The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1896-05-02

petual Republic Do Not Consist-Things
Copyright 1896, by John Clark Ridpath.l
TX
Wendell Phillips said to me one day:
After all, is it possible to preserve the
Unionf Will it not sooner OR later fall
asunder? Is it not inevitable that we
shall be broken into many by the con-
hict of interests?" said, being young
and fired with patriotism from the war
time: Yes, certainly; we are one, and
will be one forever. Esto perpetua
Nothing can break or rend ms. y This
was in 1878.
Time has not finally answered the
great orator squestion. know not how
deeply seated was his doubt about the
perpetuity Of the Union. He may have
been usiEg me as foil-bless his men,
ory las If feeling for some significant
pulse beating to the rhythm of posi-.
bility that was in his mind. Alaska had
been purchased l | years previously. By
that act the central north and south
meridian of our country had been at one
remove transferred from eastern Kansas
to San Francisco. We had been convers.
ing about Mr.. Stewards purchase and
the territorial and social results Of it.
In the past S years many things have
happened, and some that have been re-
assuring. One thing has been liked in
history, and that is the uneqnivocal
stretching Of national authority over
every foot Of American soil. The civil
war has hrouoht itc, 1oo;onl ,oe,,It
to the old doctrine of local sovereignty,
that has become "reminiscences. There
is hardly any longer an American so
immersed in the past as to do that doc.
trlne reverence. 1t belongs already to
that museum of sacred relics in which
the old biology and the Ptolemaic sys.
tenn OF the universe are laid side by side
with tho hell of Dante and the divine
right OF kings There are men who still
believe that the earth is fat that man
appeared on its surface 5000 years ago,
and that state, without violating the
constitution, may secede from the Union
But is the American republic safe
against the menace Of disruption? Are
we SO unified by the establishment of
national sovereignty as to he really
what we are ostensibly, one people,
with one destiny? Agreeing that those
peculiar causes which occasioned the
civil war and for quadrennium threat
ened us with all eternal break up have
expended themselves and are no longer
existent among the living forces of So
ciety, are there not others, unfeared
and unforeseen by our predecessors, that
may gather head and shatter us into
fragments?
The territorial unity of North Amer
lea is by no means a settled fact. Our
political geography is still at skies and
seveps. In the last administration some
interested patriots were very eager to
annex Hawaii. 1t now appears that the
American eagle will soon come home
with Cuba in his claw The dividing
line between us and Canada is histor-
ical and clinical absurdity. Such a line
is as difficult to find in right reason us
it is in geography. On the southwest
border there is between us and Mexico
a broad, shallow river, as big as the
Wabash, bnt by no means as volumnous
as the Tennessee. Otherwise the seas
are around rs and the sky overhead.
Another thing favorable to the Union
is the splendid development of the
means Of transportation. 1t cannot be
doubted that in the last half century
the means Of rapid transfer for both
property and man have been improved
more than commensurately with the
outspreading of the national domains
The avenues of life, stretching every
where, and the circulation of the vital
forces are unobstructed. If the body has
grown, the veins and arteries and nerves
have grown and developed also to the
remotest capillaries Of this vast entity
called the United States
The practical problems of governing,
Of administering, Of sending ont author
ity and recovering revenue, of making
common the civil life of the American
people. are simpler and easier of solu-
tion than they We're at the establish
ment of the Union. They are much
easier than they We're at the period Of
the Mexican war. In fact, the organic
life Of the people is much more perfect
in every part than at any previous peri
cd in our history The symptoms of
longevity are thus more distinctly seen
Ill tno ltaCures anu movements Oh our
country than they were 40 years ago.
Another favorable fact in the great
organic whole of America is the COM
parative oneness of character which has
been established in all sections of the
country. The man of Passamaquoddy
and the man of San Diego are little dis
tinguishable in features, slightly dis
tinguishable in speech, and let us believe
not at all distinguishable in patriotism.
The man Of Tampa and the man of Du-
luth are of like similarities and identi-
ties. 1t is trne that the uniformity, tho
unity, is not perfect or entire, but the
approximation is more noticeable than
was ever before to be found in any coun
try OF dominion of the world of like ex-
tent and variety. Distinctions Of race
undergo rapid obliteration in Amer
lea. A new race type is fixing itself in
the United States which there are good
grounds for hoping will be one of the
strongest, most high minded and aspir-
ing forms Of human life ever known on
the globe.
American institutions, and the Union
IN particular. have perils also. There
fxun i,, c%~