Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1867-11-23
Ff.+m the n. I. TtiEt:t,g::
How Long; O Lord

1t is within a month of Is years since Louis
| Napoleon struck Liberty an assassin s blow and
laid her dead upon the soil of France. He
stole upon her In the night; while she watched
with faithful eyes the land she had, redeemed
, and her mortal blow came froth the hand OF him
W HON she had set to guard the gates against
| the l,e Never was there worse treason SINCE
the VOL, began never was there treason so
! little look, j for; but never was thPre one so
successful. From that day to this, one OF the
most cunning c6i'-blooded, unscrupulous OF
tyrants has held his throne, not only against all
foreign foes, but against .'lurmurs, discon'enis,
and warnings from his cwn people, and there
seems no reason why he srOG'd not Keep MS
| grip upon the scepter until t,"at1 and old age
| come hand in hand and lead h. n softly to a
peaceful grave. Such lives as his, Sch deaths
as his may be, put to sh lme all the accepted
theories of Providence; to a casual eye hey
show God to whom the evil and the gooo =. .
one; and it is net possible to explain the exlL-
tence of such unmixed evils, working wide
| spread ruin and misery unchecked and uncOn-
trolled, by any dogmas of any sect. Hecore
such mys' cries we C N only stand in silence,
happy if they do not strengthen our doubts or
drive US into disbelief.
II one sense it may be allowed that if the
Ere lch people like this sort of government, it is
! no o; e's business but their own. If they Ike to
have a chain about their necks. let them have it
If they like to have their press gagged, their
frcea5m of speech taken away; if they relish
being pkrpetually watched in their houses, dog
ged in the streets, questioned for every act, cali
ed 10 account for their comings and gOings, told
what they may read, what PLAYS they may see
acted, and what songs they may sing-if ma
iion be sunk so low that it can love such things,
for Gods sake let it hug this loathsome corpse
of life in peace; we can hold our noses and
keep to the windward. Meanwhile it is not a
little absurd to hear such ifati6n forever brag-
ging of its high civilization, and claiming the
right to lead the word ideas es well as the
world of national progress, Bit braggfng,
though offensiv', hurts nobody, and France
may be permitted to grovel and to brag unques
toned within her own domain.
1t is only Wien ''this vice of kings this lex
purse of the empire and the rule" steps out of
his own kingdom and ptdertakes to set straight
the affairs OF other nations as he has done those
of his own, that we have right to complain
and Louis Napoleon has now reduced his med
ding to such system that there cannot be, a
movement for liberty in any part of the world
that he does not SEND his armies to crush it, if
possible, at the very least to hinder it, 10y every
cruel, desperate, and insulting means.
And so completely has his will domineered
over the rest Of Europe, that until Prussia rose
and confronted him that there was no power to
say him nay, or that even dared hint displeas-
ure at his acis. England lies at lis feet cover
ing like threatened hound her only conquests
of late are over the wretcaed Fenians, whom
hef otn laws have made beggars and exiles
Over Indian slvages whom she frightens by
bloodthirstineSs more awful than their own,
over the me chant vessels of a nation with
whom she is I'll peace. Austria, whose simple
minded heir has been inveigled Ivy his cunning
arts into shamef Il death, makes haste to Paris
to kiss the hands that shed his blood Russia
sends her EmperOfs to eat his salt who has
brought her to open shame, and for whole
Summer long kings, princes, and mobiles from
every land that is owned by them have made
crowns and coronets as familiar in Paris streets
as the citizens hat.
When we were in the mortal agony Of our
civil war, this man put all his internal enginery
at work, and tried both to secure our ruin and
to destroy the life of a great neighboring State.
Gladly would he have done both, and long and
hard he worked TO accomplish his purpose. 1t
was bitter day for him when he found that
Americans are not Frenchmen, and that Mexi-
cans are not Italians; bitter day when the
bone to which he had set his teeth was snatch
ed from his paws, and be was beaten to his ken
mel. But Louis Napoleon learns 10 lesson
Made the laughing stock of the world by his
disgraceful defeat in Mexico, sneered at for
prophet, scorned for promise-breaker, he tried
again to meddle, and this time with Prussia
All the world knows the end of that meddling,
and perhaps there never was jest so reliShed
by the world as Napoleon's defeat by Bismarck
1t might almost seem as il fate were bent on for
saking her favorite, if his heel were not still
planted on the neck of England and on the
head of Italy.