The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1878-07-03
GAe 99ailg Asgns,
ROCK ISLAND. rrrrro-s
Concluded from second page, !

tOouciuue0 from second page
try, and that the stask of breaking down
the rebellion would be cast py the Amer
can government upon his shoulders Yet
that would not have been more prenos.ers
Gus than 1t now is to infer from Ganaral
Grants career as military Commando
and president that he is the only man in
America capable of guaranteeing onr social
and political order. The onlv exnlan-
alton OF such an inference is that because
the improbable has once happened with
this particular man, therefore il will han
pen with him again. 1t is the inevitable
tendency, then, of democratic institutions
10 make popular hero everything and
the people nothing? This is the strong
man doctrine of Carlyle-the doctrine
@hicn makes that bilious prophet preach
the dospel of Frederick the Great for
Germany. and set forth Oliver Cromwell
as the savior OF England out of the con
Vuislons OF the great civil war OF l641. It
| Is good thing to take this doctrine
calmly up and look at it aud weigh its
significance just at this time and on
the eve OF our national Independence
Day There were men who held
II more or less openly century ago.
after the act OF Independence Day had
oeen countersigned by the treaty of Yer
saliles and the adoption of the American
Constitution. Were these men in the
hight; and is the centenary of the republic
to be followed by the open confession of its
failure? The genius OF Cromwell assured
~ failed to give England a government Of
law. His assumption of The snnrema
power and the transmission of it after his
death IN that September night of tempest
10 MS eldest son simply adjourned for half
century the serious foundation of Eng
lIsh constitutional liberty, The record of
imperialism IN modern France has been
even more disastrous The election OF
zen. Grant for third term might be the
death-knell indeed of our old Inherited
political order. But what assurance could
it bring to us of stability under new sys
TEN? Observe that in the very act OF
choosing him we should proclaim our ma
tional failure and our profound disbelief in
ourselves. What would be left us then
to build on after his death, supposing him
to reign peacefully and successfully for the
term of his natural life2 The one-man
power, which may IN rare emergencies be
a conservative force elsewhere, would be
found by US, as it has been found in all
: other Cemocracles and in all other Iepub-
lies, the most destructive and revolutionary
of all political forces Wherever it has
appeared among us in local or in national
affairs it has brought with it confusion
and disorder-not stability and public
confidence. Our destiny If we may use
suc!. a phrase, condemns us to elect be.
tween trust in the people and aoarchy
The poet who represents at least as well
as any other living man the finer spirit OF
our race and age sang wisely and we'll that
10 our time 1.-THE individual withers and
the world is more and more" 1t Gen
Grant has become necessity of the re-
publican party that fact sufices to show
that the republican party has ceased to be
a necessity and is on the high road to be
come ii deadly paril to the country. Il
was in an early access OF mortal poiitica
disease that after the political revolt oil
! johnson, the General OF the Army was
!! put forward by that party as its presiden
tial candidate. Now that the scandals Of
1876 and the administration Of Preside d
Hayes have finally demoraIized the party
! its renewed invocation Of the name Of
Grant proves it to be in the very article o.
political death