, and those who shall hereafter be put forward
as the prominent actors upon the great stage of politics will become,
what they have never before been save in name, the servants of the
people. The press of America, like that of England, must hereafter
follow, not lead, the sentiments of the nation. And while true 'freedom
of the press' will be religiously conserved, that unrestrained license
which has always too much characterized it will be restrained and
brought within its true limits, not by statutes or brute force, but by
the much more powerful agency of public opinion--by the danger of
tampering with the cherished and elevated sentiments of the reading
masses.

And as a result of this newborn faculty of thought, we shall see the
disappearance of extreme views and the birth of charity in our midst.
Men will give due weight to the opinions and respect more the natural
prejudices of their fellows. While ultra conservatism is the rust which
eats away the nation's life, radicalism is the oxygen in which it
consumes itself too rapidly away. Or perhaps, a better simile would be
found in the components of atmospheric air--nitrogen and oxygen; the one
a non-supporter of combustion, the other giving it a too dazzling
brilliancy at the expense of the material upon which it feeds; yet both,
properly combined, so as in a measure to neutralize each other,
supporting the steady and enduring flame which gives forth a mild and
cheering light and heat, neither dazzling nor scorching. So conservatism
and radicalism, properly intermingled and exercising a restraining
influence upon each other, are the very life of a great and free people.
And never, in the history of the world, have these principles been more
thoroughly demonstrated, more clearly manifested to the eyes of even the
unlearned and humble, than in the present war, in which one or the other
of these two great mental phases has been the originator of every great
movement, to make no mention of the palpable effect, now appearing upon
the face of society, of their action in the past. And hence, in the
future, we shall see in a noble, far-reaching, broadly spreading,
heaven-aspiring _conservative radicalism_ the prevailing characteristic
of American life and progress.

Hitherto the very prime principle of self-government, an intelligent
cognizance of public affairs and a reflective insight into the
fundamental principles of liberty, has been totally neglected in our
land. And