Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-04-07
A Diagnosis of the National Aim .ut

Editor of the BIlletip.
National lite has always been admit
ted to be the prototype of individual
exlstence-subleot to similar condi.
tons of cause and effect. Violations
of immutable law, either in the moral
OF material universe, are sure to end
in corresponding penalty and suffer
ing. An apt illustration of the pres.
ent national condition may be found
by considering, or comparing it, to
an individual stricken by disease.
The country is now in the very tre-
nor Of financial distress, as the re-
suit of official weakness and dlshon.
or. The body polite is teverish and
restless, and just what VIC see in a
strong man wrestling with disease,
we now observe in our nation. Turk
ey is not the only "sick man" in the
brotherhood of nations, but fortunate
ly for us, there Is one important diff
ference in our favor, viz, that VIC are
young and strong, while Turkey is
enfeebled by age and long seated
disease. 1t cannot be shown that
our present distress is the result of
errors or dishonesty of Gen. Grants
administration alone, for the law of
incubation holds good and is as i'm
perative here, as i'll the human system.
Cupidity and treason, having their
root in that vilest of national poisons,
human slavery, helped to plant the
seeds, which, by producing civil war,
fairly saturated cur land with cor
ruption. This is the real source Of
nearly all our Yoes, and It's truth
should silence that fatuous reasoning
from parties like E. S. g., who, over
looking the prime factor in the prob
lem, seeks to ascribe the blame to a
Congressional act, designed only to
guarantee our national honor. The
poison alluded to, is now being elm.
mated by tho reaction and violence
of natures remedy, and here is the
mistake so many are making In view
ing these surface eruptions as evil
dence of incurable and dangerous
illness. When the country is calm
and quiet, then the patriot has cause
for anxiety, as has the physician when
the patients stupor or languor con-
ceals or masks fatal depression OF
the vital forces. Belknap and Pend
Teton, Schenck and Tilden, are simply
corrupt, poisonous eliminatlons
thrown out of the nations system.
1t is gratifying and encouraging to
know that our vitality as a nation,
aided by the Presidents will to sus.
tain it, is sufficient to purge the
country of evils so formidable as the
whisky frauds, and other misdecds
that fill the air with their stencil.
There is as much honor and truth in
our land to-day, as ever before, only
that misplaced confidence on the
part of our rulers, and q relaxation
in the past of that essential "etornal
vigilance" on the part of the people,
has permitted bad men to exercise
important functions in the national
economy, until the entire land is
thrown into a fever of protest and re-
action. The true remedy now is to
regulate and control this feverish re-
action, that, like its bodily analogue,
it may not destroy the country by its
own intensity. This is no fancy
painting, and he is wlsest, who with
steady hand keeps in check all ex-
IRENE tendencies, and who can in
the near future see convalescent
nation, strengthened and purified by
its severe trials and experiences.
SHAKESPEARE.
Winthron. March Goth '7S.