Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-09-02
NatIOnoIity--IsIt Il Compatible with Pure Re
nMhIIcRnlsmt

the United States as an evidence that our
form of national institutions is not as has
been represented, a surer guaranty against
war and public extravaganza than that of
Great Britain. II suggests that we have,
somewhat obtrusively presented our insti-
tutions as the only ones from which peace
and ecoromy were inseparable. 1--WE were
assured, il remarks, that with unrestricted
suffrage, and with elec oral laws under
which plain working citizens could make
their voices heard, the old extravagaucies Of
class governments would disappear. Debts
were contracted and wars fought to crafty
an aristocracy subsisting on the taxation ot
tie people. America was the model of q
better system. There the wisdom aud mod
Grafton of citizens, managing their own af.
tsirs, showed itself in peace, thrift and con-
tentment" "Itis this" continues the Times,
I" if the Americans wish to know, which
points the remarks Of Englshmen on their
civil war and its incidents. 1t is not that
they are any worse or more foolish, or
more incorporate than was to be expected
under the trials to which they have been ex-
posed, but that they have been held up to
our admiration, by certain party among u.s.
as people in whose counsels no intemper-
auce 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,
forbesrance or consistency. Arrogant pop
ular passions upon the one hand, and the
fear of the consequences of indulgiug them
on the other, have always impelled it in
crooked and indefensible lines of policy; aud
in consequence of our disregard of the priu-
ciples of international justice, foreign wars
have, in several instances, been fortunately
escaped, rather thar judiciously averted.
Nationality is the cause of war. Were
there no nationalities, 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,
by those who are not afraid to speculate
upon such subjects, whether, in all the wars
that occur, and in all the loss suffering, trou-
BILE and expense which they OCCASION hu-
manity does not, in fact, pay an exorbitant
price for that much bepraised, and, in the
opinion of some, 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 necessitstes 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 30 that if there were no wars, it would
not be easy to show the necessity Of national
maehinery-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 ether. We have only
to keep in view one set of facts, and to put
cut 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 popular elevation. Few will
be inclined to affirm, after Crial, that war is
civilizing process-that people grows
more learned, more polite, more moral OF
more industrious under its influences; and
yet, in modern times, at least, nationalites
have been the cause of all the wars that have
been wsged. 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, or
benefit from them.
The vest national debt of Great Britain
has been incurred, as the abest men of the
Kingdom admit in the carrying on of USE
lSsS NhIe- was lutO WHICH lut government
entered without necessity, aud from which
it emerged without benefit; and this debt
does not include tithe of the cost and
damage that accrued in consequence Ct the
hostilites. Thus the British nationality re-
presents heavy taxation, heavy taxation i'm
plies overburdened and practically oppressed
laboring asses, with consequent discourage
ment and degradation. What is it to Spit
alfeIds weaver or Cornish miner, who
labors without intermissIon from ten years
Of age until he ia carried TO premature
grave in Potter's Field, 10 sustain himself
and his family in a STATE of emi-starvation,
that "Britania rules the waves" or that 'the
morning drum. beat of her military posts
following the sun and keeping company with
the hours, circles the whole globe with one
continued strain of the martial airs of EGG
land2" The recoil of all this glory flatten
him into the dust, and holds him down il
spite of all the resolutions of Exeter Hal
assemblies, the Investigations Of Parliameu.
AIRY committees, or the efforts of Bible ant
Tract Societies.
1t will not do always to assume, when W
find a body of people ignorant and barbar
Gus, that they mead nothing but freedom t
be otherwise, 10 secure their elevation; bu
certainly if such an opinion is rational i
respect to any, it is in respect to lower classe