Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1848-04-08

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Flatery corrupls both the receiver and the giver !;
and adulation is not of more service to the PEOPLE
than TO kings. / should therefore suspend my
congratulations on the new liberty OF France until
: was Informed how it had been combined with
government; with public force; with the disci-
pne and obedience of armies with the collection
Of an effective and well-disributed revenue with
morality and religion with sodty and property;
: with peace and order; with civil and social man
: ners. All these lin their way) are good things
too and, without them, liberty is not benefit
whilst it lasts and is not likely TO continue long.
The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may
do what they please we ought to what it will
please them 10 do, before risk congratulations,
which may be soon turned into complaints. Pru-
dence would dictate this in the case of separate
insulated private men but liberty, when men act
in bodies, is po,Uer. Considerate people, before
: they declare themselves, will observe the use
which is made OF potoer; and particularly OF so
| trying thing as neD power IN neaO persons, OF
whose principles, tempers, and dispositions they
have little or no experience, and in situations where
those who appear the most stirring in the scene
may possibly not be the real movers
This reasoning is SO applicable to the occasion
and the moment, that our readers will thank for
repeating to them what has been said, at nearly
fury ago, by so wise and good man, even should
they not feel disposed to follow his example.
To recur to the citation which we have made of
the remarks of Southern Senator in regard to this
press, trust that we need not assure any atten-
tive reader of ours-though we have been I'M
happily Inexperienced by that genteman-that
we have never intimated sentiment hostile TO the
freedom of France, nor said a word from which
such a sentiment could be Justly inferred. We
may have thought, and might have said, (but have
not that the People of France are, in our opinion,
not prepared, by temperament or habitude, to live
conientedy under institutions at once simple and
free as those of the United States. But, most GER
tainly so far from entertaining any feeling unfavor
able to the liberties of the French people, have
explicitly and earnestly expressed directly oppo-
site sentiment.
Whether some Of the DEGREES which have al
ready emanated from the Revolutionary Govern
ment of France are favorable or otherwise to free
dom elsewhere than in France is question which
we should willingly leave TO the good sense OF the
Senator himself if the possession Of seat on
the same floor allowed Us publicly to PROFOUND 1t to
him. Not having that honor, however, we take leave
to express to our readers a doubt whether the pro-
posed IMMEDIATE emancipation Of The slaCes an all
the colonies Of France be either wise well-timed,
humane measure. Is il not, if Of any effect, and
especially if sustained as proposed by congratula-
tons from the public authorities Of the United
States, calculated TO lead to the most sanguinary
scenes in the colonies of France, and TO insinuate
the gravest disorders elsewhere What answer
does History return to this question!
"Of that malignant philosophy, Says Chief
Justice MARSHALL, in his Life of WASHINGTON,
which, disregarding the actual state of the world,
and estimating at nothing the miseries Of vast
portion Of the human race, can cooly and deber-
ately pursue through Of blood, abstract sys-
TENS for the attainment OF some fancied untried
good early and bitter fruits were gathered in the
French West Indies. Instead of proceeding in the
correction of any abuses which might exist, By
those SioW and cautious steps Which gradually IN
'hOduce reform Hithout ruin, which may prepare
and fit society for that better state Of things de.
signed for them; and which, by not attempting
impossbilities, may enlarge the circle Of happi-
ness, the revolutionisls of France formed the mad
and wicked project of spreading their doctrines Of
equality among persons between whom there exist
distinctions and preudces to be subdued only by
the grave. The rage excited by the pursuit of
: this visionary and banelul theory, after many
threatening symptoms, burst forth on the 23d day
Of August, 1871, with fury alike destructive and
general. In one night preconcerted instruction
of the blacks took place throughout the colony Of
ST. Domingo, and the white inhabitants Of the
country, while sleeping in their beds, were invov-
ed in one indscriminate massacre, from which
neither age nor sex could afford an exemption"
Nor, we are sorry TO say, could the members Of
the Provisional Government Of France, who have
framed and launched this decree, plead ignorance of
the dangers with which il is fraught. Had any of
them wanted knowledge on the subject, M. LAMAR
TINE could have supplied it. No one better than
he; for he himself, in his History of the Giron-
dsts" has chronicled the event in terms never 10 be
forgotten by him or her who reads them Les
.fmis DIES Noirs having, in the old Revolution, just
as they have done now, procured the passage Of
decree 10 the same effect as that TO which we have
referred, the Government of their principal colony
/ ST. Domingo) knowing that the decree was one of
desoIaon and death TO them and theirs, made BY per-
sons who either knew not or were reckless whalthey
were doing, hesitated 10 carry it into effect Impa-
ent Of the delay, Les Noirs took the execution
Of it into their own hands, and NJ. LAMARTISE, in
the tenth book of his History Of the Girondiss,"
time rocorle the evenf.