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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1877)
WP" National CiiAnACTi:n. 17 in tin: United Slates Senate. What would t lie American Hopli say if such a das tardly and villainous attack was made on a senator in li is scut to-day? Theintiro people, irrespective of parly, would send uch a er of disapprobation to our na. tionul oapitol that the most fanatical of our representatives would hasten to clour his skirts of any ullllintion with such n wruloh. lut when Mr. Sumner was at tacked, there was nol a man in the I"). mo. eratie ar:y, in ihe House then domi nant, who had manhood enough in his contracted .soul to introduce even u reso lution of censure, and such an advanced and enlightened man as Stephen A. Doug las said, in giving his testimony before u committee of investigation that had been appointed at the instigation of the Hcpdb Menu members, that ho "heard the row but thought Sumner was receiving noth ing more llinn ho deserved, and did not wish to identify himself with u lot ol brawlers;" but even that was an advance on the policy of a few decades before. And so we may go back indefinitely, and we will find a gradual improvement, but not equal to our own tunc. Civilizilion and advancement are like the avalanche thai stalls on Ihe top of the mountain, first as a little snowball, gain ing strength and velocity each moment as it descends. JSTAT1 ON A L Oil A llAOTJ-JIi. "Whatever is desirable, and nol pos sessed, becomes an object of search; or, when possessed, and its future absence re garded as possible, an object of retention. Wo enjoy a great many things ami are not able to appreciate them, from the fact that we know little or nothing of the in convenience of being without them. The great national blessing wo enjoy in our national chaructor may proporly conic under this list. Ever since we assumed u station among the powers of the earth, we have held a respectable rank; therefore wo cannot know but by looking broad that the loss of u firm national character, or ihe degic dalion of a nation's honor is the inev itablo prelude to her destruction, lb.it at this time many cxcilb-nt persons, if we may judge from their repeated declara tions, have' come to entertain very do. spunding vitws respiting the condition and prospects of the American people. Hut why the need of these fears? Is our character degenerating? Whoever is familiar with the proceedings of Con gross in curly limec, and with the angry collisions in Ihe army of the devolution, and recalls the menaces and violent Ian guagc uttered during the presidency of Washington and his immediate succcsors, will agree with us in the opinion, that, as domestic quarrels do not always result in tins dissolution of family ties, so also, Hip. pan! paragraphs, resolves of associations, and oratorical flourishcsdonotnlways por tend the separation of slates and the divis ion of a nation. Those who insist that wo arc Iho dogoner utcd sons of worthy sires, do but echo the predictions that the loyalist, utlcicd one hundred years ago. Possibly, no one cause has so much contributed to the belief in the degenera cy of our people as the increased facilities of communication. Iy these increased facilities the acts of each day are heralded all over the country. What transpires to-day, loim rrow i3 known all over the land: hence, there is a .s'hadow, (but only n shadow,) of a reason Cor the belief in the terrible inoroiife of crime. It is the misfortune of sumo to be able to see but one side of the picture, and that the dark side. They fall to observe that through the sime medium all parts of the country are brought into closer relationship; peo. plo of all parts of the country come to know each other better, and. as they be come better acquainted u better and more friendly feeling springs up between them. In order that friendship may bpring up between persons, or countries, or different parts of the same country, there must be sgiisa