Some philosopher has said that mankind suffer more from the apprehension of troubles than they do from any actual evils of their lot. This is sometimes as true of nations as of individuals. A great multitude of honest souls in the Northern States have been fearfully exercised about the apprehended aggressions of "the slave power," and have not been altogether certain that they might not themselves, at some future time, be carried into slavery. Four years ago the Republican orators drew the most terrifying pictures of the effects upon the North of the defeat of Fremont. But Fremont was defeated, and none of the predicted evils have come to pass. In like manner the South has been taught to believe that the election of any but an ultra Southern man to the Presidency would irrevoccably injure its property in slaves and lead the way to the overthrow of slave institutions. Yet though no ultra Southern man has ever been elected President, slave property has steadily increased in value, and the two strongest things on the Continent at this moment are the Union and slavery. Whilst both North and South are eaten up with imaginary horrors of mutual aggression, neither was ever as strong, thriving and prosperous as now since the foundation of the Government.
Mr. Henry Winter Davis, N.C., still thinks that Carthage ought to be destroyed. It does not matter in the least how it is done, or what else may occur in consequence. Set fire to Carthage, and if the devouring element should extend its ravages to Rome, and if the Eternal City should thus be reduced to ashes, let us take the evil that the gods send us and be thankful for the good. Or should an ex tempore earthquake happen to the restive and uncontrollable, and shall shake down all the temples of all the deities known to humanity, still no matter, let us take the blessing with thankfulness and submit without murmuring to whatever little inconveniences may accompany the merciful dispensation.
Does it never occur to the Hon. gentleman that Carthage may possibly be not worth this clamor? We have scriptural authority for the assertion that a city divided against itself must fall, and as the Democraacy is hopelessly sundered, we may consider it the same as dead. Mr. Davis is earning a cheap reputation for valor by tilting at a defunct carcass. If the charges tabled against this gentleman are all slanders, if his erratic course--which has always somehow managed to help the Republican party--can only be explained by his "insane hatred of the Democracy," it strikes us that the excuse is not sufficient. It will not do for him to tell us that he does not hate Black Republicanism less, but only hates Democracy more. If we understand his speech at all, he means to tell a Maryland constituency that he will vote for Lincoln for the sake of excluding either Breckinridge or Douglas, if the election can be decided by the House of Representatives. He supports Bell now because Maryland will cast her vote for Bell, but he would, for the sake of getting rid of "the intolerable domination" of the party not in power, as cheerfully vote for an Abolitionist to accomplish the same end. We need not waste time to show that this zeal is all thrown away. Everybody knows that there is no shadow of chance in Maryland for either Breckinridge or Douglas, and the idea of calling upon the electors of the Fourth Congressional District to "smite Democracy" is a burlesque. It is a dead issue.
The least that can be said concerning this last effort of our esteemed representative is that it is a Lincoln pronouncement in Bell clothing, or rather an eccentric Republican sheep with a Union Bell on its neck. It is a lost sheep decidedly, and it looks very much like a black sheep. It has wandered far from its native fold, and its bleat, though vigorous and defiant, would accord with Wide Awake music quite as well as it does with cheers for Bell and Everett.
From the bottom of our heart we repudiate the present Administration; but it is just possible, with the record of the New York Republican Legislature before us, with its teeming corruptions and daring frauds and villainies, that a Republican Administration of the National Government might prove infinitely worse.
Note: This is an excerpt from a longer article
This word has become of late a favorite one with politicians, as well as the friends of the intellectual and social advancement of the human race. It is natural that it should be a popular word with Americans. It describes the history of their country.
The same principle is manifested in all public and private enterprise. It has made our commerce the second in the world. It has converted the West into inland seas, covered with vessels and rich freight. It has by its eager spirit worn out lands, in the old states, and then, with restless energy, applied to them now stimulants, administrered to them with untiring energy until the dead soil has shown new life and beauty, and Pardise Lost has become Pardise Regained. It has prompted the immense tide of emigration,a nd almost converted the whole land into a migratory camp. Under its influence the young man forsakes farms, which would in Europe be an object of envy and delight, for the fertile bottoms of Ohio or the rich lands of Kentucky, where she remains in comparative content for a few years until he becomes dissatisfied with the returns of his industry, and leaving the population that begins to thicken around his steps, he hastens to Texas or Missouri. But even these prove mere resting places in his line of march. This is American progress! But what is to be its next step, unless it steps into the sea, we cannot predict. Perhaps, rather than remain stationary, we shall see it move round in a circle, coming back again to the old States and adding new life and youth and animation to their comparatively slow and halting movements.
The same principle of progress is manifested by parties. The Democracy boast and exult in the idea that theirs is a party of progress. Their history would seem to warrant the declaration, for if they ever stood on the old Republican platform, they have "progressed" far enough from it at this time.
There is another party, however, which exists in the name of progress, and which yet has before it a field wide enough for its mad ambition. It is the party, which, fifteen years ago a mere handful in the Northern States, has advanced until it evil machinations have threatened the integrity of the Union--until it pumbers among its free-soil disciples men of all parties in the Northern States, and is at any moment prepared to sacrifice the Union to a miserable abstraction.
The boundaries of its ambition are still far beyond it, and the wheels of its prpogress threaten to overrun the institutions and rights of the Southern States. If the progress of our country to greatness and prosperity has been grand and rapid, the progress of this party has been equally so towards the common destruction and this party has been equally so towards the common destruction and overthrow. The progress of the last must be stayed, or the progress of the first will be brought to a sudden and disastrous close. A progressive spirit is desireable, but it must be also a wise, a calm, a patriotic, and an enlightened spirit, or it can bring only misery and ruin in its train.