A VIEW OF THE GENERAL SITUATION.
New York, November 10, 1870.
New York, November 10, 1870.
New York, November 10, 1870.
New York, November 10, 1870.
In national as well as in individual affairs, it is well to occasionally take an exact account of the situation in which we are; to balance “our general books,” to see whether the balance is to the “debit or credit” or “profit and loss,” and to decide from the results obtained whether satisfactory progress has been made. As nothing more than “a journal” of such affairs as we shall take into the account has been kept, it will be our duty to “post” these affairs into a new “ledger” from existing “journals,” and also to enter up the new balances which we may find standing to the several accounts.
At no time since the close of the Revolutionary War has there been a time more fitting and inviting for such a work. The whole world is in a ferment, which was begun by the terrific strife into which the course of events forced us, and from which we have just emerged through the reconstruction of an almost demolished Governmental structure. Not all of the legitimate results of that strife are even yet externally apparent, either in our own country or in the world at large. There are various undercurrents, eddies and outcroppings which have never been taken into any consideration; but when considered, the destiny of this country, so long foreshadowed, but which was pretty nearly eclipsed, shines forth more clearly brilliant than ever before.
Whatever may have been the arguments favorable for the continuance of the institution of slavery, the destruction of it has rendered them nugatory, and but few of those who once used them could now be found to favor its resurrection. The atmosphere is cleared of thecloud it was draped with, under its influence, and the radiant sun of freedom now shines for all, and the star of hope our night was illumined by shall now no more be dimmed by the dense fogs that were wont to arise from its then already decaying carcass. With its destruction the lives of two great political parties passed away, and left the people with no distinct lines of demarkation. It is true that there bodies still exist, but the process of disintegration is rapidly going on, and the stench of their decay fills the nostrils of all whose senses are rendered acute by the intensifying power of intuitive perception.
Creation is from one point toward one purpose, the extremes of which course, are beyond the comprehension of human ken. Any fact in the line of its progress may be considered, and the relations it bears to contemporaneous facts determined. A fact isolated from all connections loses its significance. The comparison of a fact with other facts forms the basis of all relative knowledge, and the further this comparison is extended, the wider the range of this knowledge becomes: while an infinite series of facts constitutes the sum total of creation.
Hence, to obtain a substantially correct knowledge of the present, the facts of it must not only be considered as facts of the present, but their relations to, and dependencies upon prior facts, out of which they arose, must be traced, so that it may be determined why they exist. It is not sufficient to simply assert that this or that is thus or so. To do so carries no conviction nor prophetic knowledge of what must be next, as a necessary sequence. But if a retrospective glance be taken of the causes that produced it, it is thus demonstrated why it is thus. If the demonstration is placed with the fact, and their tendencies are examined, it may be fair to conclude that what they may next lead to, may be in a measure predicated. The chief value, then, of an intimate knowledge of the past is, that from it the future may be foreseen, and that the lesson it teaches may assist in the formation of aids to the natural order of things.
If a tree or plant is desired in a certain place, for a certain purpose, its growth is promoted by all the means which experience has demonstrated will assist. All other growths that draw from the same source for supplies, and thereby diminish its fountain of supplies, are destroyed; the weeds are uprooted, and if the natural supplies which the earth and air furnish are not sufficient for its demands, that which is lacking is supplied. The same line of action should govern in the various departments of nature, and especially in the higher departments of mind.
There is another consideration that should never be lost sight of when a survey of the situation is to be attempted; and this is, that while the facts which are to be passed upon bear special relations to their immediate predecessors and surroundings, that these with them bear certain definite, general relations to the facts of all past time, and to those that will be in all future time. The present is a part of the common order of the universe, extending infinitely backward and forward—a part of the line of evolvement, neither end of which can be compassed by human mind; and if we would learn well, we must learn all there is to learn regarding what we learn.
