The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1862-05-08

tended with their blood, the high class
es of society without being able to live
themselves" .0m; a
Such is the revolving picture of the
condition of the French people. 1t
was of these abuses, growing out of the
feudal system, which made the labor
ing and producing classes the victims,
the derision of an idle and effeminate
nobility, that the people demanded re-
form. Their efforts were resisted by the
privileged classes, the royal family, and
the greater mass of the nobility and
clergy. Privilege was true to IFS in.
stincts. Itclung to it's advantages with
desperate tenacity, and regarding all as
enemies and plunderers who sought to
loosen its grasp upon its long enjoyed
spoils, prepared to plunge the nation
into the horrors of civil war. To this
end it divided its forces, and while
some remained OF home to act the part
of spies upon the republicans, and to
welcome the foreign invader to the soil
of France, others emigrated and stirred
up the surrounding nations to join in
the bloody crusade against the republic
Within and without she was beset by
implacable foes. Both foreign and
intestine war pressed upon her. Trea-
son and assassination within co opera
ted with Legitimacy from without, and
while the friends of reform cried aloud
"Hberty, equality, .frdternity," privi-
lege, in the midst of its myrnidons.
lowering on the frontiers, raised the
gloomy shout of "order, Legitimacy,
down with anarchy"
Without justifying the excesses in
separ able from the struggle, we are not
surprised at, nay, we cannot but ad-
mire the steady defiance and whole
souled devotion of the patriots to their
principles, when, with leaguering armies
of foreigners upon their borders, and
the fires of civil strife raging i'll their
midst they proclaimed "war to the
castle, peace to the cottage" 1t showed
that they were conscious that they were
struggling in the interest of liberty, and
that courage, courage that de6es all
the assaults and all the enticements of
power, is, after all, the only safeguard
for its protection and preservation.
A wasteful and corrupt court had
bankrupted the public treasury. The
mobiles, whose estates had contributed
so little to the public burdens, were fu.
gitives abroad, conspiring with the pub
lie enemies for the overthrow of liberty
and the restoration of the old tyranny.
The estates of the church, comprising
about one eighth of the lands, had
never contributed a farthing TO the pub
lie necessities, and most OF their occu-
pants were openly disloyal to the re-
public, giving aid and comfort to the
royallst conspirators at home, and cor
responding with the enemy abroad.
Under these circumstances, and as
an obvious means of defending the
country and prosecuting the war, the
Convention seized upon and ou6scateti
to the public use the estates, real and
personal, of the emigrant not,les who
refused to adhere to the republic, aud
also the property of the church, pro.
viding for the support of the loyal
priests and for religious worship, out
of the funds of the State. This prop
erty constituted the sole basis on which
the financial system of France rested
from the commencement of the rcpub
lie down to 1890, and during that peri
od more than five hundred millions o.
dollars was, as history shows, derived
from the sales of such property. Il
was plain, undisguised confiscation
and the sales were never wholly ar
rested during the reign of Napoleon
1t was not without its benefits. i
caused the estates of once burden
some privileged class to change hands
parceled them out, and placed them il
the possession of small proprietors, thus
rendering them productive, and invit
ing and encouraging the industry o
the free laboring man. This grea
measure, and the early decree abolish
ing nobility and the right of primo
geniture, made of France new nation
They secured to her the realization o
the vision Of rAbbe Seyes: "What il
the third estate? Nothing. Wha
should it be? Everything" The,
gave to France patriotic soldiery. wh'
carried her conquering eagles to all thu
capitals of Europe. They gave t.
every Frenchman, however lowly,
home and a freside. And they tangh
the world that nations and law and or
der and renown can subsist withou
privilege; that the only solid founda
ton of national strength is in the heart
of an Industrious, laboring, self-sustain
ing people; that liberty and equalit.
are no dream, and that there is no pat
riotism so strong as that which arise
from sentiment of brotherly kindness
and consciousness of equality befor
the law.
Sir, the analogies existing betweel
the social condition of France at tha
frightfnl period, and that prevailin.
under the slavehoding oligarchy in
large portion of the insurgcnt States
cannot escape the notice of the careful
observer. 1t has plainly not escaped
the notice of the leaders of the lnsur
, rection. But had thfy been wise il
time, had they considered calmly tn
difficulty of forever upholding the prin
ciple of privilege and all its concomit
ants in the midst of people worship
I,ing liberty and equality as their house
hold gods, this fratricidal war woul'
n..ver have burst forth. But let me te
is,rm that in their mad attempt to bar
: ish these gods from the hearths Of thei