Looking at the history of political parties, and the lives of public men for a few years past, who can doubt that a great decadence has taken place in the public morality of the country? Whether or not this decadence is to extend, become permanent, or perhaps finally blot out every vestige of national virtue, is not for us to predict. It is a sufficiently lamentable fact, that it is at all plainly marked on the current record of the Republic. Nor will we pretend to say that this lapse of public morality necessarily involves a parallel decay of private morality—of the sturdy virtues of independence, intelligence and patriotism, which have heretofore inspired and ennobled the great mass of our people, from whom political parties and public men are evolved. Yet we must believe that the people cannot long submit to, or even tacitly endorse a bad public morality, without becoming contaminated thereby. It seems to us that we are on the verge of a crisis; aye, perhaps have already entered upon an ordeal more perilous to our national life, or civilization and republican institutions, than has ever before occurred.