The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1886-04-02
THE YEARS FOLLOWING THE
REVOLUTION.

REtOLUTlON.
The unparalleled grandeur of Wash.
ington's character. his heroic services,
and his utter disinterestedness had
given him such hold upon the people
as scarcely any other statesman known
to history, save perhaps William the
Silent, has ever possessed. The noble
and sensible words of his circular letter
were treasured up in the minds of all
the best people in the country, and
when the time for reforming the weak
and disorderly government had come it
was again to Washington that men
looked as their leader and guide. But
that time had not yet come. Only
through the discipline of perplexity and
tribulation could the people be brought
to realize the Indispensable necessity of
that indissoluble union of which Wash
ington had spoken. Thomas Paine was
sadly mistaken when, in the moment of
exultation over the peace, he declared
that the trying time was ended. The
most trying time of all was just begin
ming. 1t is not too much to say that
the period of five years following the
peace of 1888 was the most critical mo-
ment in all the history of the American
people. The dangers from which we
were saved in 1888 were even greater
than the dangers from which we were
saved in 1865. In the War of Seces-
sion the love of union had come to be
so strong that thousands of men gave
up their lives for it as cheerfully and
triumphantly as the martyrs of older
times, who sang their hymns of praise
even while their flesh was whitening in
the relentless flames. In 1888 the love
of union, as a sentiment for which men
would fight, had scarcely come into ex-
istence among the people of these
States. The souls of the men of that
day had not been thrilled by the im=
mortal eloquence of Webster, nor had
they gained the historic experience
which gave to Webster's words their
meaning and their charm. They had
not gained control of all the fairest part
of the continent, with domains stretch
ing more than three thousand miles
from ocean to ocean, and SO situated in
geographical CONFORMATION and COM
mercial relations as to make the very
idea of disunion absurd, save for men
in whose minds fanaticism for the mo-
ment usurped the place of sound judg-
ment. The men Of 1888 dwelt in a
long, struggling series of republics,
ringing the Atlantic coast, bordered on
the north and south and west by two
European powers whose hostility they
had some reason to dread. But nine
years had elapsed since, in the first Con-
tinental Congress, they had begun to
act consistently and Independently in
common, under the severe pressure of a
common fear and an immediate neces-
sity of action. Even under such cir
cumstances the war had languished and
come nigh to failure simply through the
difficulty of insuring concerted action.
Had there been such government that
the whole power Of the thirteen States
could have been swiftly and vigorously
welded as unit, the British, fighting
at such disadvantage as they did, might
have been driven to their ships in less
than year. The length of the war
and its worst hardships had been chiefly
due to want of organization. Congress
had steadily declined in power and in
responsibility; it was much weaker at
the end of the war than at the begin
- anu thCiC w 10 tCaooh W tIltl
as soon as the common pressure was re-
moved the need for concerted action
would quite cease to be felt, and the
scarcely formed Union would break into
pieces. There was the greater reason
for such fear in that, while no strong
sentiment had as yet grown up in favor
of union, there was an intensely power
full sentiment in favor of local self-gov-
eminent This feeling was scarcely
less strong rs between States like Con-
necticut and Rhode Island, or Maryland
and Virginia, than it was between
Athens and Megara, Argos and Sparta,
in the great days of Grecian history. A
most wholesome feeling it was, and
one which needed not so much to be
curbed as to be guided in the right
direction. 1t was a feeling which was
shared by some of the foremost Revolu-
tionary leaders, such as Samuel Adams
and Richard Henry Lee. But unless
the most profound and delicate states
manship should be forthcoming, to take
this sentiment under its guidance, there
was much reason to fear that the release
from the common adhesion to Great
Britain would end in setting up thirteen
little republics, ripe for endless squab-
bling, like the republics of ancient
Greece and medieval Italy, and ready
to become the prey of England and
Spain, even as Greece became the prey
of Macedonia. AS such lamentable
result was dreaded by Washington, so
by statesmen in Europe it was generally
expected, and by our enemies it was
eagerly hoped for.-John Fiste, in
March atlantic.