Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-09-01
NatIonaIity-lsIt it Compatible with Pure RE-
publtcanisms

The London Times very justly holds upto
the world the present condition Of affairs in
the United States as an evidence that our
form Of national institutions is not, as has
been represented, surer guaranty against
war and public extravaganza than that OF
Great Britain. It suggests that we have,
somewhat obtrusively, presented our instl-
tutions as the only ones from which peace
and economy were insepsrable. I'VE were
assured" il remarks, "that, with unrestricted
suffrage aud with electoral laws under
which plain working citizens could make
their voices heard, the old extravagancies Of
class governments would disappear. Debts
were contracted and wars fought to crafty
an aristocracy subsisting on the taxation oi
The people. America was the model of
better system. There the wisdom and mod
Grafton of citizens, managing their own af-
tairs, showed itself in peace, thrift and con-
tentment" 1T is this, continues the Times,
"if the Americans wish to know, which
points the remarks of Englishmen on their
civil war and its incidents. 1t is not that
they are any worse or more foolish, or
under the trials to which they have been ex-
posed, but that they have been held up to
our admiration, by a certain party among us,
as a people in whose counsels no intemper-
ance or folly would be likely to prevail"
The remarks of the Times are just. If
there is any difference between our form Of
Government and that of the British or other
European Governments in respect to the liza
bility to become engaged in war, and sub
jected to its consequent costs and expenses,
it is, other things being equal, not in our
favor. We owe the peace which we have in
general enjoyed, not to the character Of our
Government, nor to the manner in which it
has been administered, but to circumstances
not even remotely related to either. In re-
spect to its foreign relations, our Government
has never distinguished itself for wisdom,
Forbearance or consistency. Arrogant pop
ular passions upon the one hand, and the
fear of the consequences Of indulging them
on the other, have always impelled it in
crooked and indefensible lines Of policy; and
in consequence of our disregard of the prin-
ciples of international justice, foreign wars
have, in several instances, been fortunately
escaped, rather than judiciously averted.
Nationality is the cause of war. We're
there no uationalities, there would be no
wars. England and France war for the
existence, the honor or the power of their
nationalities; we are at war for the unity of
ours; and the question may fairly be asked,
a. frofI 70 ata
upon such subjects, whether, in all the wars
that occur, and in all the loss, suffering, trou-
bic and expense which they occasion, hu-
manity does not, in fact, pay an exorbitant
price for that much bepraised, and, in the
opinion ofsome, greatly overrated thing
nationality. Upon this point we shall have
something to say in the following para
graphs, of which our readers need not make
home application.
If there were no nations, it would be hard
to prove that there need to be any. 1t is the
existence Of one that necesstates the exist
ence of others. If France had no national
machinery to carry on war against Ger
many, Germany would need no national
machinery to carry on war against France;
and so that if there were no wars, it would
not be easy to show the necessity of national
maGhinery-the principal occupation of
which is to carry them on.
1t is usual to attach to nationality the idea
Of progress-to hold that the one is the SYM
Dol and parent Of the other. We have only
to keep in view one set of facts, and to put
Eut of sight another, and we can, at any
time, Prove it entirely to our satisfaction.
1t may, at least, be suspected that nationality
has as much to do with popular depreciation
as it has with popluar elevation. Few will
be inclined to affirm, after trial, that war is
a civilizing process-that a people grows
more learned, more polite, more moral or
more industrious under its influences; and
yet, in modern times, at least, nationalities
have been the cause Of all the wars that have
beer waged. The wars have been for the
honor, the glory or the supposed interest of the
nationality not for that of the people. The
people, as people, have had no interest in, o!
bereft from them.
The vast national debt of Great Britain
has been incurred, as the ablest men of tn,
Kingdom admit, in the carrying on of use
less wars-wars into which the Government
entered without necessity, and from which
it emerged without benefit; and this deb
does not include a tithe of the cost ant
damage that accrued in consequence Of tn
hostilities. Thus the British nationality re
presents heavy taxation, heavy taxation i'm
plies overbuIdened and practically oppresse
iaboring classes, with consequent discourage
ment and degradation. What is it to Spit
Slfields weaver or a Cornish miner, VIII
labors without intermission from ten year
Of age until he is carried to a prematur,
grave in Potter's Field, TO sustain himsel
and his family in a state Of semi. starvation
that "Britania rules the waves" or that 9Th
morning drum.b beat Of her military posts
following the sun and keeping company wit
The hours, circles the whole globe with on
continued strain of the martial airs of Eng
Iand?" The recoil of all this glory Aatter
him into the dust, and holds him down
epite of all the resolutions of Exeter Ha
assemblies, the Investigations of Parliamen
ary committees, or the efforts of Bible an
Tract Societies.
1t will not do always to assume, when "
find body of people ignorant and bsrba