Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-11-29

Tartaric populations occupied, in
those early centuries, larger area
!, within the confines of the empire |
than they at present do. Superposed
on those three great national divis-
ions-the Fins, the Savonians, and
the Tartars dynasty and a
military aristocracy of Northern, Ger
manic descent, which probably came
from Scandinavia, and which gave
the empire it founded a name import
ed from its Northern home.
The Mongol invasion wiped out for
several centuries the existence of a
Russian Empire. On the revival of
the latter spark of the old ambition
reappears. In the fifteenth century
| the Muscovite autocrats return to the
old designs They were certainly
unable then to try the chance of arms
| against the powerful Osmanlee, who
in the mean time had planted the
| Crescent on the cupola of st Sophia.
But by and by they sought to gain
influence among the Greco Slavonians
of what now had become Turkey;
basely asserting that at no distant
date the Gar would be able to seize
upon Constantinople as his inherit
ance, because the marriage of Ivan
Vassiljevitch with the niece of the
last Paleologus gives to Russia title
to the possession OF the Lower En-
pire."
Time passed on; the Porte lost It's
military prestige, and the moment at
| last appeared propitious to revive
ancient pretensions by force of arms.
So Peter L. propounded the doctrine
that Constantinople must become the
capital of Russia because "the relig-
ious supremacy of the Gar is entitled
to sway the whole East"
In the middle of the eighteenth
| century, French philosophy penetrat-
ed into the Cabinet of Catherine IL.
The grand seigneurs and roues of her
voluptuous court coquetted with the
ideas of liberalism and classic human.
ism; consequently the world had to
be told that Constantinople ought to
become Muscovite fief "because the |
republics of ancient Hellas must be |
re-established under Russian protec-
ton"
But philosophy and classicism got |
out of fashion at st. Petersburgh |
when the revolutionary storm thun- |
dered in France. The old dictum |
was therefore reproduced, that STAN.
boul cannot remain under Ottoman |
dominion " because the infdel Turk |
is disgrace to the Holy City from
whence Russia received the light of
Christianity" This argument was
strongly in favor with the late Gar
Nicholas, who, however, had still an
other in reserve, not this time of
religious character,-namely, that
Russia had right of succession to
Turkey, 'because the Turk is sick
man." Let us add that even this
medical dictum is a traditional one,
already in vogue at the time Of Cath
crime III who was indebted for it to
the wit of Voltaire.
Thus the spirit of encroachment,
has, with certain compulsory Interrupt
tons, always existed in Russia since
the formation of the Empire Not in
the eighteenth, but in the ninth CEN
fury, was the organization of Russia
as military monarchy first underta-
ken. Not under Peter /, but immed
lately after the introduction of the
Rurik dynasty, do the pretensions of
Russia to the domination over Con-
stantinople appear. Not with the es.
Enlistment of the " Holy Directing
Synod" but in the very first year of
the general spread of Christianity in
to Russia, under Vladimir, in 9s6, are
the theocratical tendencies of the
Russian sovereigns to be remarked.
In the reigns of Oleg, Igor, Sviatoslaf
Vladimir, and Yaraslaf, Russia has
already her prototypes of princely alb
solutism, military conquest and &C.
clesiastical ambition. The later czars
continued, they did not originate this
policy.
Nothing, consequently can be more
erroneous than to say that under Pc
ter. son of Alexis, Russia for the first
time emerged from chaotic state in
to the proportions of realm, and that
since his time she has been continual
ly developing her 'juvenile vigor."
History unfolds view Numerically
opposed to this theory. Russia is an
old empire. And, unlike other Euro
pean countries which have their rise,
growth and decline or transformation,
she has for thousand years oscillat-
ed between the existence as militia
ry empire of menacing aspirations
aud state of total political eclipse.
She can hardly boast of steady in-
ternal development. WarIike, aggres-
sive dsspotism in one epoch, total
prostration in another, have been her
characteristics. In the mean while,
through all these jerking changes her
people have unfortunately remained
servile and uncultivated, her princes
ever unduly ambitious. There were
only two germs of freedom in Russia
at the two farther ends of the Empire.
We allude to the city of Novogorod,
at one time member of the German
Hanseatic League, and to the city of
Kiev. Both fell before the conslaught |
of czarism. There was no force in all /
the vast extent of the Empire to sup
port the good cause of Novogorod
and it would seem as il the abject |
spirit of slavery in SO many millions
of subjects had continually tended to
produce vertigo of ambition in the |
minds of the monarchs. Finding at |
home no impeachment to their most |
extravagant wishes, they INDUCED in
the widest dreams of conquest of 9th
er nations. In this manner they |
brought forward schemes of universal |
dominion and stretched out their
hands-they, the barbarian chieftains
towards the sceptre of Eastern
Rome. But when they failed the ma
tons that had been wronged took a
great revenge and so Russia often
sank ~ almost entire humiliation I'M
der the shock of foreign coalitions. In
this way, exaggerated aspiration were
followed by terrible catastrophes- But
e he ms