantage of our system of
government that all nations when they pour
into our Republic become republican. They
are American in sympathy and patriotism as
in name. Englishman, German, Spaniard,
Irishman, African, whatever they may be
when they come here, all gladly become
American The depth and the devotion of
this American sentiment were seen in the
struggle for our national existence. Nor is
there any fear that this sentiment will die
away Even the rebellion was, with all of it's
faults and crimes, an American movement,
with Americans at the head and no purposes
inconsistent with the traditions of the Amer
lean system of government. The issue then
was not whether we should become frag-
We should be two, and, in time, a dozen of
American republics That is due to the
daring men who founded the Confederacy.
They were American always, and if it had so
happened that their government had become
a fact it would always have been the ally of
the sister Republic against the ambition ofany
European Power, such an ambition as that of
Napoleon to found Latin empire on the
Rio Grande. Whatever the coming centuries
may have in store for us, in the way of
national unity, we need never fear that,
while we are a nation, we shall be anything
but an American nation.
But have we failed in no essential of
national duty? What do these thousand and
one stories of corruption that come with
every electric flash from Washington por-
tend? We cannot attribute them to politi-
cal enmity or the desire of unscrupulous poll
ticians TO rise, no matter who falls-no matter
what shame may come to the Republic.
Something may be due to angry partisans,
but the whole story of administrative mis-
rule is so sad that we can hardly bear to
hear it. We can only find parallel in those
annals of the later Roman Empire which
form so dark picture of modern civiliza-
tion. When Rome was in its splendor it
was really beginning to decline, for the
"glory" of the Caesars was the glory
of decay-a glory that exceeds all
others when it comes even as the setting
sun exceeds the rising. Rome fell when
public virtue became tarnished when
the people worshipped successful mill
tary adventurer, when q taste for display
superseded the sober, modest manners of an
earlier time, when offices were bought and
sold, when the whims of a selfish voluptuous
tyrant were allowed to sway the judgment
Of a Senate OF course there was prosper
ity" in those days, the prosperity of good
living. gayety and bright life. We question
if there were "better times" rs we use the
phrase, than when Rome was under the pol
luting sway of the later Caesars. But the
life Of the nation was tainted, and it could
only die, as die it did, amid the contempt
and derision of the world. Have we a gov
ernment inspired by any higher motives
than those which animated the men who
ruled Rome in these days of corruption and
decay? Have we Senate more worthy to
represent free people than the degraded