The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-05-24


his Diplomats and Generals have been fire.
quenty complimented in glowing terms just
as frequently have the Cabinets of the Al
lies, their Ministers and Generals, been dispar-
aged while no epithet of unmitigated and
truculent contempt and adherence has been
spared towards Napoleon The perpetual
prophecy has been, for the Allies, Disaster and
Disgrace, for Russia, Triumph and Honor.
They are blamed for demanding adequate secu-
rites against her further aggressions upon Tur-
key; she is commended for resisting them.
All the while its columns are crowded with
letters of similar purport from abroad some
written by Hungarian exiles in England, viii
flying the only country in Europe that yields
them protection against Russian and Austrian
persecution.
We can readily understand how a Liberal
Press, like the Tribune, might school itself to
Indifference as to the result of the present
struggle in Europe, but its positive sympathy
with Russia passes our comprehension. The
extract placed at the head of this article is but
an undertoned specimen of its editorials on the
subject. What an insidious attempt to exag-
gerate the offences of England and France,
and to draw a veil over the Monster of Russian
Despotism-a Despotism, which, at once Pom
tiGcal and Civil, acting from the joint forces
of Fanaticism and Ambition, believing itself
anointed of God to subject the soul as well as
the body, has stamped Polish Nationality in
the dust, crushed Hungary, enslaved Prussia,
overawed Austria, and vaunts itself as the
Champion of Absolutism, and the one invinci-
BILE bulwark against Popular Ideas and Institu-
tons I
The foreign writer's who do missionary work
for Russia through the columns of the Tribune,
cannot make common sense. people believe
that England, with its Constitution, its habeas
corpus, its jury trial, its suffrage, its free press,
and free religion, or even Louis Napoleon who
reigns only by the sufferance of the French
People, and because he conforms himself in
the main to their just expectations, is as dan
gerous foe to the Masses of Europe, or to
Liberal Ideas, as Russia, whose Gear yields
the power of sixty millions of subjects, all look
ing up to him as Divinely appointed to univer-
sal empire, and who respects the sovereignty of
the minor Governments of Europe, only when
they can be used to repress revolutionary
movements.
We know that France, with the gigantic
power of Russia confronting her in the East,
and ocean-bound England commanding her
coasts, can never become the mistress of Eu-
rope and no one dreams of universal empire
for England. Say what we may, of the arts
tocratic abuses of the one, or the Napoleonic
usurpation of the other, both countries, despite
all forms of Government, all accidents of ad-
ministration, must continue to be perennial
fountains of Liberal Ideas and Progressive
Movements-for their essential civilization is
revolutionary; it derives its origin, its sane
tons, its vitality, from Revolution.
When Russia shall have turned its energies
from outward aggression to inward develop
ment, and her People shall have become hu-
manized enough to assert their individuality
against the Master that now controls them as
a unit, compelling him to reign as their SER
want, instead of voluntarily submitting to serve
his menials, it will be time enough to solicit
American sympathy for Russian civilization
and power.
We do not ask the Tribune to sympathize
with England or France, to become partisan
of the Allies in their struggle against Russia
it may think that the contest is one of ambi-
tious, of selfish interests, but why should its
columns, so nobly devoted to the interests of
the Masses in this country, be used by perverse
foreign theorists, to debauch public sentiment
with pro-Russian ideas, and teach the Ameri-
can People to regard with complacency, if not
positive appreciation, the most gigantic and dan
gerous Despotism of the age.