It is a definite and unanswerable proposition, then, that every nation of which we have historic record, was a result of pre-existing causes, and led to further effects, and that each filled and performed a part, especially its own, which was a natural and necessary result of the time and place it existed in. By a careful study of the rise and fall of each of the great nations that have existed and an analytic comparison of the elements of strength and decay that were prominent therein, and of their relations to each other, just deductions as to what the present will lead to, may be arrived at. If the present is the result of the past, the future must be the result of the present, and like it be the experiences of creation in the process of evolution from the infinite to the infinite.
Government, standing forth prominently as the grandest of all human conceptions and realizations, has in all times been the representative of civilization, and the principal means of its diffusion. Bearing this impress of importance, it may be well to examine the real significance of the term, or to find the relations it sustains to society. One fact meets us wherever we may search in the past—the fact of government Though it is one of the universal necessities and accompaniments of existence, it is extremely doubtful if its composition is realized to any considerable extent. Government means control—implies power. No people can create government because they cannot create power. An existing power may be organized into form by a people, and this becomes their government. This power is not in the individuals who exercise it, they are simply its servants. It is not the people who organize or consent to it; they are simply represented by it. It is above individuals, and is independent of peoples, though its channels of operation may be modified by individuals and peoples. Thus come all governments, while revolutions are the results of the outworking of principles, through peoples, who are their representatives. When analyzed, it thus appears that governments are independentof peoples, and always exist in some form while peoples come and pass away.
It is problematically true, that China was the first nation that arrived at a system of government at all removed from brute, individual force, and historically so, that there always was a westward tendency to empire. After China, India; then Assyria, Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome, general Europe and America. Each one of these nations, to Rome, was the result of the course of events, begun in China, to the course of which each succeeding one added its experiences. The progress of this course of events has encircled the world. It can go no further westward without crossing the Pacific and beginning again in China. What is the significance of this fact, or has it no special indications? It is evident that the old order of nature has completed a cycle, and that a new order will be commenced, and that, the new order is to spring from this country, and consequently, that we are its representatives. This is made doubly plain, when we refer to the fact that Asiatic tendencies are now eastward, and that John Chinaman is the new competition our laboring classes have to encounter.
It cannot be expected that the new order of events, we, as a country are inaugurating, will be characterized by the element of the old, just completed. It had its mission to perform. It accomplished it, and has passed away. Its fruit is our Government and the civilization of the present. A new mission begins. Are there any sources from which its character may be predicated? Though the creation has completed another cycle of progressive development, the common course of nature never stops. Therefore the same common order prevails now, that did when the planes of Iran poured forth its people westward.
One of the principal features of natural events has been a tendency on the part of all great nations to acquire universal dominion. Each in turn attempted it and failed, because of the imperfectly developed form of the government they sought to control by. What are the evidences that all future forms may not fail from similar causes, or specially, that the form we represent will not fail?
The first and most important evidence is, that in its organic principles the Brotherhood of the Human Race is recognized. All men are born free and equal, does not mean that all men born in the United States are free and equal, but that all men everywhere are. This, then, is the basis idea upon which our Government is built; whether the structure is yet perfect or not the foundation is, and can never beoverturned. There can be no higher proposition upon which to build; therefore additions, tending to perfectability, must be made upon this foundation.
Another evidence is, that the world is becoming Americanized: that is, the world is assimilating to the American idea of freedom and equality. How and why? The vast populations other countries have transplanted to our soil are in constant communication with friends they left behind, who thus catch the spirit of equality and freedom, and become imbued with the spirit of our institutions, and thus involuntarily become like us, while still subjects of other powers.
All nations contribute to our strength, and by so doing render us not only peculiarly American in character, but cosmopolitan to the world. We are not only American, but European, Asiatic and African; while each of these are becoming American. We are, therefore, the centre of attraction for the world, and the world involuntarily recognizes our superior strength by giving up its population to increase it; while we repay it, not in physical strength, but with progressive and comprehensive ideas. In accordance with these facts, patent to every one, it is asserted, that The World is becoming Americanized, and that this is an evidence that the form of government by which we tend to universal control is founded on those general principles which give it that permanency, which insures its continuance until it shall become universal.
