ith the rubbish and offal of the civilized life
into the valley of Gehenna. There the whole shall be burned with
unquenchable fire! Then the smoke, arising for a season, shall be
swept away, and nothing but a green earth and a blue sky shall remain
for the emancipated race of man.

THE PERIL OF OUR CENTENNIAL YEAR.

Americans are likely to dwell for a long time upon the glories of our
Centennial of Independence. The year 1876 came and went, and left its
impress on the world. Our great Exposition at Philadelphia was
happily devised. We celebrated the one-hundredth anniversary of our
independence, and invited all nations, _including Great Britain_, to
join us in the festival. The Exposition was successful in a high
degree. The nation was at its best. The warrior President who had led
her armies to victory announced the opening and the close. Great
things were seen. One or two great orations were pronounced, and in
particular a great Centennial poem was contributed by that gifted son
of genius, Sidney Lanier, of Georgia. Nor do we refrain from
repeating, after twenty years, one of his poetic passages:

"Long as thine Art shall love true love;
Long as thy Science truth shall know;
Long as thine Eagle harms no Dove;
Long as thy Law by law shall grow;
Long as thy God is God above,
Thy brother every man below,
So long, dear Land of all my love,
Thy name shall shine, thy fame shall glow!"

With the autumnal frost the great Exposition was concluded; and with
that autumnal frost came a peril the like of which our nation had not
hitherto encountered. The presidential election was held, and ended in
a disputed presidency. We had agreed since the beginning of the
century that ours should be a government by party. Against this
policy Washington had contended stoutly; but after the death of the
Father of his Country, the policy prevailed--as it has continued to
prevail more and more to the present day.

In 1876 a Democratic reaction came on against the long-dominant
Republican party, and Samuel J. Tilden, candidate of the Democracy,
secured a _popular_ majority. The _electoral_ majority remained in
dispute. Both parties claimed the victory. The election was so evenly
balanced in its results--there had been so much irregularity in the
voting and subsequent electoral proceedings in the States of Florida,
Louisiana, South Carolina and Oregon, and the powers of Congress over
the votes of