When the present Rebellion arose, America had thus far proved the
success of democratic institutions. In military and naval power, in
education, in the administration of justice, in commercial thrift, in
mechanical and agricultural enterprise, in the development of the
national resources, the progress had been steady and rapid. The
politicians of Europe had been amazed to find that their unanimous
prediction of the frailty of our political system had totally failed.
The idea of a political centre combined with separate State
organizations was as firmly fixed as ever. The General Government
wielded an undiminished power in aid of the general good; the local
Legislatures controlled, within the original limits, local interests.
The people had suffered no curtailment of their liberties from the
delegation of political power; the executive had not been weakened
either by the accession of new States or the disaffection of old ones.
The most philosophic of the English statesmen had predicted again and
again that one of these alternatives must occur,--but they had begun to
doubt their own theories, and wellnigh confessed that our institutions
were a success.
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