If the order of civilization is observed the same deduction will be arrived at The material universe has had its geologic periods The social has had and will have its periods to correspond. Nature maintains a regular and consistent order everywhere. It is the degree that this order is understood, by the general mind, that constitutes the sociologic periods of the world. The first era of civilization was inaugurated by the Assyrian and Egyptian empires, more especially the latter, more than 2000 years B. C.
This civilization began to spread in the barbaric world immediately after the famous conquests of Sesostris, and continued during the time of the Persian, Grecian and Roman empires, culminating with the downfall of the latter, and thus completing the order of civilization made possible by Egypt. Egypt conquered and levied tribute upon the barbarian. Rome conquered, and the barbarian became the Roman citizen. The present configuration of Europe rose from the ruins of Rome, and assumed the form through which a greater variety of power could operate than in the previous era.
No part of the world but has felt the mighty modifying influence of the civilizing power of modern Europe. It has permeated the entire temperate zone, penetrated the frozen latitudes north and south, and attacked the Hottentot of Central Africa and the Bushman of Australia. It organized legislation, perfected and maintained administration and made it possible for all minds to attain individuality, and for individuals, as such, to rise by personal merit, even from the lowest strata of society. By its procreative power a new continent, full of native purity and vitality, conceived, and a higher degree of life than it represented burst upon the startled world.
In the first era, it was one controlling mind operating for personal ends and aggrandizement; in the second, it was several, operating for the same end; in the third, it will be all minds merged in one channel, to operate for the good of the whole. The first was personal civilization thrust upon the barbarism of the world compelling it into servility; the second was sectional civilization exerting its influence, first upon its immediate subjects, and through them upon others less advanced; the third shall be general civilization, in which the utmost parts of the earth can join in one grand and common effort for mutual advancement, its peoples having risen to the recognition of the greatest of all human facts—the common brotherhood of mankind.
From these general observations the tendencies in the order of the universe must be inferred, and if there is any inference possible to be drawn, which will coincide with the present aspect of affairs, it is, that upon this country devolves the duty, no less than the privilege, of presenting the world with a form of administrative government that shall be possessed of the elements of perfection and duration; and this brings us down to the consideration, whether this general indication of the centuries does coincide with the condition in which the world is to-day.
Europe contains but four positive determining powers: Russia, Prussia, France and England, while the remainder of the Eastern Continent is unrepresented. The Western Continent contains the United States. France and Prussia have been the contending parties for simple European supremacy: the former probably also entertaining an ulterior design upon Africa. The policy of England and Russia is more comprehensive, and undoubtedly includes the possibility of a consolidated Continent. Consistent with this view, England is performing in India what Cæsar did in Gaul; and Russia, in WesternAsia, what Rome did in “The East.” They comprehend that every nation is an object upon which change is indelibly stamped, and that it will remain so until some one of them shall arrive at a perfect system of government, which shall be the pattern for all government, or which shall absorb all government. These countries labor under one insurmountable difficulty. All the effort they expend to carry their policies abroad detracts just so much from their actual home strength, and they have no fountain, furnishing supplies to make good their expenditure, and they thus expand at the expense of vitality.
Notwithstanding this great difficulty, Russian supremacy might be a consistent conclusion, could the fact of the rapid diffusion of principles antagonistic to monarchy be left out of the consideration; but considered, as it necessarily must be, the legitimate conclusion is entirely different. It is too well known what sentiments lie suppressed in various parts of continental Europe—in Poland, Hungary, Italy, France, Germany, Spain and England—to ever make it possible that the common order of advancement should so change as to compel the general mind from general freedom toward absolute monarchy, as represented by Russia, or to any monarchy represented by any of the nations of Europe. The common course of events will not so change, but it will continue in the direction of general freedom, not only in Europe but over the entire continent. Considering the progress this sentiment has already made in connection with events which are transpiring in Europe, it is not presuming very much to say that it will ultimately convert Western and Central Europe into great republics, represented by the Latin and the Teuton.
