Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1852-03-16
/ NATIONAL DANGERS.

\ Washington, in his Farewell Address, impress
lively warns his countrymen against the " irsid-
i0uS ioileS Of foreign Influence" the intrigues
and underground agencies by which the despot-
ic powers of the Old World, will necessarily
seek to guide the policy and control the destiny
of this great Republic. Like all the counses of
that great man, this advice has permanent and
undecaying worth; and there never was time
when it better deserved attention than the pres
ent. The despotisms of Europe have an abid-
ing hatred of the United States The influence
Of Republicanism, rs it is presented to the world
in the Constitution and character of the Ameri-
can Union, must always be hostile to the very
existence Of those governments in which the
people have no voice and no rights. There is
not one such Government in Europe, which is
not growing weaker every year, in consequence
Of our example Thousands and hundreds of
thousands of their subjects are annually quitting
their shores, and becoming citizens of this free
Republic. Their people are constantly taught
by our institutions and our career, the essential
falsehood of the systems of Government, under
which they are living; and the real strength of
these Governments, the loyalty OF their subjects
is gradually wasting away.
That this process will be suffered to 60 on
without resistance by the dominant despots of
Europe, is not to be supposed They will do
everything in their power to counteract and null
lily the neutral influence of the United States
upon their people and their policy They will
seek, by all possible means, to enlist our national
representation abroad upon their side, and where
this cannot be done, to deprive it of all Repub-
lican activity. They will infuse into the minds
of American agents their own views of order and
their own dread of liberal movements. They
will seek to instil into them the same dread of
the people,-the same fears of democratic ten
dences,-the same feversh terror at republican
aspirations on the part of the people of Europe
which they themselves feel or feign.
That these "insidious wies of foreign infu-
ence," against which Washington so emphatical-
y warned his people, steadily practised, pass
ing events afford abundant proof They can be
traced in the diplomatic correspondence of our
Government, and in the movements Of American
agents and officers abroad. They can be felt in
the adroit manGuvres of foreign agents among
us, and in the steady and incessant endeavors
to resist all sympathy with the liberal move
ments in Europe. When diplomatic agents of
this Republic make themselves willing tools of
foreign despotism,- the whims of a
French prefet outweigh all the duties Of hospi-
tality,-when American officers in naval uni
form are afraid to listen to cheers to the Ameri-
can flag from the people in foreign portland
when an lustrious victim Of despotic hatred
meets in Americans, sent to release him, jeal-
Gus jailorship, more intoerant than that of the
Turk, we may well bethink us Of Washingtons
warnings, and beware of the "insidious wiles"
against which he exhorted us to be on our guard.
N. Y. Times.