Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1866-05-15
A Historical Parallel.

Our country again being fairly on the
road of calm judgment and constitutional
progress, we may presume that a shor
narrative of the only analogous event in
history TO our own situation will be read
with some interest We are acquainted
with no ether crisis in the history of any
| State that shows more resemblance in all
its features to our own than the civil wal
| in Switzerland, that is known under the
name of the Sonderbdad wdr, and the
subsequent restoration of the seven sece
ded cantons to their full political rights
in lS46
Afraid that the abolition of the con
vents by the Cantonal Government OF
Aargau and the order of expulsion OF
Jesuits might lead to still greater inter
ference of the Federal Government in
the affairs of the several cantons, and,
encouraged by the Jesuits to an armed
resistance, the older cantons seeded
from the General Government and formed
a separate alliance under the name Of the
Sonderbund The other cantons did not
agree to the principle of secession, and
their representatives at the Diet, on the
goth of July, l84G, carried the motion of
dissolution from the Sonderbund The
Diet at once collected an army Of about
100, 900 troops under the command of
Gen. Dufour, while the Sonderbund could
only raise force of G,000 men, calcu-
lating besides upon ldndsfrum of about
$4,000 The war, contrary to all predic-
tions, was of very short duration.
The isolated can;ons of Freburg, after
L. IL al . he
whole army of the Sonderbund was over
whelmed on the 23d of November, at
Gislicon, and all the seven cantons at
once surrendered
Without regard to the mere formal
points of view, we thus have a war and
surrender for similar causes as our own.
The war in both cases was commenced
for the maintenance of principle to
which the majority of the States would
not agree. Here it was slavery, in Swift
zerland it was the Jesuitical character of
some institutions; and here and there
the seceders submitted only because they
were overpowered, and not because they
were convinced of the injustice Of their
principles, Nevertheless, both submit
ted to the Federal power. Unfortunately
here, ct least in some respects, the par
allel ends; for, whilst in Switzerland no.
body thought either Of revenge or Of ex-
clusion of the seceders from the halls of
the national Legislature, nor of the crea-
ton of differences concerning the rights
and privileges Of citizenship betweenthe
loyal and the seeded. Here, the greater
duration of the struggle and the immen-
sity of material advantages, derived from
the possession ofpolitical power, created
the unfortunate and anti-Democratic idea
of imposing a series of conditions TO the
vanquished, as pretext for the prolong
alton of exceptional legislation, and of
the rule of that party that drew in fact
all the advantages from the war.
In Switzerland the very first thing,
after the surrender Of the seeded can
tons, was an limitation to them to at
once reoccupy their positions in the
Diet, and on the 18th Of February, le49,
a revision of the Federal compact that
was selected by the representatives Of all
the Swiss cantons We only state here,
incidentally, that the new constitution
promulgated in the fall of the same year
was not in the least a centralizing
scheme 1t only changed a mere con-
federacy into a national government,
nearly in the same way as we ourselves
did in 1887, leaving the rights of the sew
eral cantons in regard to their home in
stitutions untouched, and even allowing
them exclusively to decide about the con-
ditions of the naturalization of foreign
ers. Whilst here the war has been used
as pretext for the change of most adj
mirable national Constitution for the
benefit of some Eastern States, III Swift
zerland the war against the Sonderbund
furnished only an occasion, equally de-
sired by all cantons, and necessitated by
the relations of Switzerland 10 their
neighboring States, to change many OBJ
noxious and obstructing features OF the
old compact. The consequences OF this
reasonable policy we're most beneficial
to the whole country. The new constr
tuition was carried out with equal alac-
rity in all the cantons; and not mere
than one year afterwards, when the Prus-
slams threatened Switzerland with war,
the whole Swiss nation stood up as one
man against the common enemy, and
Prussia, having calculated upon the dis-
union spirit of the subdued Sonderbund
cantons, bad at once 20 abandon iis ne
farious schemes
II cannot be denied that the eantons
belonging 10 the Sunderland were, TO
great extent, opposed to progress and re
forms But it was observed. with great
deal of justice, that this antipaihy to
novel institutions would not have been
changed in the least BY a proscrptive
and tyrannicsl policy. On the contrary,
the spirit Of opposition, nourished by a
hateful policy on the part Of the stronger
cantons, would have forever been in the
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