Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1871-05-31
tBuluhman s. Journal.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 81, 1871
The Commune Of Paris.

/ the destructive power ana enects OF TAI
!. principles and corrupt practices She illustr
d tes the truth Of the declaration Of Sir jam
}, Macintosh, that the most artistic aud sci
. suous people are the most capable Of ei
p cessive atrocities and cruclties. The cutut
n Of the merely aesthetic nature, without ID
c ference to the moral, develops a race Of me
G into the worst vices and renders them cqui
, 10 crimes and wckedness which can hardl
be paralleled by the most barbarous an
, savage nations Once and again, Paris b,
T taught the world that side by side with a
E that can dazzle aud rayish the senses, and dc
light tho intellect, and cultivate the cstheti
sentiments, may spring up and grow the fou
est vices aud the most outrageous and devasi
, ating passions. As one after another. III
llustrious monuments Of French victories
aud the glorious palaces Of French art an
imperial power, aud the decorated and pictur
ed churches Of French religion, have bee
f swept with the fires kndled by the Pari
Commune, the world has learned that me-
who are reckless and athestic whose spirits
however cultivated, are unquelIed by the fea
Of God are more capable Of immense wicked
ness and unmitgated ferocity, than the .av
ages Of the forests or the plains
Paris teaches the world, also, the disastrou,
influence and powcrof large cities on the fate
Of a nation. There was time when the
thieves and robbers aud assassins and murder.
ers Of a nation had their resort in the couu-
try They were the Robin Hoods and Dick
Turpins Of society They had their haunts
in forests and mountain Businesses and hid.
den caves, and would issue forth from them
to pillage houses, to sack villages, to rob and
murder Travellers aud then retreat to their
inaccessible hiding places. But with the
change of social order, with the development
Of agriculture with the increased facilities Of
transit, the country has been deserted and the
cities have become inhabited by the great
rogues and criminals of a nation. There they
hide themselves in dark dens, and houses of
infamy and unlighted streets concoct their
yillanies, and come forth at times to break
into houses; to storm the vaults Of banks to
outrage delenseess women; to murder men
in their beds, or ut their doors, or on the high
streets. Every form Of deviltry is uursed
and developed in the rank gardens Of city
vice aud crime. The most daring and aban.
doned and atrocious criminals Of the ages are
educated aud find their retreats and hiding
places there Abandoned women accom-.
plished villains, proagate libertines, noto-
rious gamblers, robbers of banks and breakers
of houses, murderers and ravishers all con.
gregate there band together for mutual pro
lection and for systematic depredations on
society for pillage and slaughter, and be-
come even a political power taking pos
session of the ballot box at elections, and
electng their leaders aud abettors to the
city offices and legislative positions. The
Commune Of Paris was the political fab.
ric of the great desperadoes and criminals
Of the city. 1t shows what the suffrage can
be made to do in large cities. Whenever the
wild elements Of a city obtain rule over it
either by force of numbers or by force Of
brutality and violence, they will be as eager
to burn and destroy and condscate and rob a,
were the Paris Commune. When men whose
lives or liberties are justly forfeited to socie.
ty become political power, courted by polit
ica demagogues and parties, and throw a soil,
vote for the men of their choice, and max
the polls dangerous to decent and respectable
citizens, we may look out for scenes simia
to those which have ROBBED Paris in suit o
sackcloth and ashes, and made her presen
history read like chapter from the Apoca
lypse. Paris teaches the world that Their
should be some electoral qualifications tina
the suffrage is not a right Of man, but a trus
committed to him; that the privilege of gov
eminent belongs only to those who are worth
to govern, and who are able to govern then
selves When the mass Of ignorance an
, crime can concentrate, as it does in our larg
cities, and establish its political powers, as il
the Commune Of Paris, we may look out 70
the overthrow of all civilized life, for sacr
lege aud assassination, for the destruction c
innocence and the conaagration of every fai
! and noble structure. New York is hardl
better than Paris or rather, New York ha
in it mass of evil and rascalty and erin
I like that of Paris. 1t has yet, what Pari
= had not, large element of honesty and puri
I ty and fear of God 1t has its ten virtu
Gus men who could not be found in Paris
but if the time comes when that eemen
. shall be weakened, and the bad powers of tn
;. city shall encroach upon it, there will be notl
$ ing to save New York from the fate of Pari
> The Commune of Paris was ostensibl
the work of the aboring classes 1t is n,
D a little singular that the laboriug class, Il
!. oNDrierS Of Paris, should all be of this reel
c less goddess, material, that they should ha,
gone so universally into practical atheisr
I The Commune of Paris, with so much warn
l. good blood dripping from its hands, and cr
a ing out to heaven for its condemnation, ougl
to teach the labOring classes ia other countri
. to avoid the principles of that unchrsta
+. atheistic temper which have had there so MOI
+ strous growth and so deserved a punis
r ment. When labor exalts itself against ii
order of Providence and the order of societ
;. and asserts that wealth is crime, and properi
a is robbery when it seeks political power thu
b it may get wages without work when
!; looks at the reward for work more than
!, fidelity in work, and thinks more of gettir
:. pay than of doing work well aud looks upC
/ the labor class as an oppressed class. becau
e it is labor class then it is the very serval
o of the devil aud will do such work and rea
, such wages as these insensate madmen of Il
e Paris Commune.
D. The working classes ought to separa
II themselves very widely from the Grimm
" classes. from the demaOognes from tho bucl