The national Republican. [volume] (Washington City [D.C.]) 1866-1870, 1869-03-25
W. ]. MURrAGH u. Editor and Proprietor


II has been affirmed both in this country
and In Europe that the Spanish nation are
not sufficiently intelligent to establish and
maintain n republican form Of government.
We have heretofore combatcd this notion
and belief; assuming that freedom Of opinion
and action, when regulated by wholesome
law, may he lodged in the people. We have
believed and do still believe that man, uni
vcrsal man, is capable Of self government;
that a certain amount Of freedom Is his nor
nal condition, and that the maintenance of
the rights which naturally belong to human
beings under the popular restraints and re-
strictions which the welfare of society onjoin
and make necessary, may find safe deposit
tories In the hands of the million when that
million Is trusted and properly directed by
unselHsh and intelligent leaders.
The failures which have attended and
characterized all attempts TO establish re-
publican governments hitherto have not, we
contend, been owing to the ignorance of the
masses so much as to the wickcdncss. pas
sion and ambition of leaders. If the people
have failed In all their efforts to organize re-
publican governments in Europe, as we
know they have, 1t must be attributed more
to the chicancry, management and even
trcachery of self-constitutcd and ambitious
leaders than to want of intelligence in the
masses.
Men who, by their clamor against hercdi-
tary rule, often excite and lead the populace
and induce the masses, either ny violence or
menace, TO drive monarchs from their
thrones, turn upon these very masses AFTER
wards, and by a wcll-dirccted system Of
obscquious flunkcylsm before the insignia of
royalty, induce the people to bow down before
the shadows of power and worship the trap
pings and outside scmbanccs of king.craft.
Just here lies the difficulty of establishing a
republican government in Spain, and not in
the Ignorance of the populacc so much as in
the management of ambitious and unprin-
cipled leaders and politicians.
Take single fact which uptly illustrates
the truthfulncss Of the statements made
above.
A Madrid correspondent of tue London
Times says "that the Spanish people and the
provisional Government have shown re-
markablc consideration for the personal
effects of Queen Isabella Mark the words
the provisional Government shows this "re.
markablc consideration" OF course it does,
and for a purpose. Not that this temporary
Junta cares a whit for Queen Isahalln or her
effects left behind; but it does care, though,
10 teach the people that there is something
awful and sacred in the trappings Of royalty,
and this ii does, for its own sake, to keep Its
hold. Ii wishes to keep power and to use it,
and hence its reverence for the household
effects of pcrllIous, IIccntiou, and DIES.
potic Queen.
But let us quote what this correspondent
further says in Illustration of our views. lie
declares that were the Queen of Spain to re.
turn tomorrow, she would scarcely miss any
of her household gods. There Is still he
half-used bottle Of Eau dc Cologne, the pc
in her husbands inkstand with the in
hardly dry on the nib; the doll her youngc,
girl had in her hand when the last toys wei
laid on the shelf, as the nursery wac set
order and everything made ready for Il stal
to La Grania.'
How Is a republican government to be in
structed upon proper basis and that rcspec
due to man rs man guaranteed, while tn
leaders who constitute the provisional jnHt
are 50 careful to see that such Obscquou
respect i paid to the personal effects Of .
ilrlnt Queen