New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-02-24
rWENTY-sECOND OF FEBRUARY.


fest very little veneration for saint days.
or. indeed. for saints. There is with them
certain regard for principles which they
carry with them as a sort of moral COM
| pass which works one day as we'll as an
| other. and directs the most humble person
who carries it as well as if the way was
blazed out by some spiritual superior.
The same Indifference to the renown of
great names and great days is'displayed
in the political conduct of the same people.
The monuments of stone for George
Washington are unfinished. but he has
had millions of monuments living and
moving. Every man who will risk his
life to overthrow tyrant is one Of these
monuments. Every man who is hostile
to public corruption, or who respects
private virtue is memento of the man
whose fame fins the earth. 1t is remarka-
BILE that the people most renowned for
hero worship have so far declined from
their ancestral renown that the present
inhabitants Of Italy and Egypt know no
more of their antiquities than their yisi-
tors can tell them.
It is thus that some of our contempora-
ries moralize upon the profound abyss
that separates the actual generation this
day from that Of Washington"
However it may suit those whose ances-
tors were the subjects of European mon
archs when the ancestors of Americans
We're serving under Washington to dis
parage this country and its institutions,
the very fact that those people prefer
America to Europe proves that in their
estimation America must be the better
country of the two. Not more than
one-fourth of the American people are the
descendants, of those who fought the revo
olution. It follows, then, that if our
population to-day has 'deserted the affairs
dedicated to all the virtues, for the wor-
ship of the golden calf" we must be in
debted somewhat to some Of our imported
censors for this modification of the earlier
virtues. In truth, to look at Spain with
tripartitle civil war, France under a mon
arch never elected directly by the people.
Italy returning to a king, and Ger
many consolidated under an emperor.
the prosperity, the charities, the pro-
gress of America becomes conspicuous.
Every year thousands flock from the Old
World to the New, and the republic that
Washington founded century ago is now
among the foremost powers of the earth.
1t is our philosophy to look at these grand
results. A country into which Europe
has for century past poured. among mill
lions of true and honest men and women.
a great many felons. Adventures and
revolutionists. could not be expected to
present population without reproach.
1t is our boast that whatsoever touches our |
soil is made free: we never pretended
that it made people honest Or respectable.
Still. we must take the country as we |
find it; and as the sacred right Of self
expatriation is reserved for any one who
has violated no law. those who think there
are better countries than the United |
States are very wrong to stay here. and
should not complain Of the country if they
plec! to remain.
We by no means despair Of the re.
public. because its people turn out in
greater numbers to see Rex. or celebrate
alardi Gras. than to strew flowers on the
grave OF Washington They know that
is all right. He never cared,
when living. for any worship, and dead.
will look into 'the hearts of his country.
nen." and find the fires Of liberty unez-
inguished.