The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-03-27
IMPERIALISM OUT OF PERVERTED DE.
MOCRACY.

A New York journal, deriding the idea o
the European conservatives that democracy
the mother of imperialism, asks: SIS it fea
or laughter that is moved in us by threat O
usurpations" Well, the feeling with whicl
the judicious must view the scene presente
at Washington is complex. If we could alb
stract the performances from its actual rela
tons to the political situation, its broad fea
lures of burlesque, travestie and buffoonery
would provoke only the sentiment of unmiti
gated ridicule But this abstraction is no
possible. The porderous imbecihties of
Sumner, the CHASTITY levities of Stevens, tn,
bald and impudent pettifoggeries of Butler
and the transparent hypocrisies and grotes
que mockeries of herd of lesser perform
ers, are absurd enough to be sure, but are fal
from being altogether amusing. Such thing.
might well move the gods to illimitable laugh
ter; for as concerns celestial spectators they
could be no more than human medley of in
consequential foolishness. But for men there
is a tragic side to this miserable farce. And
the more that this tragic side is blinked ahd
| ignored by those whom it most concerns, the
more it deepens and widens. 1t is, in Other
words, because SO large portion of the PEG.
| pie choose to dismiss notes of warning in
regard to the progress OF usurpation and the
subversion of republican government, as the
idle expression of irrational fear, and persist
In seeing the matter only in its farcical as
| pect, that there is real danger of q tragical
catastrophe.
The journal whose question we have thus
briefly answered-the New York Evening
Post, we mean-also remarks:
But the true democratic life not only has no
tendency to Imperialism, il renders il impos
sible. Democracy Is productive industry and un-
fettered trade; 1t is, therefore. peace. But in q
community which lives by and for peaceful In
dustry, the ambition that makes soldiers and en-
perors has no existence Cesar is as impossible
as Attila. Napoleon would be as poweress as
Mobammed. Neither hepassons which make
such leaders, nor those which follow them, are
ever awakened. Was Alexander born in Athens
Did Philip ii learn tyranny in Antwerp?
To present this as picture of the politi-
cal situation in the United States is simply
begging the question. To say that true
democratic life must exclude imperial des-
potism, is about as much as to say that ami
nation excludes death, or that light and
darkness cannot prevail in the same place at
the same moment. Nobody dreams of dis
putting such truisms. 1t is perverted democ-
racy that always has tended, and always will
tend, to one of these alternatives-imperial
despotism, anarchic license and disorder.
When the people of free country, through
Incidence, apathy, vice and corruption, per-
NIT the republic to become merely nomi-
nal, it is then that government is sure
to become the prey of swarm of plunderers
and usurpers who, in the name, and perhaps
to some extent in the constitutional forms. of
democracy, destroy the substance of free in
stitutions, scandalize the sincere friends of
liberty, insult popular intelligence, and out
rage decency. Though the domination of
these pseudo-demoerats is usually but tempe
rary, they are very apt to rule long enough to
open the door to a real and permanent des-
potism. What are the men who now have
ascendancy in the government of the United
States2 They are, in fact reactionists against
the republican system. They are not Philips,
or Alexanders, or Caesars, or Napoleons, it is
true. In all respects they are infinitely
smaller than these. But they are not on
the other hand, such men as the political
school of Athens, of Sparta, or of Thebes,
would ever have produced. They have never
derived instruction from the great masters in
political science, ancient or modern. Their
vicious practice is in large part the logical
sequence of their vicious education. A SIMS
ter fortune has given them power, and utterly
incapable of using it wisely, they must neces-
sarily abuse it. But the New York journal
before referred to finds consolation in the
httleness of the men who are now
misruling the country, and it is fam
to see in this fact an assurance against
the overthrow of American liberty. GA
great people" it says, "are always jealous
Of great men," This jealousy could not take
a more fatal form than that of ostracizing the
large intelligences and the magnanimous
from the sphere of public activi-
ties, and permitting multitude of paltry
and ignoble natures to crawl into power. To |
the extent of their ability these natures
become despots, and weary and disguised,
but withal nerveless people, is but too
prone in such cases to seek relief from mob
Of petty despots in subsection TO one petty
lespot.