St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-08-11
Review Of Events Of the Last
Twenty-Five Years in the y y
United States s
The Country Before and Sipce
the War--Decadenoe Of
Great Menu 9
Influences Of the Tariff and
the Protective System on
8
the People. i
London Specta tor.

the attention or all Engl1Snmeu WIZ arc
interested in the social and political
progress OF their kinsmen in America.
The writer of this very able paper,
whom we can hardly be wrong in sup
posing to be Mr.. Godkin, makes no at
tempt to reckon up the increase in the
number of hogs annually slaughtered IN
Chicago, or to count up the milesof new
railway laid every year;l but. instead,
provides us with an exceedingly clear
and penetrating analysis of the moral
changes which have come over the
country since the war. His is no mere
record of annual increments such as sat
isles the inferior practitioners of social
diagnosis on both sides of the Atlantic,
but a real attempt to compare the gem
eral confguration of American society
twenty-five years ago with that which
exists at the present moment.
When the Nation was started at the
close of the civil war between the
North and the South, there was hardly
a political observer who did not imagine
that the military spirit which had been
aroused by the war would be retained
in some form or other. and that, as Wen
dell Phillips feared, the old farming
and reading I" republic would give place
ito strong military, and perhaps pred
atory' state. Fortunately, the latter
half of the prophecy has not been verl-
fed. Europe saw with wonder ana al
miration million men lay down their
arms without thought OF perpetuatlng
the power of the army. and sink into
ordinary citizens, hardly recognizable
as the men who had formed perhaps
the most formidable fighting force that
the world has ever seen, till the neceS-
sity for finding some means by which
the surplus revenue could be got rid OF
called the veterans back to remembrance
as suitable recipients OF public bounty.
In spite, however, of the fact that the
war did not leave any trace OF "mllItar-
ism" on the Union. it did no doubt
mark the end OF the old reading and
farming" republic, and the twenty-five
years that have elapsed since the epoch
of secession have seen the evolution OF
new political order,
Changes in leadership.
One of the most marked characrerEs-
tics of American society before the war
was. SAYS the writer in the Nation.
1.-THE influence of the clergy and the
LAWYERS i'll their character of publieists
and orators" This feature of political
life has almost entirely disappeared.
The lawyers no longer join in the work
of political exposition, and, indeed,
almost entirely withdraw from public
life. The leaders of the bar conhne
themselves to their professional work
the ablest being employed by the great
commercial corporations are APP
parently less and less anxious to take
part in political movements. This dis
appearance of the trained lawyers from
politics has had an exceedingly untort-
innate effect on the senate. NEARLY
every state" says the writer in the
Nation. had at least one senator
of the type Of Seward. OF Sum-
ner. or FeSsenden, OF Trumbull-gener-
ally man of very moderate pecunlary
means who not only eXerted great Inf1u-
| ence on the politics OF his state, but
spoke with more or less intellectual
authority on all questions OF the day,
and aided his constituents by speeches
out of congress. somewhat i'll the Eng
fish fashion, in making up their minds
on current topics. This type has al
most completely disappeared. 1t can
hardly be said to have any representa-
tive whatever in the senate to-day.
There is no senatorial orator whose ut
| terances are looked for with any eager
| ness or have any deciding influence on
slOcat opinion" In fact, the senate Is
now almost entirely plutocratic as
sembIy, and it looks as if it would soon
become as impossible to make poor
man an American senator as to make
him an English peer.
Contempt for Public Opinion.
ssIn the North" continues the writer
| in the Nation, ''there is steady tend
ency to give seats in it to successful
manufacturers, spec ulatOrS or railroad
men. AS a general rule, too, this class
brings to the work of legislation con-
| siderable contempt for public opinion
| as expressed through the newspapers,
and an almost unbounded belief in the
venaitv of state legislatures as the re-
| suit of their own experience in business
life: for successful business career OH
| the scale which is now common can
hardly go very far without bringing
| man in contact with state legislation as
an applicant for some sort OF favor or
privilege, or as the object OF the form
! of eytortion known as Strike An
| other change, by no means for the bet
ter. is to be found in the entire disap-
pearance of the influence once eXer-
| cised by 1.-the Iyceum lecturer" per-
son sswho represented to the rural
| population not only literature and
art, but political philosophy, and
exerted during the period pre-
ceding it was very wholesome and
powerful influence" Strange as it
! sounds, it is unquestionably the fact
| that this withdrawal of the intellectual
element in politics formerly represent
| ed by the lawyers and the clergy has
been contemporaneous with an enor7
nous development of the study of poll
ties i'll the abstract.
All the principal universities have
now schools OF political science. and
every year the number of writer's and
thinkers upon political philosophy, POI
litical economy, constitutional law, and
kindred subjects is swelled by fresh 'ae-
cessions The contribution made by
America to the discussion of abstract
political questions is indeed as great, if
not greater, than that Of any other
county, and it would be impossible to
find any portion of the world in which
the discussion OF problems connected
with government and sociology is fol-
lowed with more interest or intelli-
gence. Yet. in spite of this fact aud of
the remarkable development of the
universities in these fields, it would ap7
pear that there has been IAN undoubted
|
on popular thought and in the number
of graduates in congress and in political
life.''
Influence of Wealth.
Another change which the writer in
the Nation declares to be specially pro-
nounced is 'sthe transfer 70 wealth OF
the political and social influence which
was formerly shared. ii dot absorbed. by
literary, oratosical, or professional dis
tinction." Twenty-Five years ago the
public were hungry for news about
authors. preachers and lecturers. Now
this mark of distinction belongs solely
to the millionares. ut is their person
atty and doings which now pique popu
lar curiosity and taach the popular i'm
agination; it is their talk which, is be
lieved to have most power.a Nor is il
j merely in social consideration that the
: miIlionaires nave won the front places.
..In politics they have become. perhaps
the greatest force of the day." The