The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-27

uihtAOhNCh Oh Anui QucbblOu, our WuOl6 DtO-
pie giving their unanimous good wishes to
the Spanish colonies, although our Govern
ment preserved its neutrality. But none of
the new republics, from Mexico southwards,
have given us any reason to be proud of our
foresight. They have been Independent for
half a century, and during this long period
they have all been in a state Of chronic
anarchy.
The Greek revolution was the next foreign
contest which deeply stirred public feeling in
this country. 1t occasioned some of the
finest coruscations of eloquence in our Con-
gressional debates; but the subsequent his
tory of Greece has shown that we over-esti-
mated the Importance of the cause and the
capacity and virtues of the Greek people.
That hallucination quickly passed; and there
is at present no people of Europe who awaken
less admiration than that pestiferous nest of
brigands, the modern Greeks.
After the Greek revolution, there ensued
in Europe a long period of peace, which was
not seriously broken until the republican up
rising of 164S. The most remarkable of
those movements was the overthrow of Louis
Philippe and the setting up of q new French
republic. The sympathy of our people went
of course with the French republicans. A
resolution was offered in the American Senate
congratulating the French people on the
change; and on that occasion Mr.. Calhoun
made a terse, cautious speech deprecating the
passage of the resolution as premature until
it was seen whether the new republican insti-
tutions were likely to be permanent. Mr..
Calhoun's wariness was fully justified by the
event.
The second French republic, like the first,
was a short-lived, unsatisfactory experiment,
terminating in imperial despotism. The
American sympathy lavished on other parts
of the revolutionary movements of 1913 was
equally premature and unre1ecting. We
went wild over the cause of Hungary, and
made q great hero of Kossuth. When we
look back upon that enthusiasm it seems like
a transient frenzy. Kossuth sneaked out of
this country under an assumed name, aud
led an obscure life in London; and the
Hungarian cause collapsed and soon be-
came as flat as uncorked soda-water. Nj.
Webster, who had written his celebrated
Hulsemann letter as a magnificent bid for
the popularity which attended the Hungarian
cause, received but a small fraction of the
votes of the Wing Convention, and furnished
a new demonstration that no political capital
can be made in this country by floating on
transient popular sympathy with a foreign
belligerent. That kind of enthusiasm is SO
flashy, and is SO apt to be put out of counte-
nance by practical results over which Ameri-
cans can exert no control, that a wary politi-
clan will be shy of placing any reliance on it.
American sympathy with the Roman revo-
luton in 1913 was i'll bestowed, as nobody
now doubts that it retarded and put back the
progress of liberal ideas in the Papal domi-
Mons. The lesson Of all these examples is,
that while such sympathy may be excusable,
it cannot be turned to political account in
our party struggles. In the Crimean war,
our sympathies were on the side of Russia,
but in the end Russia got badly whipped.
Political parties in this country have never
gained anything by taking stock in foreign
q%uarrels.
The foolish attempt of the Republican
party to utilize the present outburst of Ger
man patriotism will prove no exception to the
uniform rule. Our German citizens see
through and despise it. Their enthusiasm is
spontaneous and genuine, and therefore re-
spectacle; but the attempt to raise a Repub-
lican chorus is sheer ~demagogism. The
Germans are not absurd enough to expect our
Government to aid Prussia; and they see as
clearly as we do that the question cannot
enter into American politics. The grounds
and probable results Of the war are a proper
enough subject for individual opinion, but
not for political action. Whether pro-Prus-
sian or pro-French sympathy is well bestowed
depends upon whether free and wise govern
ment will be promoted in the country to
which we give our good wishes-a question
which nobody can answer at this early stage
of the quarrel.