The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1870-09-15
CAN THERE BE A REPUBLIC IN
FRANCE?

FRANCE?
The Chicago Post asks the above aues-
ton in recent issue, and then goes ON
to answer the same In the following words.
That the Post is correct, there can be but
little doubt: The opinion that King
William of Prussia, or any prince, pope
or potentate in all Europe, wants, or will
consent to have. a Republic established
IN france, except as a choice of evils
and the result OF fear, is sufficient evil
dence of the faulty Of him who enter
talns it.. 1t was not for that that the King
went to war. 1t was not for that that
the other leading powers stood quietly by
and saw the work of destroying the en-
pire going on. All evidence shows that
the struggle on the part of Napoleon was
dynastic, in the beginning; and, asevents
now are developed, it is plain that the
noble resistance of William to the inva,
sion of Germany has degenerated into a
desire for territorial aggrandisement, and
settled purpose to make this contest an
opportunity Of becoming Emperor. In
this view Of the case no man In Europe
will be more firmly opposed to the olsen
thrallment of the French people, in the
way now being tried, than he. Repub-
Acanlsm among states, is Ike noble emo
tons in & crowd-communicative from
enc to another. The emancipation of
the French people would be the peril OF
the Prussian throne. It is mistake to
suppose that, behind all this pomp of
victory, the Prussians can or will be con
tent with the way in which they are now
governed. They have such liberty as
the King aecords them through fear-pot
any fullness thereof poured upon them
by love. As firmly as any man in Eu
rope, he believes in his right to govern
by his own will. Constitutions are moth
ing to him or to Bismarck, his mentor.
Hence, Republican on the west side of
the Rhine would be ten fold stronger
than he. It would be aggressive. also.
to the extent, not of marching armed
men over the boundary, but of sending
what IS stronger than armed -nen-ideas
Of more personal freedom, freedom of
the press and of speech, freedom of in
dustry and of religious opinion without
let or hlndrance from church or state. It
would disabuse the Prussian peopIe Of
the false and wicked maxims upon which
all tyrrany Of priest and king rests, viz
that 1t Is the province Of one class of
overwhelming numbers to earn. and Of
another class, the king at the head there
OF, to spend-the general result being
that labor Is lily rewarded, and that priest
craft and asrlstocracy are exultant. As
with Prussia, so with the other monar
ehles-the constitutional monarchy of
England-(a country in which three bun-
-dred and fifty anti-republicans own half
the land) included. There is not one of
them to which the word republic is not a
premonltion of reign of partial justice.
comprehensive enough, however, to
sweep every septre out Of the hands of
the monarchial classes, to restore the land
to the labor that now cultiyates it with
but scanty reward, to strip the state lace
and lawn from the back of every lvino
priest, to send the debauched and profit
gate austocracy, descended mainly from
ROBBERS, courtesans and murderers. ont
10 work, beg, steal, or starve; and to de-
throne the ten Thousand frauds, lies. rob
berries, which oppression has held to he
necessary parts Of the machinery of stated
That IS not the programme that William
wants carried out.
Our readers may now see the reason
why we believe that the establishment If
a republic in France is impossible: and
why, II we admit that one is established
1t cannot be maintained. The lazy bor]es
the privileged classes who live by lone
prescription and barbarcus precedent in
getting something fer nothing-will not.
whether they be of Prussia, Austria. Bel
gum, Russia, England. or France itself
permit it. See if, in the end we are not
right. A general uprising of the Euro
pean pooplo which will act the orov~ds Of
monarchS and the aristocrafica fshera,ts
beneath them, each to looking for the
safety OF his own neck is the only thing
that VIII prove our prophecy to be false.