The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-06-23
POLITICAL POSSIBILITIES.

Some epigrammatic Frenchman once
said, "lt is always the impossible that
happens This neat Gallic bon mot, if
true of anything is particularly true of
American politics. Our wise men con-
Bume what in classic phrase is called the
"midnight OIL" but known in common
speech as "hesd-light," in figuring out
political results to a demonstrative GER
tainty; and then 60 to sleep on the
demonstration only to wake up and find
that just the contrary has happened.
Forecasting our political horoscope has
always been a favorite employment of
the public astroIogers who call them
selves statesmen, and who devote their
time to the study of the stars most con-
spicuous in the political armament.
They calculate perigee and apogee, aphe-
lion and periheIion; they apply astrOlabe
and astroscope to determine the altitude
and course of each "bright, particular
star" found in their party consultations.
And Just when their calculations are all
worked out behold. some other orb
"booms" above the horizon, some ''other
sun risen in mid-noon,' comes athwart
their tabuation and knocks it into chaos.
What political soothsayer could have
formulated the prediction that Frank
Pearce would ever become President of
the United States? or Andy Johnson the
tailor? or Lincoln the rail-splitter? or
Grant the tanner? And yet these We're
the impossibilities that happened.
In 1880 our continental Congress or
dained that the then Northwest Terri
tory should be so divided as to create
fourteen States, not less than one hun
dred nor more than one hundred and
fifty miles square. Seven years later,
the East, foreseeing that such a number
of States would eventually throw the
preponderance of political power into
the West, revised this arrangement by
the ordinance of 1887, providing that the
Northwest Territory should constitute
not less than three States nor more than
FIVE This was done in order to render
the prepondcrance of power in the West
apolitical impossibility. And yet that
impossibility has happened.
1t was in 1S47 that Mr.. Winton, Of
Ohio, then in Congress, made what was
then pronounced to be one of the ablest
speeches ever heard in that body, show,
ing the marvellous growth of the great
West, the greatness and grandeur of the
country, the established equilibrium o.
political power in the various sections
80 as to render our domestic tranquility
perpetual and any attempt at disunioI
impossible. And Mr. Calhoun echoed
these views before the Memphis Conven
tion, called to consider the improvement
of the navigation of the Mississippi; anC
likewise pointed out the permanent Sc
curity of the institution of domesti
slavery in the South, the bond of uniol
among the States by reason of the com
mon interest in the Great River who's
waters rolled through them so that an.
serious conflict of sections could not be
come possible. And yet only fourteen
years had passed until that sectional con
fict had occurred, and slavery was abol
ished forever. These impossibilities ha'
also happened,
From the foundation of our Govern
ment it has been maintained as undeni
able that the United States Senate Wa
the most grave and courteous and digni
fed body in all the wide world. T
have presumed that in that assembling
of "most potent, grave and reveren
seignors," over which an Adams, Jei
ferson, Calhoun and a Fillmore ha