So much for the special situation of Europe proper, as connected with its local policies. England and Russia have further reaching pretensions, and, by so having, their policies become intermingled with American policies.
The processes of civilization are soon to receive accelerating powers in Asia. England, by virtue of her great commercial influence, has already exerted very considerable modifying effect upon the vast population of India. China, by its fickle action regarding foreigners resident there, is claiming the attention of all interested countries, in such manner as will undoubtedly force these countries to use some other than moral suasion to compel its people to the common usages of the civilized world. Thus barbarism invites the elements which ultimately transform it into general worldly utility.
With China, the United States has more intimate connection, byreason of recent scientific progress, and, with England, will divide the honor of civilizing Eastern Asia. American influence, however, will be the preponderant influence, for the Chinese are attracted to this country, and the genius of our institutions cannot fail to react through such as come here upon China itself. While this process of evolution is going on in Eastern Asia, Russia will be effecting the same purposes in Western Asia, and thus these three nations will in due course of time reclaim the most densely populated part of the world and add it to the sum total of civilization.
There is a very important and highly suggestive inference to be drawn from the tendency the peoples of Europe have been exhibiting during the past few years. Italian unity has been accomplished, and German unity is about to be accomplished. It is not to be supposed that this process will stop short of further consolidations. Continental Europe is Latin and Teuton, and Slav, and this process cannot well cease until these are united under their respective governments. When this shall have been accomplished, thrones and crowns will have done their work, and the peoples will be ready to erect the Latinic, the Teutonic, and the Slavonic Republics, three mighty nations which could in peace and quiet pursue their respective appointments in the path of progress, until a necessity should arise for a still wider and more comprehensive unity, in which, under one head, the three should be united. They who have studied the general tendencies of governmental evolution cannot doubt but such a consummation awaits Continental Europe, nor that Asia is destined to be regenerated as above shadowed forth.
If such be the course events must take, what is the lesson to be gathered by that part of the world’s people who speak the English language? The location of the countries they inhabit does not so readily point to unity, but all their interests will compel it. The nations of the world instinctively seek equality of power, or rather, they seek to keep pace with each other in acquiring power. In view of the prospective union of the three dominant races in Continental Europe, where shall England look for her compensating power, except it be in a unity of all peoples speaking the English Language?
It is true that in this Western Continent there is a new race being built up, in whose composition all other races are destined to become blended, and which will inevitably be the dominant and the absorbing future race of the world. However, in the mean time, England’s only hope for the retention of an existence, or at least of any general power, will be to unite its peculiar national characteristics to the younger andmore rapidly changing peoples of America. There might be reasons without number adduced in support of the suggested course, while valid ones against it cannot be found. The power such a nation would represent would be one that neither nor all of the prospective Continental European countries could hinder from pursuing its predestined work in Asia and Africa, to which latter division enterprise is just being attracted by the discovery of immense diamond countries, which are first offered as the necessary temptation to draw people to it, who shall afterward find other riches than precious stones within its virgin soil, as other than golden wealth has been found in California.
Thus, in as comprehensive a manner as possible, is presented the present general situation and its evident tendencies, which bring us to the special consideration of the present condition of the country, which, of all countries, is destined to play the most prominent part in the third order of civilization—the United States of America.
We have just arisen mightier than ever from a civil war which was intended by the world’s conservatism to destroy us, and with a population of forty millions we step at once into the front ranks of, and into the lead in, the grand march of progress. Our Government is a nearer approach to a popular form, and more nearly allied to true freedom and justice than any other in existence. We have, however, only to review the causes which led to the civil war to see how far we still are from a perfect form.
