Year: 1869

The following article is from the Lexing-
ton (Ky.) Observer and Reporter. 1t is
exceedingly able and pregnant with truth,
and also very oppOrtune. This hydra head
of royalty loyalty y Is only the head or
personifcation of the mammon worship and
senseless regard for shoulder-strapa and other
display which our people are so bedazzeled
with. We have now our Admirals, Gener-
ais anG rich nabobs-and these worthless are,
no doubt, anxious for the other titles of
Duke, Count Lord, Marquis, &c. A coun-
try ruled by money Cshoddy) will in due
time, get the other nensensicaI paraphel-
MALTA such. as the ge~gaYs. of dress, rib
bons, stars, and a that t,.
''That there is a strong element in the
land. though without unity or organization,
which would gladly welcome the inaugura
tion of an Empire. il would be folly TO de-
ny -Four years of tho. anarchy of war
and a subsequent four years of still greater
anarchy of q vindictive majority, have
wrought great and radical changes in our
body polite. The old landmarks of na .
tioRal faith have been swept away. Tie
eBete conservatism. which chung wiih, a de-
yotiOn worthy of better fate Ia the theory
of a Republic such as our fathers held, was
no match for the vital force and energy of
revolution. Welded to the past, it lived
only in old traditions and buried issues and
while it has stood gazing sadly back and
With ayerted head lamenting the irrevocable
past it has been trodden under foot by ag-
gressive innovations and violent change It
were folly TO hope ever TO reunlie different
sections of this country in Republic such
as existed bat little over eight years ago !; a
Republic of free, equal and independent
States. where liberty was something more
than an empty name "a Republic that meant
law, order, security, public faith. and
peace n such a government exists only in
our memories. and all that we can hope to
do is to erect upon its ruins new covenant
and another Union which shall preserve, as
far as possible, the liberties of the citizen
and the independence of the States This,
we hold, is the mission of the Democratic
party. Yet out of that fiery baptism, from
which the nation emerged as q child of rev
oiution, there sprung the germ of Imperial
rule. We have seen with how little regard
for law or right the dominant party have
trampled both under foot in their lust of
power; we have seen with how little ven
Grafton the written Constitution of the Re
H. q
and amended. 1t has been as We. Congress
alone who has attempted to exercise and
hold power unsanctioned by our laws, yet
such is ever the first step in the loss of ma
tion's Liberty. First, the tyranny of the
many, then the despOtism of the one-the
Directory prece6es the Empire. H-


Are the people of the West ready for
the Imperial rule The provinces of the
South, desolated by war and famine
crushed beneath the tyranny of military
despOtism and Congressional vindictiveness;
insulted, harrassed, and plundered, subject
in all local legislation to the control of their
brutal negro or the still more detestable ad-
venturer from the North, can have but little
love for government such as this has
proven itself TO them. BetterfOr them the
directorship of the one than the merciless
plundering of the many.


''The East, with Its crowded population
and its accumulation of capital, is ripe for q
coup d' etGt, which would give it an Impe-
rial master. The great cities of the East,
with their sEarming numbers, are, like the
French capital, ever ready for any change.
The lower orders are at best but the slaves
of the moneyed classes, and DO change can
worse their fortunes. Yet the revolution
which IS to bring an Empire is one which
| recommends itself to these mOneyed classes
| AS general rule, the commercial element
In nation is opposed to change; reYolu
ton impairs national credit and involves the
rum OF the capitalist. But it is the capital
ist who now longs for the strong hand of q
permanent, centralized government. He
wants security against the changes liable III
| popular opinion. BE demands guarantees
of stability and power in the natiInll ad-
ministration .. 90


I'm the prospectus to which we have al
luded, We are told that the national faith


If left in the keeping-of the populace, will


be sullied by sure reputation of the nation
| al debt, and that 'an Imperial government
can alone protect the rights of national cred
I itors.' Whether this movement is but an
! ephemeral effort put forth To feel the popu'
lar pulse OF whether it is the result of con


certed and predetermined action, the future
| alone can tell but that the journals of the
land calmly and quietly discuss the proba
| bilities anc chances of its success, is to III
one of the most alarming evidences of the
paralysis which has fallen upon the vigor o.
the Republic"