New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-05-18

not the only people who have to learn that
the true cornerstone of the Republic is the
domestic hearthstone and household honor.
Herein is problem worthy of the best at
tentiOn of the world. De TOcQueville has
given us a noble book on the workings and
prospects of republican liberty in the United
States; but who has yet sufficiently searched
out for us the causes and character OF the
political epidemics which afflict Spanish Amer
leaf If it is quite right to apply the repub-
lican principle to every kind of people, we
would like to know precisely why it is that
fifty years. experiment has not laid the ele-
ments of furious disorder in the more volcanic
half of this cOntinentf Possibly upon dill
gent inquiry, we shall find that the Span
sh-speakng republicans have not, with all
their theories, been able or willing at any time
to make the republic wholly practical. There
have been few thorough going republics south
Of us. Permitted, fomented ignorance in the
people, and their constant cheapness IN the
eyes of bad legislators have something to do
with the misery Of the case A general
deficiency of character and population may go
to solve it likewise. Comparing Brazil with
other South American States, we see that 1t Is
not impossible for a kingdom having a wise
ruler to keep in check elements which some OF
the bastard republics have utterly failed to sub
DUE There must, therefore, be truth in the OBJ
servation that to make nation 1T is necessary
to have men-that to make a republic it is
necessary to have republicans In the PRIDE OF
the success of our own great and ably-Vlndl-
Gated experiment, it will be enough If we rest
content in saying that our theory of government
is the best for the best people, without insist
ing that it is the best for every people under
all circumstances. 1t certainly would not just
now be the best for Brazil-and whyf Perhaps
the most cOgent reason in the world would be
that it is not feasible. The ffty-years' feud OF
certain leprous republics ought to show us what
the nature of the problem of feasibility some
times is We now understand that no despotlsm
is worse than a republic continually at war with
itself, and hence we have been disposed to con-
cede that state of monarchy may be a we'll
fitting Jacket even for q people who know how
to behave themselves.
Notwithstanding, it is plain to the world
that the republican is the better principle. If
people are willing to fight for it fifty years
there is something in it worth striving for
something, too, which cannot be surrendered
without giving up everything beside, even ma
tionality itself We are convinced that 1T Is
impossible to give peace to this continent with
out the defnitive triumph of that principle.
We wish that the Spanish Americans could
have been saved their self-imposed suiterlngs,
but the republic, like the Gospel, brought
sword into the world. The battle for Liberty
ON the continent of Columbus must be fought
out on the line of the republic if it takes till
doomsday. Perhaps the various natlonalties
under discussion might have approached their
prize by steady parallels rather than rash and
Uncontrolled assaults If the institutions, civil
and religious, of Spain had engendered more
tolerance in her children, we are sure that
peaceful liberty would now be the rule of
Spanish America. The crooked political ma
lures inherited by the people south of us have
failed to quite respond to the straightforward
republican principle, but we know no other
means at this late day Of making the crooked
natures straight than by applying the upright
backbone of that liberal principle, and apply
ing it well The Mexican drama proved to us,
not for the first time, that if the republic
seemed more or less a failure, monarchy was
still more so. and that the continual efforts of
the Spanish American patriots were not bent
from monarchy, but from anarchy. There is
such thing rs a people failing when a prln-
ciple intlinsically does not
Ii is one of the saddest things in life TO wit
ness the wreck even Of an individual but there
is one spectacle far more mournful-the ruin
and abandonment Of a people. We do not
wish to say that Mexico OF any of the South
American republics is in that condition. 1t is
almost q sin to despair of the republic any
where But we do say that some Of the States
in question arc in that most delicate and prob
lematic condition when, if they deserve any
consideration at ALL they must merit either the
profoundest sympathy and respect or the pro-
foundest contempt of the world. 1t will take
us more or less time to know for verify
whether we are witnessing n humbug or 4
prodigy-whether we are looking on at clever
men playing for a stake, or arc called upon to
applaud what the gods admired, brave men
in difficulties. Happily, it does not occur to
the majority of mankind that there can be such
q thing "a utter national wreck and suicide.
Efiete nations are somehow saved, by immigra-
ton going to wed Il rcawakening effort among
them, or by some unusual genius In leadership.
1t does not seem that the God of Nations at
last deserts those who cling to principle
heartily and sincerely, whatever have been
their previous designations and shortcomings
Hence while few Of our sister republics are
in the vilcst crises that have beset commuui-
ties, their pangs, though desperate, may be
rcformatory. Hence, our hearts are still with
the suffering and, We hope, in some way pro-
crossing republics. Nations, in their careers,
must pass through q valley of the shadow;
and well for the ones we speak of if out of a
urncl. nf malLnr they can sLlll nreserYe re-