Year: 1876

The House of Representatives by
vote of l46 to $50, has passed the bill
granting million and half Of dollars
to the Centennial Exhibition. This is a
result which every intelligent person has
expected. When the Government of the
United States invited foreign Govern
ments to be represented at the Exhibi-
tion, it became by that act morally a par
ty in the enterprise, and this was, Of
course, understood, as no foreign Gov
ernment would have accepted an invita-
tion to the entertainment of a purely
private company, and no such power
could imagine that the United States
Government was acting merely as master
of ceremonies upon such an occasion to
a local joint-stock association.


Glad as we are that the House has
made the appropriation, we should re-
joice very much more if we believed,
with the World, that the vote would Sc
cure the dissolution of the Democratic
party. On the day before the bill passed
in the House, for whose action, as we
have been constantly assured, the Demo
Gratis are responsible, the World an,
nounced that the vote upon the Cen
tennisl job is a vote on the question
whether the Democratic party shall be
disbanded or not" This was too good
to be true. But still when the result was
decided by Democratic votes in favor Of
"the job" we looked to see the World
wiping away a few natural tears over the
demise of its party in consequence of not
following its advice; but instead Of
lamentations for the suicide Of the De
mocracy, we read Of the bill which passed
by Democratic votes in q Democratic
House, that "the new blow thus dealt at
the limitations of the Constitution, like
all those which have preceded and led
up to 1t through these weary years of the
passionate domination of q party, must
be carried to the account of the radical
leaders and mischief-makers" All that
wicked strawberry which explains the
toper's headache! We had read that
being a Democratic, this was a reform
ed" House, and we had supposed from
the mild period of Mr. Hill that the day
of passionate domination Of a party had
passed by. 1t is, however, an excellent
plan to take all the credit of the virtues
OF your own party and to lay the guilt Of
your vices upon your opponents.


In support of the bill, Mr. Lamar, OF
Mississippi, made a speech, taking the
ground that if the law authorizing the
President to invite Commissioners from



appropriation necessary to deiray the
proper expenses consequent upon the in
vitation could not be unconstitutional.
In conclusion he fell into the Centennial
strain, and declared that he did not be-
lieve any sentiment of alienation fingered
any where in the heart of the people,
that they were animated by an intense
patriotism, and burned for entire frater-
nal accord. The expression of this feel
ing may have been obstructed by hot and
angry partisans, but it existed neverthe-
less. This is doubtless a sincere impress
sion upon the part Of Mr. Lamar, but it
is due to an ardent wish rather than to
actual observation Of the truth Com
munities do not change their hereditary
faiths and feelings and habits Of thought,
their political and social principles and
theories, in day, nor in a decade. They
would be communities of a very shallow
nature if they did This is the hun
dredth year since the rupture between
the colonies and the mother country, yet
certain alienation Of feeling still lin
gers. But the hostility between the
North and South was infinitely more
deadly and absolute, and the war a thou
sandfold more desolating and destruc-
| tive, than that of the Revolution. Is it
| to be expected-and, in a certain sense,
as indicating character and quality of
race, is it desirable, even if it were posi-
/ ble-that every thing should be forgot
\ ten in ten years?


The assumption that perfect fraternity
of feeling can be accomplished by any
/ Centennial sentiment is simply foolish T;
and not less so is the denunciation of a
statement of the obvious and necessary
facts of the situation as bloody and
"atrocious' and unpatriOtic. The Dem
ocratic party, OF which Mr.. Lamar is a
chief of the powerful Southern wing, i.
no more patriotic, or Christian, or broth


erly, or forgiying, than the Republican.


But it hopes 10y insisting upon good


will and upon silence in regard to the


facts of Democratic ascendency in the


Southern States, and by loud yociiera


ton of the craftsmanship Of conciiiatiOn


to slip back into power. We do not be


lieye, and we doubt if any body believes


that Mr.. Lamar, for instance, has AM


kinder feeling for "the North than Mr.
Blaine has Tor the South" Nor do W.