Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1871-04-28

recognize it. Our fathers reheiled aG"'ntt
"a stamp tax and q want Of adequate repre-
isentation. We have stamp tax. iucon,c
ltax, and thousand other taxes that they
never dreamed of, and hundreds Of thou
sands of the best citizens of the land are
disfranchised, while universal suffrage ls
turned into a curse by being extended to
the most ignorant and debased. They
complained of a few arbitrary acts OF the
King of England bat by virtue of hu-
Klux bill the President is invested with
more despotic power than the King o!
England would ever have ventured to
assert. And if it be claimed that our so
called republican government spares Us
| the enormous burdens of q monarchy
and its sinecures, we would ask the
candid inquirer 60 calculate whether
they are not cheaper in the end
than the numberless defalcations Ct our
government officials and the ecaud Ilous
jobs of every description tbat ARC every
session carried through Congress at an
immense cost to tho country. While the
halls of legislation are made bear garden,
while the craftsmanship Of the party in
power can find no worthier object than
the oppression, humiliation and ruin Of a
portion Of the common country, it would
seem that We have but little cause to boast
Of progress in government.
If we turn to old Europe is it any bet
ter there England, with her contrasts of
immense wealth aud abject poverty, bur
dened by a so.called National Church,
which is repudiated by vast portion Of
her people, and eaten up by pauperism,
cannot be said 10 have advanced in the
last generation, especially when after half
century of peace and unexampled ma
terial prosperity she has lost, through
wretched craftsmanship, her rank and in
fuence among the nations Of the world.
Surely, the science of government has
not advanced in Russia, Austria Ger
many-alI of them organized like great
camps, where every man is a soldier and
subject to military discipline. Whatever
forms and words may be used there, force
is the great law. The rcsouIcss Of the
country are devoured by the utterly un
profitable expenses of huge standing
armies. and the barbarian idea of conquest
seems to be once more in the ascendant.
Nor has unhappy France, which has
tried so many experiments, been more
fortunate than the rest. Her constitution |
Of 1871 was better than any she has over
had since. In turns prey to anarchy
and despotism, she stands warning
10 other nations. Torn by conflicting fac
,ions-the workmen of her cities embitter
ID against her rural population, aud the
Door arrayed against the rich, she looks
n vain for some relief to her calamities
The pr0letaires OF Paris. encamped upon
Mont Martre, after 1900 years interval,
compare but unfavorabiy with the pile
,eians of Rome upon Mount Sacer.
Perhaps some day will come when man
ind will rest of these continual oscilla-
ions between anarchy and dcspotism-
7ill cease to be deluded by words-wiIl
earn that it is worse to be ruled by three
hundred tyrants than by one. Perhaps
ONE day liberty will be found compatible
nth law, with justice and order. with re,
poet for the rights of minorities, and will
ease to be pretext for the oppression of :
ne part of the nation by another. But
70 much fear that it will not be in this .
anaration.