much feeling, and before it can be settled
there must of necessity be more, inasmuch as it has now become one of
the elements of party movements--not merely a question _in_ the
presidential canvass, but absolutely one on which a party stands, and
on which it nominated a president, nominated not merely a nominal
candidate, but one who, having held the office once, had acquired
distinction, and having manifested interest in all public measures
since, had maintained that distinction, and was a _real_ candidate.
The sooner this question is settled the _better_; and the better it is
settled, the more for the peace and the dignity of the nation.

To this question, which has in some respect, also, assumed one of
local distinction, we will not further refer; it is one that will
agitate until settled, and being settled, will no more disturb.

It is not our intention to place before our readers an array of
political facts, nor to make out a chronological table for the year
now drawing to a close. It would be better at once to refer the reader
to the easily accessible columns of the daily papers, which have
really been crowded with statements of convulsed states, and
revolutionized governments. It has not been a question with them as to
commercial changes, the fluctuations of a market, or the variation of
stocks; but they have had to record the fate of kingdoms, and the
flight or concession of kings and emperors. And we write necessarily
so much in advance of printing, that our quarter of the globe might
change its rulers between our pen and the type of our compositor.

We have been content to notice some of the most exciting movements in
Europe, without pretending to write their termination. We see in some
kingdoms the freshness of new institutions, and in others the renewal
of contests which had been deemed closed forever; where power has had
its heels upon the neck of the people for centuries, there are tokens
of _turning_; and from all this we learn that there is a spirit in the
mind of man, and that, in spite of all attempts to crush that spirit,
or to darken it, the inspiration of the Most High is giving it
understanding, and it is asserting its high prerogative, doing justice
to its lofty teachings.

How will all these things abroad affect us here? What will be the
influence upon the United States of these revolutionary movements in
Europe?

The effect is now being felt; it is only to calculate the increasing
power to