This war was either a necessary result of existing causes or else it was a great national blunder. Many who recognize no order or law in the progress of civilization, deny both these propositions, and affirm that the war was produced solely by the personal ambition of party leaders, representing theproandcon.of the institution of slavery. If the matter is viewed from the standpoint of the science of society, each one of these propositions is relatively true, but neither is absolutely so. The war was the necessary result of the growth of the principles of freedom within the general mind, in antagonism to special, local interests, which evidences that it did arise naturally, out of the existing conditions, while the individuals who were prominent upon either side may be considered as responsible for precipitating it. Those who stood by, constituting much the larger proportion of the representative men of the nation, and observed the growth of the conflict between the two extremes, without stepping in to control the situation, place it altogether in the light of a great national blunder or crime. Had the circumstances been controlled by this large third party, thefirst proposition would have been true, and yet the war have been prevented.
We are obliged to speak relatively of relative things, and to consider facts, isolated from the general sum of all facts, and in a special sense, and in this sense the war was an enormous national blunder, and should have been averted by a bold grasping and control of the circumstances on the part of the Government and those whosedutyit was to have known what the result would be. These servants of the people, to whom was intrusted the welfare of the country, were utterly false and faithless, and allowed us to be precipitated, entirely unprepared, into a fratricidal war which cost the common country millions of lives and billions of treasure.
How much better would it have been had the situation been understood and controlled; had the Government shown itself competent to meet it; had it raised armies and occupied the disaffected country and then abolished slavery, which it was finally obliged to do, but which could have been done previously without the sacrifice of life and wealth. Such action would have exhibited the highest order of statesmanship and would have been the admiration of ages.
This examination of the causes which led to the war is made to show, that in our system of government as now administered, there is no responsibility anywhere, and if we drift into danger and destruction no one is accountable; and also, that it is the habitual practice, to evade issues which press for solution, by dodging along with small expedients, hoping the issues themselves will die out or pass away. This has been true of us as a government since corruption first began to find its emissaries among our legislators, and since, it has continually grown more and more decidedly a feature of its administration, until to-day we stand a gigantic nation without giving any indication that we realize our power or that we have any national policy other than to be quite certain that we do not interfere with any of the nice arrangements of other nations, or that we do not lend struggling freedom a sympathetic helping hand, such as we first acquired life by.
By whom are our legislative halls filled? Do we find any Jeffersons, Jacksons, Hamiltons, Bentons, Websters or Clays among them? No! As a rule, to which, however, there a few most honorable exceptions, there are all small men with ideas no more comprehensive than the districts or States they represent, and who make the purposes of personal gain the mainspring of all their actions. What can such menthus employed, know of a great nation’s power; or what her policy should be?
There have been two great political divisions of the people called Republican and Democratic, the issue between which, grew entirely out of the slavery question and its sequel, War and Reconstruction. These issues are all settled. Slavery can never more be made a party issue. All efforts that have been made to galvanize it into life have proved futile. The Democratic party leaders have pretty nearly given up the issue as utterly dead, though many of the rank and file still mouth “the nigger.” The Republican party has absolutely nothing to make it hold together except possession of place and power, which in these times of levying official taxation is no inconsiderable advantage. As for issues and policies, both parties absolutely lack them. The Democratic and Republican parties exist to-day in opposition to each other, simply and solely because they were opposed to each other upon the issues now dead. No live issues divide them. All of these which are before the people find advocates and opposers in both ranks, so that in reality there are no political parties in existence which represent any question to be solved or settled. Nothing could be more appropriate in the political musterings and parades of either party than that upon their banners should be inscribed—
WANTED, A POLICY.
WANTED, A POLICY.
WANTED, A POLICY.
It is evident, if another Presidential canvass passes over, that some grand issue must come up to give the people inspiration, and which will be of such character as todividethem, not such as wouldunitethem unanimously; for to this last condition, it is to be feared, we have not yet arrivedthough there may be such things arise as will command as much unanimityas Washington commanded; but this could not be,except revolutionoccurs and it becomes the result of it.
