The herald., 1896-05-10
MENACES TO THE UNION
Cities Tend to Separation From
the Common Body
THE BOND ANOTHER DANGER
Bonds Cherish a Chronic Dislike OF
Democracy
. Uerpetuai Bond and Perpetual Republic
Do Not Consist - Things That Are
Favorable to Our Longevity

Do NOt NOuSl5t - IninRo tnot are
Favorable to Our Longevity
Copyright. 1906 by John Clark Ridpath.]
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-
flict Of interests?'' said, being young
and fired with patriotism from the war
time: eyes. certainly; we are one. and
will be one forever. Esto perpdtua!
Nothing can break or rend u.s." This
was in 1873.
Time has not finally answered the
great orator 8 question. know not how
deeply seated was his doubt about the
perpetuity of the Union. He may have
been using me az foil-bless his mem
oryl-as if feeling for some significant
pulse beating to the rhythm Of posi-
bility that wss In his mind. Alaska had
been purchased II 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 con vers-
ing about MIR. Stewards purchase and
the territorial and social results of it.
In the past Is years many things have
happened. and some that have been re-
assuring. One thing has been fixed in
history, and that is the unequivocal
stretching Of national authority over
every foot OF American soil. The civil
war has brought its logical result. AS
to the old doctrine Of local sovereignty,
that has become reminiscence. There
lie hardly any longer an American so
immersed in the past as to do that doc
trine reverence. It 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 the hell Of Dante and the divine
right Of kings. There are men who still
believe that the earth is fiat. that man
appeared on its surface 5000 years ago.
and that a 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 be 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 an eternal break up have
expended themselves aud 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.
ica is by no means a settled fact. Our
political geography is still at SKIES and
sevens. 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 ethnioal absurdity. Such line
is as difficult to find in right reason as
it is in geography. On the southwest
border there is between us and Mexico
a broad, shallow river, as big as the
Wabash, but by no means as voluminous
as the Tennessee. Otherwise the seas
are around US 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 prob -Cms Of governing,
Of administering. Of sending out author
ity and recovering revenue, of making
common the civil life Of the American
people. are simpler and easier Of solu-
tion than they were at the establish
ment of the Union. They are much
easier than they were 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
in the features and movements Of 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
tinguisbable in features, slightly dis
tinguishable in speech, and let us believe
not at all distinguishable in patriotism.
The man Of Tampa aud the man of Du-
luth are of like similarities and identi-
ties. 1t is true that the uniformity, the
unity, is not perfect or entire, but the
approximation is more noticeable than
was ever before to be found in any coun-
try or 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