Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1864-03-04
Emancipation In Russia.

| u From tn0 Albany GVehlnS Joufnel.
The world is steadily advancing toward the
grand goal Of universal freedom. A century
ago, practical serfdom existed all over Eu-
rope. Fifty years ago, slavery was recognized
by almost every government of the old world.
Thirty years ago, England had slaves in the
West Indies, while France and Holland, while
Spain and Portugal, while Mexico and the
States of South America, rigidly adhered to
the doctrine of the /" divine right of man to
hold his fellow in bondage and dispose of
him as he would an OK or horse. -s4Es .ys,s
What a change has been wrought in public
opinion and the policy of States |! Slavery,
monarch of all it surveyed a few decades
since, is an outlaw to-day. 1t is under the
ban of Christendom. The great powers of
the old world have set their faces like flint
against it. Even Turkey, half barbarous as
she is, has spewed it out of her mouth. On
ly the rebels cling to it, and hope against
reason and the inexorable DEGREES of fate, to
save and perpetuate it. 7-l
The progress of freedom in Russia has been
especially remarkable. From time immemo
rial the masses of that country have been in
q condieon Of cbattelship. But the present
Emperor, with courage and humanity which
reflect lasting honor upon him, resolved to
emancipate the serfs. The mobiles protestoI
conspiracies were threatened and even hatch
ed; and storm of indignation over the in
novation upon the rights Of "persenal prop
erty" ragged from one end of the Empire to
the other. 1t was predicted that the effort
would prove failure that the people, sud-
denly invested with the rights of citizenship,
would abuse their new privilege; and that
the disturbance of the old foundation upon
which society had rested for hundreds of
years, would result in serious disaster, if not
in ruin. T
But never were predictions more signally
falsi6ed. Rev. j. Long, an English mission
ary, who visited Russia last summer, has
sketched the results of his observations as to
the rosress of practical emancipation. He
says that '"wi'hin two years no less than
twenty three millions of intelligent, active
peasantry have been raised from the state of
chattels to the condition of insuring their
own independence and comfort. One million
have already bought the land on which they
were formerly located, borrowing the money
from the government. More than 5000 new
schools have sprung into existence through
individual efforts among the peasantry, and
they are rapidly on the increase The general
results of this vast change are beyond esti-
mate. Property is everywhere rising in ualae,
municipatinstitutaons are springing up, and
a Constitutional Government must be the
ultimate result The Emperor Nicholas
foresaw this and hesitated to enter upon the
work of emanci patton, but it was no objec-
ton in the mind of Alexander. Prince
Gortschakoff gives it as his opinion that the
development of Russia during the next two
years would astonish the world"
The same results will follow emancipation
in che South. A new order of things will
spring up. The rebel States regenerated and
made free, will enter upon a new career Of
prosperity. -I,s ---- -. .-.