They are
practical, readily comprehended, and to urge them is well--enough,
really, for present practical purposes; but may there not be in the idea
of political unity a meaning--a philosophical significance, if you
please, which these practical and obvious considerations do not reveal?
It is the confirmed conviction of the Northern people, with certain
unnatural exceptions, that it is our true policy to maintain the
integrity of the Union at any cost, however great; the people of the
South evidently take a different view of it; the political thinkers of
Europe appear to be divided in their sympathies between the North and
South.
An article appears in a British quarterly to prove that it is the fate
of great empires to fall to pieces; and that China, Turkey, Russia, and
the United States show signs of approaching dissolution. It is observed
that French writers of authority in the Government have issued pamphlets
to prove that the peace and stability of nations require the
dismemberment of the United States. The 'fire eaters' of the South are
not the only people who would like to see the United States in
fragments. We have such even in the North; and in Europe, especially
near the thrones, 'their name is legion.'
The thinking world has not yet settled into the conviction that a great
continental policy, preserving internal peace, and enduring for an
indefinite period into the far-off future, is a possible thing.
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