Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1878-07-17

be so. There are seasons OF greatnes
and seasons Of decline in the histor'
Of every nation, and in none can th
. transition bo 30 swift and so sharpl,
contrasted as in government lik
ours. 1t has no example IN all th
achievements of men. II is the onl,
great republic that the world has eve
, known. There have been free DemoC
} races where the ebbs and flows Q
, popular passions ruled, until anarch.
was overthrown by despotism, an,
, there have been republics in nam
, without any of tho essential attribute
OF the individual sovereignty of tn
, people; but here, for the first time il
the varied experiments Of civil gov
ernment, has nation peopled cont
nent extended over distant section
, with diversified interests, maintained
the absolute sovereignty of the privat'
citizen, and made liberty and law th'
foundation Of social order and nationa
safety. The generation that is rapid
ly passing away from you witnessed
the noblest efforts ever made by mai
for man. Free government taugh
the world that all the accepted posi-
bilities of human achievement in th,
past, had to pale before the devotion
the heroism, the sacrifice Of thor
oughly independent people, the direc
authors of their own rulers laws. Bu
: in peoples, AZ in all the domain OF ma
ture, perfection is but the date Of de
cay, and the very inspirations which
made ours the grandest people Il
whom the world had ever given hom
age, left behind them the seeds of de
moralization and death.
"War is savagery," wisely said one
of the greatest Of our yet living war
riors, and civil war is savagery inten
sifed. 1t calls into exhaustive play
the noblest and basest passions of man
kind, and the worse survives long af
ter the best has performed its offices
When rebellion had been overthrown
and the unity of the republic was de.
clared by the decree of the sword, the
fierco passions of the conflict renamed
and they have been the potent weopon
of the demagogue and the pretender
with which to smitc opposition and
enable them to usurp the honors of the
country. Reconstruction came in the
howl of the tempest, and the most mo-
mentous acts OF mighty nation, de-
fining the policy of free government
in the restoration of dismantled com
monwealths and Of eight millions of
selfalicnated people, were moulded
through the intensest antagonisms OF
the legislative, executive, and judicial
departments of authority. Who were
in error and who blameless, it does not
become me now to inquire. 1t is
enough TO know that passion reigned
where sober craftsmanship and patri-
otism should have been enthronod, and
that the corruptionist profted and
mean ambition won its stained and
speedily-withering chaplets, as hatred
and cowardice fought the battles Of
the war over and over again, lest
peace and justice should come TO com.
mand stern accountability from all
who had climbed into public trust.
Thus did decentralization creep into
every highway that led to honor and
power, and impassioned fidelity to
country sealed the lips and paralyzed
the efforts OF the best citizens, until
enforced tolerance Of wrong bred in
difference, and indifference ended IN
the active or passive assent to degen-
eracy. Could the better men of the
country have drawn aside the curtain
that separated them from the future a
decade ago, and gazed upon the wide
spread and growing contempt for pub
lie morality that is presented to-day,
they wonld have recoiled from it with
horror, and passion, party, friendship,
everything, would have been disre-
garded TO arrest the Generalization
that was then insensibly winning the
mastery. When the hero of the blud-
geon struck Charles Sumner down in
the Senate, the boasted chivalry OF the
South was true to itself despite its SYM
pathy with the cause Of the brutal Of.
fender, and united its denunciations Of
the act with the justly inhamed repro.
baton Of the North. A few years ago
graver crime was committed in the
American Senate, when Charles Sum-
ner was smitten by partisan hatred for
daring to be just, and degraded in his
grea. Office because he was one of the
few who illustrated tho ablest states
manship by the purest public and pri-
vate morality. Ten years earlier none
would have dared to attempt his deg
radiation; but Generalization was
schooling its mediocrities to bring all
places, however high or sacred, within
the scope OF their ambition, and Sum-
ner fell with scarcely ripple of pro-
test from sullenly submissive nation.
Had the bully come again in 1870 as
be did in 1856, and felled the honored
Massachusetts Senator, there would
have been the sudden outburs. OF pub
lie condemnation and swift retribu-
ton; but when the stealthy growth
of contempt Tor public morality had
unmailed the spotless statesman and
left him in almost deiensolcss solitude
in his own political household, bis hu-
initiation was an easy task, and the
nation apparently assented to its own
shame. 1 have no criticism for him
who happened, by senatorial rank, TO
succeed to the mantle eofSumner. 1twas
not Cameron's battle to promote Cam.
erop, and II would have been made all
the same if any other had been the
heir apparent to Summers unsullied
honors which blistered meaner mon.
/ II xyao tha hattla of n dann,ral livad an