With a young intelligence such as we represent, no old issues can be made to divide parties. Upon such questions as have heretofore been made the distinguishing features of political parties, there should be no misunderstanding. That there is, demonstrates that the principles of government have not been taught to the people. It teaches that party leaders have built up theories which lack the support of science and principle; and in this way all those issues upon which the permanent vitality of the country depends have been put before the people, colored and trimmed to suit their prejudices and to shape partiesinto opposition. Were all of these issues taught to the people as the legitimate deduction of the science of government, and entirely bereft of partisanship, they would all work together for the obtaining of more, greater and better conditions and privileges. To bring about this course for the people is the object of the science of society which is just beginning to be recognized.
There are but three principles by which all questions should be tested: Freedom, Equality and Justice; and when legislation shall be brought to the test of these, and entirely abstracted from partisanship, there will not be very much further legislation to be performed. All questions now undecided, which still remain before the people, such as those of finance, commerce, revenue, internal improvements, and international policy, should have the touchstone of these principles applied, and they should be decided thereby. It should be asked of them, What course do you point out which will be consistent with freedom, which shall not interfere with equality, and which shall be just to everybody? We venture to assert that, tried by these tests, not a single line of policy which is now being pursued by the Government will stand. Surely its financial policy cannot; for what is there in it which is consistent with the constitutional question of freedom? Surely its revenue, its tariff system, cannot, for what is there in either which is not in direct antagonism with equality?—while we may look in vain for even the skeleton of justice wherever money can find its way.
All this is true, and very much more, and it comes of the departure of legislation and administration from the fundamental propositions of the Constitution. It is also true that such conditions cannot last. The people, as a whole, are not entirely unregenerate, though so many of their self-appointed leaders are. It only remains for the people to become fully aroused to the depths of corruption to which legislation and administration have been carried to demand and obtain the needed redress. This corruption is not confined to Government, but it has permeated nearly all corporate organizations, many of which are organized specially to defraud the productive classes of their hard-earned wealth. The possibility of this being done is because our system of finance is entirely wrong, and nothing will save the country from general financial and commercial ruin except complete revolution in this system. If the ruin comes it will ultimately fall upon the producing classes. In other words, the producing interests of the country cannot sustain the inflation of prices which has been brought about by speculation, in alliance with fraud, which are the ruling spirits of the day.
It may be said that such radical changes as will depose the powers which rule us, and inaugurate the reign of principles, which will secure freedom, equality and justice to every power, cannot yet be introduced. We aver that they can; and further, we aver that unless it is done, revolution such as has never yet been known will inaugurate them for us. The whole substrata of society is seething and foaming with pent-up endurance of injustice and wrong, and unless those abuses which have produced this condition are remedied at once, the existence of the Government cannot be counted upon. And it is criminal to seek to ignore this fact. We must not “lie supinely upon our backs while the enemy binds us hand and foot,” and delivers us to destruction.
In view, then, of our destiny as a nation, and in view of the position which the order of events seems to have assigned us, we are called upon to put our Government in perfect order before the constructive part of the work of the third part of the order of civilization is to be begun. We must be perfect within ourselves before we can expect to become the pattern for others, or expect that others will gravitate to us.The Review of the General Situation, then, results in the finding that the process of diffusive government has culminated, and that the process of a continuously constructive and concentrating government has already been begun, in which our Government, as the most progressive representative of the principles upon which a perfect government can alone exist, is assigned the leading position, and that we, recognizing this assignment, should proceed to assume the responsibilities and the duties which legitimately flow from it; and they are great in the same degree that our destiny is great.
It was under the realization of what our destiny should be that the Pronunciamento of April 2, 1870, in the New YorkHerald, was made; and now, having offered this general review, my Second Pronunciamento, which is supplementary to and the completing of the first, is laid before the people. It is believed that the policy and principles underlying it, proclaimed therein, will be the final departure necessary to be made, as the point from which progress will be continued, until the grand realization of the prophecies of all ages is fulfilled, when all nations, kindred and tongues shall be united in one harmonious family, they having risen into the full knowledge of the truth, that whether we be Christian or Pagan, Greek or Roman, Atheist or Spiritualist, we are all the children of one common Father, God, whom we shall ever worship as the Creator, Ruler and Final Destiny of the Universe.