New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-05-17
HAVE WE DE roCouEvILLE AMONG Us7

among US. We like this Reformer
abandon their own country because the!
may have neither capacity nor courage u
amend its defects of government, anc
Immediately begin to prescribe for oul
political errors in a foreign language. L
a civil war comes along, they can take
refuge under alien allegiance, but. they
never intermit their lectures on that ac
count. Even recently, it has appeared,
that some of our oldest and best declined
to serve on a jury because they had never
J taken out letters of naturalization here.
We have had great deal of this foreign
opinion upon our institutions.
England sent Moore to malign the
morals of the great republican Jefferson.
Dickens DETAINED Illinois to please the
prejudices of that day, and recanted all his
injustice to secure the approval of the
great republic to which he read those
wondrous revelations of English crime,
ignorance and destitution. Sir Charles
Dixie saw in a nights rest within tie
Southern States tie whole causes of the
war, and decreed next morning proper
policy for the dominant section. But the
| De Tocaueville of the Bee lays over all Of
them in the profundity Of knowledge and
the authority of his decisions. In the
Arkansas troubles is seen "a symptom
very unpropitious for the free institutions
of this country" Before the war, as De
| Tocqueville has been informed, with the
exception of the Dorr rebellion and the
Kansas troubles, there was never anything
like the Arkansas squabble. 1t may be
impairment in us to assert knowledge of
anything about our own country in the
presence of De Tocqueville, but we mod
estly cite some history with which all
Americans are familiar.
l. The Shay instruction in Massachu-
sets occurred under the old Confederate
government of the States-and we may
add tended greatly to make the Union
necessary.
2. The establishment of the State of
Franklin within the territory of North
Carolina. In this case there were COM
peting governments, each armed as in
Arkansas. We remember that Ramsay,
in his history of Tennessee, says that
when the patriotic Sewer, then at the
head of the State of Franklin, was en-
trenched against the army of North Caro-
lima, a runner brought word that the
Indians were committing depredations on
the settlers on the Tennessee or Hightower
rivers Thereupon truce was agreed on
Both armies marched against the common
enemy, subdued them, and then returned
to resume the status ante,fdct,.m.
3. The great whisky instruction of GER
tain counties in Western Pennsylvania.
put down by President Washington.
d. The civil conflict in Rhode Island. in
which one government claimed under a
royal charter and the other under popu-
lar constitution. There have been beside
these, internal disturbances not worthy to
be chronicled, such as evasion or resis-
lance of military service in the wars of
the Union and other domestic troubles.
5. Even the terrible war to which De
Tocqueville alludes was terminated with |
out the horrors of La Vendee, or the trial |
of twenty thousand Communists. 1t was
fought for construction of the common
constitution, was not followed by the !
execution or exile Of any political offend
ers, and has extended a general amnesty
to all without respect to past opinions
So much, however, for De Tocqueville's
assertion that before the civil war ''the
play of governmental institutions in each
State Lad been able to. exert itself with
out giving place to CONVERSATIONS Of the
kind which we have seen arise in many
States of the South since the reconstruc-
ton" De Tocqueyille is mistaken in his
facts. There were some more serious
CONVERSATIONS" before the war than there
have been since.
But these authoritative expositions of
American history given by foreigner,
and in foreign language, have an object.
They eliminate in charge that these
troubles in Arkansas and elsewhere tend
to place the republic of the United States
on "a level with the Spanish American re-
publics, and to make it the laughing stock
of the world. Here is what De Tocqueville
says of these CONVERSATIONS:
They have made the republic of the
United States descend to the level OF the
republics of Spanish origin, in which pro.
and a resort to arms has
been the normal condition for half cen.
fury. We see nothing to envy IN this Mex
can barbarism. and if this strife be pro-
onged, the model republic will not be long
in becoming the laughing stock Of the
world
That is if the enieute in Arkansas con-
tinues it will demoralize and disgrace
thirty-seven orderly and prosperous
States. Well done, De Tocqueville. Pre-
ne. ao petit rerre d'absi'dhe, and continue
your essays on American history.
Now a subject Of legitimate inquiry
arises in our American mind. What mo-
tive have these foreigners for assailing
and defaming the chosen government of
the American people? Why denounce the
model republic?
We have seen the merchants of New
Orleans charged with lending themselves
to advocate work Of improved naviga-
lion for share III a frog pond. 1t is
notorious that the press has been often
to advocate measures Of public
Thn sc l