The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-01-17
WAR AND EMIGRATION.

Europe is writhing under the nightmare of
impending war. This fact is especially mani
tested in an unprecedented emigration from
Germany to the United States New York
statistics of immigrant arrivals show that the
Germans never contributed so large proper
ton of these arrivals as they are now con-
tributing. If misery may be mitigated or
aggravated to the mind by comparison, then
Americans may enjoy at least this consolation.
that there is in Europe an increasing number
Of people who are SO unblessed that they re-
gard this country as happier than their own.
The process of unifying Germany under the
policy of Bismarckis attended by local shocks,
discontents, anxieties and infelicities some
what similar to those which have resulted
from the process of reconstructing the United
States under the policy of the radical con-
solidationists. Whether the German emigrant
jadges wisely in believing that the general
situation here holds out a more inviting pros
pect than the general situation in his own
country holds out, it is needless to discuss.
He knows where the German shoe pinches.
We, being altogether ignorant on that score,
are scarcely in a position to say that he
chooses unwisely when he concludes to try
the American shoe, of the pinching qualities
of which he knows nothing and we know only
too much. However this may be, it is certain
that the species of military empire extended
by Prussia over the smaller German States is
extremely unsatisfactory to large portion of
their citizens, both in its present effects and
its apprehended consequences.
Nor has Bismarck's policy been calculated
to increase the mental comfort of the people
Of Prussia. They find that their country is
more than ever like military camp They
see that the greatness obtained for it by Bis
marck must be paid for in an augmentation
of taxes, in more rigorous military exactions,
in the necessity of preparation to meet at any
moment q combination of enemies headed by
SO formidable power as France, and in the
oppressive conviction of the ultimate certainty
Of their becoming involved in a war of dread
full magnitude and of incalculable issues, a
war to the lurid fields of which not less than
five millions of soldiers are now ready to
march at the first signal To Ger
man contemplation a striking advant-
age offered by the situation in the
United States consists in the fact that
the politics of the latter country are almost
entirely domestic; whereas, in Europe, inter-
national politics furnish the gravest occasions
for public disquietude, and convey the most
formidable menaces to peaceful industry and
invested capital. This difference, to the adj
vantage of the United States in respect to ex-
ternal relations. is due to no corresponding
regularity of institutions or Of general policy.
1t is only to be explained by o favorable
geography. In other words, the United |
States has no powerful or aggressive neigh
Oors' The only use which its present govern
nent has for an army is to insult, degrade |
md Cypress, without provocation and with |
an impoverished, forsaken and |
helpless portion of its own people. Were it
nly to abstain from this luxury, it could then
veil afford TO reduce its military establish
nent to what would be, in European estima-
ion, mere corporal's gnard; and its rich and
expanded territory would, not without reason,
ook like western paradise to some of the
populations of tax-eaten and arny-ridden
ouptries Of the Old World.