Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1857-10-20
OF REVOLUTIONS
AIRY M EN-.
.sDr LAnARrIHs.

"a, .,.i ssSsr LAHAErrrs. aSi{ ~
Iknow---I sigh when think Of it--that
hitherto the French people have been the
least religious Of all nationscf Europe
Is it because the ideaoi God---which arises
from all the evidences of Nature, and from
the depths of reflection, being the pro-
foundest and weightiest idea Of which hu
man intelligence IS capable. and the French
mind being the most rapid, But the most
superficial the lightest, the riostunrefect-
I've of all European races--this mind has
not the aiorce and severity necessary to
carry lar and long the greatest conception
of the human understandingfs p
Is il because our. r.governnientth have al-
ways taken upon them elves TO think for
us, 10 believe for us, and 10 pray for us
Is it because we are and have been mill
tary people, soldier-nation, led by kings,
heroes. ambitious men, ON battlefield to
battlefield, making conquests. and ever
keeping them ravaging, dazzling. charm
ing, and corrupting Europe, and bringing
home the manners, vices, bravery, light
ness. and impie.y of the camp to TIE fire.
side of the people?
know not, but certain 1t is. that the
nation has An immense progress TO make
in serious thought, if she wishes to remain
free. Ii we look at the characters COM
pared as regards religious sentiment. of
the great nations Of Europe and America.
or even Asia. the advantage il not for us.
The great men of other countries 1--we and
die on the scene of history, looking up to
heaven; our countrymen appear to live and
die. forgetting completely the only idea for
which It is worth living and dying-they
live and die looking at the spectator. or, at
most. at posterity.
Open the history of America, the histo-
ry Of Eng and, and the history of France;
read the great lives, the great deaths, the
great mariyrdoms, the great words Of the
dying-and compare.
Washington and Franklin fought, spoke.
suffered, and ascended and descended in
their political life, always in the name Of
God, for whom th"y acted; and the liberia
tor of America died, confding to God the
liberty Of the people and his own soul.
Sidney, the young marlyr of a patriot
ism, guilty of nothing but impatience, and
who died to .xpiate his country's dream
of liberty, said to his jailor-'I rejoice
that die innocent toward the king, but a
victim, resigned to the King on High, to
whom all life is due"
The republicans of Cromwell only
sought the way Of God, even in the blood
of battles. Their politics were their faith
their reign prayer-their death psalm.
One hears, sees, ieels, that God was in all
the movements of these great people.
But cross the sea, traverse La Mancha,
come to our tim es. open our annals, and
IisUen to the last words OF the great politi-
cal actors of the drama of our liberty
One would think that God WAS eclipsed
from the soul, that his rame was unknown
in the language. History will have the air
of an atheist, when she recounts TO poster
ity these annihilations. rather than deaths,
of celebrated men in the greatest year of
France The victims only have God /;
the tribunes and lictors have none.
Look at Marabeau on the bed of death
Grown me with flowers" said he; ''in-
toxica;e me with perfumes. Let me die to
the sound of delicious music"--not word
OF God or of his soul. Sensual philoso-
pher, he desired only supreme sehsualism,
last vo uptuousness in his agony.
Contemplate Madame Roland, the strong
hearted woman of the revolution, on the
cart that cShviyed her to death She look
contemptuously on the besotted people who
killed their prophets anl sybils. Not a
glance toward heaven. Only one word
for the earth she was quitting-'.Oh, Lib
|ery" @
ANproach the dungeon door Of the Gil
rondins. Their last night is banquet
their only hymn. the Marseillaise
Follow Camille Desmoulins 10 his exe-
cution. A cool and indecent pleasantly
at the trial, and long imprecasion on the
road TO the guilloline, were the, TWO las,
thoughts of the dying man on his road t.
the last tribunal. 9
Hear Danton on the platform of the
scaffold, At the distance Ot line from God
and eternity Il have had a good time ol
liz; let me go to sleep" Themto the ex.
ecutioner-'Y"u will chow my head TO the
people it is worth the trouble!'' Hi>
faith, annihilation ; his last sigh, vanity
Behold the Frenchman Of this latter age
What must one think of the religious
sentiment of a free people, whose grear
figures seem thus to march in procession
to annihilation, and to whom that terrible
minisper-death-itself recalls neither tn,
threatenings nor the promises Of God
The republic of these men without {
God has quickly been stranded. The lib
er;y, won by so much heroism and so muci
lgenius, has not found in France a con
science to shelter it, God TO avenge il, OF
a people to defend il against that atheism
I,uhi<.h hoe 49,. Il l.
in = soldier and some apostate republican,
travested into courtiers. An atheistic re
fpublicanism cannot be heroic. When yo,
lterrify it, it bends; when you would buy
4 it, il sells itself. Il would be very foOlisl
to immediate ITSELF Who would take AM
heed the people ungrateIuI anit,od non
existentl 20 finish atheist revolutions J.
Bien Pu6lique. ,-es
i AT the nresent time forfv-three weakI,