New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-03-04
FLASHING TON TO-DAY.

The Great Republic is a phrase which
is in the mouth of everybody. To com
| prchend its full meaning one should this
week be in Washington. The careless OBJ
server might see nothing more than CANDY
pomp and superficial pageant, crowded
thoroughfarcs and ovcrcrowded houses. busy
politicians and gaping sightseers. But he
who has been accustomed to seek below
the surface the real mranlng and purpose OF
governments, to study the course OF en-
pre- and to comprehend the secret OF
national rise, progress and decay, would find
in Pennsylvania Avenue to-day ample
material for observation and reflection. From
every point of the compass the tribes have
come mp to the quadrennial jubilee. Here are
thousands upon thousands gathered together,
and what Il mere handful are they to the fifty
millions whom they represent! To-day
THIS vast population, stretching from ocean to
ocean and through twenty degrees of latitude,
will be animated by Il single thought, and
every heart Will respond TO the suggestion of
such a nationality rs the world has never be-
fore witnessed. The new President needs no
laurcatc-thc silent greeting of all these States
and Territories is mora sublime than any
'bsbIhtiNu HIlH'Hl With WV iOHth uiihFi
The arches OF Westminster We are too often
bind To that which is nearest to Us; fanil-
lauty makes many tlin@s common; but CEN
tury hence, when the student Of history shall
look back 10 tins year of the Republic, there
will be n0thlng of grandeur or greatness
apout mm with which We need fear COMPARE
son.
More or less of political feeling must nccrs-
sarily he disappointed or grltilicd by the cleo
lion and Inauguration of Il new President.
Bat if Democrat instead of a Republican,
if General Hancock inStcld Of General Gar
field, were about 10 assume tie great Office,
We trust that we should have in us enough OF
gracious patriotism TO recognize precisely
shat hc represented. AZ tine allotted term
went on, we might find reasons for difference
and be forced TO cIitici,c sharply. But on the
Fourth of March the new President stands
for the whole country. H. offers his pledges
o. fidelity u al. UpDn that day at least. in his
Iuiiy office, he haS given no man reasonable
cause Of oil nee. The WidcSpr I'd battle of the
election i over. The provisions of the Com
Atitutlon have been ob"ycl. There has been
Submission of differences To the july of he
people and II verdict has been rendered.
disturb. until good and sufficient reason has
presented itself Tor doing 50. Even faction
Should be. silent, until it has a decent pre-
tcncc for opening in full cry upon the object
of IT'S unforg.vin2 hostility
When Abraham Lincoln found that he WAS
cIlcd TO Il renewal Of such responsibility as
had seldom fallen upon the shoulders Of II
single man, he said to those who came to con-
graduate him: 1t adds nothing to my salts
" faction that any other man may be disap-
"pointcd by the result. May ! ask those who
" have not differed with me to join with me in
&" th, same spirit toward those who have ~
The man who in the full flush of such Il
triumph could utter such words should surely
have been safe from the hand of the assassin.
But he WAS the victim OF that spirit which
judges and condemns public servant before
he has been tried. Let us not now
forget that four years before, simply because
he had been called by the people to the
Presidency. u causcc5s and cruel war was
wagrd against the Constitution and the
Union! And remembering this let us cOmprc-
bend the folly and the felony, moral If not
overt, which condemns n President i'll adj
vance. We believe that any man who should
utter a syllable of treason i'll Washington to-
day might bitterly repent his temcrlly. TO
the dulle5t mind ought to come. upon the
Fourth Of March, n sense not only of
the greatness of this Republic, but Of the cX-
cellence OF our political system-of its simpi
city, elasticity and comprehension. Never
were millions better governed, and yet they
are governed through servants designated by
Themselves. We have answered the VeXpd
question; we have proved that Democratic
Republics, however pOpulous, are possible. Let
lis hope that those who come after us viii
never disturb the solution.