National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1875-08-20
GERMAN UNITY AN ADMONITI0E TO
AMERICA

The erection of the Hermann monu-
ment" upon the heights of Grotenburg,
near Detwold, in Germany, the Inaugural
ton of which took place on the 18th of this
month, in the presence Of the Crown Prince
of Germany, and many other princes and
thousands of people, is one of the notable
events Of the nineteenth century. Strange
and stirring are the facts connected with
it. The hero whose glory it commem-
CRATES, the manner in which his name and
fame were rescued from the oblivion into
which they had sunk, and the spirit which
moved the individual man to conceive, and
people to cooperate, in building mon
ument to one whose very existence, yelled
in the myths nf Tradition, had even been
exalted to place among the deities of
rude and ignorant but brave and heroic
people, and after a lapse of near nineteen
hundred years, these all arrest the attention
and excite an interest unusual, even in
this day of sensationalism and wonders.
But these are mere surface demonstrations,
and sink into common place in contempla-
ton of the idea and the principle of which
the event is typical. The sword which is
grasped in the hand of the statue points
backward over nineteen centuries to a
period when German unity accomplished
the deliyerance of her people from slavery,
and forward to the grandeur and the glory
which awaits united Fatherland. The
monument is erected to Hermann, not as
the warrior, the victor, the patriot, the de-
liverer Of his country from Roman op-
preston, but to Hermann as the founder of
the principle of German unity. This it is
that makes it the link that binds the pres
ent and the past, and brings the Germany
of two thousand years ago, which planted
the seeds of this great principle in the
hearts of the German people, face to face
with the Germany of to-day, which has
developed it in fullness and splendor that
dazzles the world. This consummation
has been reached, however, by long suf-
fering and ages of tribulation and sorrow.
With Armin the dominating influence of
concord and unity died out, and petty
sovereignties and hostile States (with but
occasional and transient intermission) have
torn the Fatherland with discord and
strifes and wars through the bloody travail
of the centuries that have interviewed. But
the sentiment which gathered in common
cause the fierce warriors that thronged in
battle around the sinking legions of Varus,
and wrought deliverance for her people,
was never eradicated from the German
heart. Even when the event which first |
it dropped from the page of his |
tory, tradition folded it in its keeping, and |
from generation to generation, through |
the long lapse of the ages, handed down
its teachings from 'fsire to son." and the
great principle of German unity and |
liberty were kept consecrate in the Father
land. Inspired by patriotism and genius,
it nerved the arms OF the fierce and savage
TeutoDs as amid the tempest of wind and |
rain, near two thousand years ago, in the
forests OF Thuringia, they wrote in letters
Of blood. drawn from the veins of their op-
pIessors, the great lesson of German lib
erty; and with no less power it moved their
descendants, now in many respects the most
people in Europe, to work out
its magnificent contamination through Sa-
dowa. Sedan and Paris; and now this mon
ument stands widely proclaiming, and
through the ages yet to come to proclaim,
10 mankind the power and the glory of
union, and the weakness and dishonor of
iisunion.
We, as Americans, have q deep in
crest in its monitions, and should weigh
well its significance as applicable to our
OWN condition. We, too, have had brief
but searching experience in this regard.
Out of the union of our revolutionary
athers came liberty to our people and life
o the nation. Out of an effort at disunion
lowed war and Its flood of calamities.
The spirit of rs withstood the struggle for
secession in 1861, and the Union was pre-
served, and our country was saved. Now
here are no array of hostile armies. no
'ound Of battle in our land, but the ideas
which produced the war of 1851, the clash
If systems which preceded it, and the con.
est Of parties, even the names, are the same.
rhe doctrine lof State Rights and State
sovereignty and the theory that this Gov.
rnment Is q mere confederation of indie
lendent States, and not Government of
he people, Is promulgated now with more