vient partisans, whose fears or selfish purposes
may induce them to applaud, when they ought to condemn and reprove.
Unfortunately, when such parasites are listened to and rewarded, there
is little hope of just and patriotic action; and this state of things
leaves no channel of escape, through which the public discontent can be
manifested, except that of partisan opposition, which, in the existing
crisis, is perhaps more dangerous even than the evil it pretends to
condemn and cure. While party divisions, in the midst of dangers such as
now threaten us, are greatly to be deplored, we can, nevertheless,
derive some satisfaction from results which otherwise we cannot
altogether approve. All the essential principles of freedom still
remain, through this great trial, undestroyed and unsuppressed by
terrorism; and the popular patriotism and sound common sense, though
liable to be misled at first, will eventually pronounce a just and
enlightened judgment. Parasites and flatterers may shrink from the task
of dissent; but the great heart of the people will find some means of
expression; and happy will be our country if their honest warnings,
given upon 'the sober second thought,' shall be noticed and duly heeded.
There will then be no danger of any serious invasions of liberty, or of
any permanent absorption of the proper constitutional functions of the
States by the Federal Government. Doubtless the central power will be,
and ought to be strengthened. Its standing army will necessarily be
larger than before the rebellion; the public debt will be greatly
increased; the taxes will be heavier; and the revenue and disbursements
larger. Though its functions will remain essentially the same in nature,
they will have a broader sweep and a greater power. This enlargement of
its ordinary action will naturally invest it with all the means and
capacities necessary for its own protection, and without any change of
the Constitution, it will be recognized as the true embodiment of our
permanent nationality, forever paramount in its appointed sphere and
appropriate functions to those of the individual States composing it.
The sum and substance of the change will be merely that the centripetal
and centrifugal forces of the system will have become so completely
adjusted to each other, that from this time forward the eternal
equilibrium of the whole will be secured. The States will not be shorn
of any power rightfully theirs, and necessary for the