The herald., 1894-02-17
A GREAT IMPENDING CHANGE.

my AAAO 10 - NoAAoNAO bhAAks AhO AhNA
of forty is apt to be something different
from the man Of twenty-one-the latter
mere outcropping OF adolescence. 1t
is on this ground that Tennyson repud-
lated in maturer years his utterances in
LoCksley's Hall, when he gave expression
to the youths hsmboysnt aspiration,
'The war drums beat no longer, the battle flags
furled,
In the Parliament o. Man, the Federation Of
the world"
AS q matter OF fact. as he grew older,
Tennyson probably came to realize that
war, harsh and unsparing as it 10, is
necessary to the scheme of perfected
world. Without war mankind is in
danger of sinking to dead uniformity
and anything like chivalry or romance
would be a minus quantity. There used
to be an old proverb about a certain
province in Spain in which the men
were women and the women men-a
condition which was not understood to
be complimentary to that province.
Tennyson, when he wrote his Locksley
Hall, would have been utterly incap-
able of inditing his splendid epic dedi-
Gated to the charge OF the Six Hundred
and opening Forward Nolan said"
The careers of most OF the distinguished
public men of Europe show that, a5 they
grew older, they changed many of their
ideas, and often to revolutionary ex-
tent. Victor Hugo who began life as a
royalist, as be6tted his fourteen quarter
ings of nobility, ended as one OF the
most enthusiastic republicans OF record.
Mr.. Gladstone, who was known as con-
servative in his early dBys, has etiior-
esced into the most liberal statesman in
Europe. This list OF illustrious men,
both in Europe and America, who have
changed their conceptions OF public
duty, equally in literature and politics.
might be indefinitely extended. We
have instanced enough to establish our
postulate, which is that the best thought
of many of the wisest and best of men
has been their last
All of which is prolegomena to posi-
tion which we have 40 hesitstion in
advancing IN the United States today,
time in the history of this country
when men have been so careful in revis-
ing their political opinions as they are
today. No party, no matter how secure
it has felt in the past, can hope to exact
from it's followers the same implicit
obedience that it could have looked for
in the times of excitement that preceded
aud followed the war. At times both
parties have approached too near an
identity OF sentiment, belief and action
TO admit of ever again raising issues on
which the old battles were fought and
lost or won. They have passed over too
much common ground to admit of the
old sntagonisms and the old logomachies.
The party shibboleth has been too much
confused to admit of the old elan of par
tizan activity.
The lesson to be drawn from this state
of things can be easily evolved. 1t
means that any party which shall hope
for success from the verdict of the
American people at the polls hereafter
must draw it's inspiration from living
issues. 1t will be useless simply to ap-
peal to the title Democrat or Republican,
or what not. The voter today, to an ex-
tent never hitherto known in the
United States, with the possible excep-
ton of the second election to the presi-
dency OF Mr.. Monroe, stands absolutely
independent of psrtizan politics ss un-
derstood in the past. This ia pro-
nounced development, and we are in
clined to think that it will stand for
good in the future OF the United States,
and for many reasons.
In the first place, the people are be-
coming educated, and their exactions
from public men are more fastidious.
They can no longer be fooled with a
cheap man, whose only equipment is
borrowed ideRs-borrowed till the pla.
giarism has become absolutely painful
and voice of the compass of the bull OF
Bashan. 1t requires something either
new or newly presented, and instinct
with progress, to fascinate the Ameri-
can people of today. st. Paul said Of
the people of Athens that they were
constantly going about seeking some
thing new. This is precisely the case
with the American people. They desire
something out of the old ruts of politics.
There has not. as between the old
political parties, been anything new FOR
a time go long that memory has become
fatigued in the retrospect. The repeal
of the federal elections law releases the
people from the last possibility OF politi-
cal sectional legislation.
We are facing an era, fruitful of de-
velopment, in which the public man
who desires to be heard must present
himself with ideas. The old tintinnab.
ulum and sounding brasses will no
longer avail. If any man has anything
to say worthy the attention of an intel.
ligent and progressive generation let
him say it now or forever hold his
peace. The fact that man is a Demo.
crat or Republican, a Populist or a
crank, will cut no figure in our politics
hereafter. The cranks will only act as
a sort of pepper sauce, and any one with
a pretension to statesmanship will have
to put on his beat bib and tucker and
make very ceremonious bow if he ex-
poets any recognition whatsoever.
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