The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-02-21

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what rrsaes Really Needs.
In the remarkable interview with the ven-
cradle and illustrious Guizot. published in the
HKnAID Of yesterday. there were some thoughts
which should not be dismissed without further
consideration When man of the years and
wisdom Of Guizot addresses 10 the American
people the observations Of nearly ninety years
rs q criticism upon republican forms Of gov
ernmen. we should weigh well what he says.
His life verges upon Q century. This Is
long. long time 10 be allotted 10 ono man.
But in nations history century Is but o
step. We can best improve our institutions
and reach that perfectness Of government
which we trust In time 10 have by carefully
weighing the objections and criticisms made
upon IL by eminent mon Of other nations
And no man now living among tho dis
tinguished men Of these times can speak with
q higher claim 10 respect than the venerable
eI-Minister OF Fance
We cast aside as unworthy Of any genuine
people that feeling Of complacency which
leads Americans so often 10 assume that they
alone are the chosen race Of the world-that
their government Is the most perfect-that
they are free from the superstitions and tyran-
mics and social miseries Of the older nations,
and that they have finally reached system OF
laws that cannot be improved. There is no
surer sign of moral decay than 10 feel that
there is no room for improvement The
essence Of all true life. physical and moral, is
growth. This is true Of nations as well a.
men; and nations as well as men should re-
member the Divine admonition. that he
who mourned over the notes i'm his neighbors'
eyes should think well Of the beams in his
own. We note the evils of much of the gov
nation, in the period Of one mans life, pass
through every phase of national glory and
shame. We, in America, have moved on
steady, resistless, flowing like the broadly
sweeping waves that peacefully roll over the
wide Pacifc-from l776 TO 1s73-from a
colony of four millions TO an empire of
forty. We have never receded We had two
or three stormy periods-English. Mexican.
Secession wars-just as storms now and then
ruf1e the Pacific; but the national wave
rolled on, and still seeks broader seas. Dur
ing this time we have seen France pass from
the Reign of Terror to the Empire, from tho
Empire to the Restoration and down 10 the
Commune-in other words, from the Reign of
Terror to the Reign of Atrocity and Despair.
We look upon its history and the eye becomes
panied and the mind confused, az when we
look upon lightning flashes. And yet France
is mighty nation. In literature, war, art,
science social and domestic economy, what
have we, Incompatible Americans that we
are, done to excel France2 In war she has
given us Napoleon; in literature Pascal, Vol
taire and Hugo; in art We need not go beyond
Dore; in science Descartes and La Place; in
social and domestic economy the art of living
in comfort on half dollar day. We criti- |
else French extravaganza, forgetting that the
French people are the thriftiest and perhaps
the wealthiest in the world. We mourn their
want of patriotism and forget that no people
emigrate 80 little as the French, and that
in one day they subscribed several hundreds
of millions Of dollars to buy the invader from
the soil.
Why is it, then, that France should be so
unfortunate in its government? NJ Guizot
says he sees no established future but in
constitutional monarchy, and adds that he is
sorry it was impossible to have founded such |
monarchy in America at the conclusion OF the |
War of Independence. 81 DESIRE" he says to |
our correspondent, "to see France ruled by the
most enlightened of her sons. For this reason
I am not republican, for I fear that in
republic the noisiest, and not the most
enlightened men would govern France"
The venerable statesman was too courteous TO
say as much to an American journalist but no
doubt his thought was that in America noisy
men rule and men Of enlightenment are never
called TO power. Is this true? How fire.
quently we are told that we never have states
men in ofice-that our Clays, our Websters,
our Calhouns, our Stewards are never elected
to the Presidency! During the last cam
paign nothing was more commonly said
than that one party had nominated boor as
its candidate and the other dishonest, ire
sponsible visionary. Yet when we come to
answer the question intmated by NJ. Guizot
another is suggested. Under q monarchy
what kind of men govern people2 Take the
Presidents of the United States-the eighteen
gentlemen elected to fill that Office since the
foundation of the Republic. Of this number
five, at least, gained world wide fame out
side of their Office, and would have had as
conspicuous a place in our history had they
never held the Chief Magistracy. There are
no three names that stand higher among the
famous men Of the age than Washington, JEFF
ferson and Lincoln. They certainly ere what
NJ. Guizot would call ''the most enlightened"
citizens of the State, and government cannot
be radically bad that will elect such men by
the popular vote. Let US go further Take