South Branch intelligencer. [volume] (Romney, Va. [W. Va.]) 1830-1896, 1835-02-21

among the men who, to compare and seat
themselves, must take in the compass of
ALL AGES turn back your eyes upon
the records of time /; summon from the
creation of the world to this day the
mighty dead of every age and every
clime--and where, among the race OF
merely mortal men, shall one be found,
who. as the benefactor of his kind, shall
claim to take precedence Of Lafayette {
There have doubtless been, in all ages,
men, whose discoveries or inventions, In
the world of matteror of mind, have O..
pened new avenues to the dominion OF
man over the material creation have
increased his means or his faculties of
enjoyment have raised him in nearer
approximation to that higher and happier
condition, the object of his hopes and as
pirations in his present state of existence.
Lafayette discovered no new principle
of politics or of morals. He invented
nothing in science. He disclosed no new
phenomenon in the laws of nature. Born
and educated in the highest order of feu-
dial Nobility. under the most absolute
monarchy of Europe, in possession of an
aff1uent fortune, and master of himself
and all his capabilities at the moment OF
attaining manhood, the principle of re-
publican justice and of social equality took
possession of his heart and mind, as If by
inspiration from above. He devoted him
self, his life, his fortune, his hereditary
honors, his towering ambition, his splen.
did hopes, all to the caese ofllberty. He
came to another hemisphere to defend
her. He became one of the most effec-
tive champions of our Independence
but, that once achieved, he returned to
his own country, and thenceforward took
no part in the controversies which have
divided us. In the events OF our Revo-
luton, and in the forms of policy which
we have adopted for the establishment
and perpetuation of our freedom, Lafay-
cite found the most perfect form OF Gov
eminent. He wished to add nothing to
it. He WOULD GLADLY HAVE ABSTRACT
ED NOTHING FROM IT. Instead OF the
Imaginary Republic of Plato, or the
Utopia of Sir Thomas Moore, he took a
practical existing model, in actual opera
ton here, and never attempted or wished
more than to apply it faithfully to hisown
couatry.
twas not given to Moses to enter the
promised land but he saw it from the
summit of Pisgah. 1t was not given to
Lafayette to witness the consummatlon
of his wishes in the establishment of a
Republic, and the extinction OF all he
reditary rule in France. His principles
were in advance of the age and hemls-
phere in which he lived. A Bourbon
still reigns on the throne of France, and
it is not for US to scrutinize the title by
which he reigns. The principles OF e.
lective and hereditary power, blended In
reluctant union in his person, like the
red and white roses of York and Lancas-
ter, may postpone to aftertime the last
conflict to which they must ultimately
come. The life ofthe Patriarch was not
long enough for the development OF his
whole political system. Its final accom-
plishment is in the womb of time.
The anticipation of this event is the
more certain, from the consideration that
all the principles for which Lafayette
contended were practical. He never in
dulgsd himselfin wild and fanciful spec
ulations. The principle of hereditary
power was, in his opinion, the bane OF all
republican liberty in Europe. Unable TO
extinguish it in the Revolution OF 1880,
SO far as concerned the Chief Magistra-
cy of the nation, Lafayette had the salts
faction Of seeing it abolished with refer
ence to the Peerage. An hereditary
Crown, stript of the support which it
may derive from an hereditary Pserage,
however compatible with Asiatic despo-
tism, is an anomaly in the history of the
Christian world, and in the theory of
free Government. There is no argu-
ment produclble against the existence of
an hereditary Peerage, but applies with
aggravated weight against the transmits
sion, from sire to sou, of an hereditary
Crown. The prejudices and passions of
the People of France rejected the prln-
cple of inherited power, IN every station
of public trust, excepting the first and
highest of them all but there they chung
to it, as did the Israeltes Of old to the
savory deities of Egypt.
This is not the time or place for dis
QUESTION upon the comparative merits, as
a system of government, of Republic,
and Monarchy surrounded by republi.
can institutions. Upon this subject there
is ameng us ne diversity of opinion; and
if it should take the People of France a.
mother half century of internal and ex-
ternal war, of dazzling and delusive glo-
res of unparalleled triumphs, humili-
ating reverses, &, bitter dissppoinments,
to SETTLE it to their satisfaction, the ult-
mate result can only bring them to the
point @here we have stcod from the dey
Of the Declaration Of Independence--to
the point where Lafayette would have
brought them, and to which he looked as
q contamination deveutly to be wished.
Then, too, and then only, will be the
time when the character of Lafayette