Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-05-01
rhe Decline of Sow England.

The sensitive Republican journals ID
Massachusetts grow peeyish at the crltl-
cism the civilization and culture OF the
old Bay State receive anent the IeWks-
bury revelations. They would fain shave
it appear that the inquiry Is TRICK OF the
willy Dolitician who now nils the
Executive chair in Boston, and
il frets them TO find that people elsewhere
attach any value TO the disclosures.
Nevertheless people put faith in the tes-
timonv 10 the almshouse horrors, how
ever shocked they may be at the state
ments made or astOunded at the POSSIBLE
ity Of such revolving practices
The truth is that New England Is on
the down grade. The wealth of Boston
viii be a powerful brake to lessen the
speed of her decline. but her Olden IN
fiuence has vanished. Her young men
are leaving her. The census gives strong
evidence Of her decay. Her once boosted
morality has come 10 be regarded as
mythical, and divorce is now her staple
luxury. She is losing her manuiae-
turing supremacy. New rivals
are confronting her and beat
Ing her wherever they arise. Worse
than all. 10 the view Of the pOsterity Of
the Puritaus, the good old state Of Mas
sachusetts has relatively more Irish
within her borders than any other COM
mOnwealth in the Union, and it Is not
improbable that in time the foreign
element will Oyerbalance the ma
tive. Buffers election was large
ly due TO the support Of Irish
Democrats. If Butler had failed, Tewks-
| bury would not have leaped iAtO national
fame. and the profitable industries of
picking paupers and tanning the hides Of
defunct citizens Of African descent would
| have zone or unchecked.
1t is saddening to think
| that such decadence should
! befall the land of the Pilgrims, but the
/ pendulum swung 50 far upon the moral
side that It's retrOgressiOn was inevitable.
| We don't know that the country at large
| should be sOrrOwful though. New Eng
land has been working game of false
pretenses for generations. Exposure was
/ inevitable. She has been reforming the
universe, as it were, but her neglect of
matters at home is now telling against
/ her. Her very prosperity has been due
! largely TO the charity Of other sections.
| The legislation that built up her indus
/ tries was Of piece with poor law enact
/ ments. She stands to-day IN the position
| Of a suppiant for continued aims.
! Time has its revenges. New England
| has wrought misery for other sections.
/ but her day Of power is over. Her people
I have learned that intelligence, culture
I and enterprise are found elsewhere than
I within her narrow sphere. They should
I view the matter philOsOphically. Other
peoples Just a. nice and refined as the
/ posterity Of the May1lower vOyagers have
/ been compelled TO fOrsake their native
soil and exc out living elsewhere. In
migrants are crOwding the native New
/ Euglanders, and the latter must tor self
/ preservation Withdraw 10 other fields.
/ The country i large. The New Eng
lander removed from the influences that
surround him at home, becomes a model
American. Numbers of his kind even
went so far as to don the gray some years
I back. Travel does wonders for them, and
H it is, perhaps, not eXtravagant to say that
the best thing that New Englanders can
do is TO pack up and come South, or 60
West, and quit their section before they
are crowded out.