The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-09-21
MACMAHON's MANIFESTO.

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emily very fair and conservative state
ment of the condition OF affairs which
has resulted from his administration.
and the facts which induced him to dis
solve the last Chamber Of Deputies. In
the beginning he attributes the recuper-
alton of the country from the disasters
Of the war and his cordial relations with
the rest of Europe to his own personal
influence. This is an egoism that can
be understood and looked upon without
apprehension and resentment only
among such Republicans as those Of
France earnest and hopeful Republi-
cans, doubtless, with whose every aspi-
ration we deeply sympathize, but yet
men 80 long accustomed to such
expressions and self-assumptions on
the part OF their leaders as
to see in them nothing unusual or sug-
gestive OF peril. He enumerates the
benefits that have accrued from his
administration, and they are just such
as may prosper as we'll, if not better,
under personal government as re-
public. He alludes to the financial and
physical recuperation of France, under
unwonted burdens, from the effects Of
the war, and dwells with peculiar gratu-
lation on the peace and public order at
home, which are due to the policy Of
concord which brought around him men
devoted, before all things, to their coun-
try"
Devotion to country is one of those
splendid phrases that have been used
in every age and by every bad as we'll
as noble ambition as justification
Of persecution and wrong, and in its
name as many crimes have been CON-
mitted as ever were in those OF freedom
or religion. The prosecution OF Gam
BETA and Murat was, doubtless instig-
ated by this same "devotion to coun-
try" and Is justified on that score.
Love Of country is grand and noble
sentiment, one Of the hottest that in
spires individual heroism and sacrifice,
and there are no people on Gods earth
that are more deeply imbued with it, or
who yield themselves with more utter
abandonment to Its generous and heroic
impulses than the French. and among
Frenchmen we doubt if there be one
who is truer to it's dictates than this old
marshal of the empire, and President of
the republic. But there is a higher de-
votion than this, the love of liberty,
which knows no confines and is bound
ed by no lines Of conquest or limits Of
States. It is broad and universal as the
common air, an aspiration that all
people may entertain, and all rulers
must respect. This aspiration the
French have not less than other people,
but they have never yet shown them
selves capable Of understanding it's ma
ture or appreciating its benefits, and
for this reason we are not dis
posed to disparage either the sincerity
or wisdom of MacMahon in the
course of rigid and stern enforce
ment of constituted authority which has
marked his administration. We are dis
posed, rather, to believe he understands
the people he has been called upon to
rule, and that, inspired by devotion to
country" he has done the very best he
knew how for the good and happiness
Of France. There is evidently among
the people no widespread and firmly
rooted popular sentiment that would
sustain republic twelve-month, and
Ia this conviction, which we attribute to
MacMahon, there is every justification
Of his course. Without such sturdy
and resolute sentiment among the
it must be plain that it would
but result in anarchy and national mis-
cry and crime to yield to the clamors of
the radicals, who would again bring to
France another of those debauches
license wild, lawless, cruel
and ungovernable-was called liberty
and substituted as such in the place Of
law and order.
The spirit of republicanism dwells
with Freedom on her mountain
heights" and those who would WOO and
win her must climb long and patiently,
and learn to breathe the atmosphere in
which she lives. It is related that when
Henry Meiggs, the great South Ameri-
,an railroad contractor, undertook to
build the road across the Andes, he |
found that he could employ no labor
save that Of the Indians who dwelt high |
up on the mountain sides. In the rari-
fed atmosphere of those great attitudes
;he jewellers In the plains below sank |
exhausted with the slightest exertion,
and became utterly incapable of any
or arduous work. So 1t Is
with the French; before they can ever
realize republic they must rise to a
higher plane and learn to breathe
different atmosphere, morally and men
tally, from that to which they have
been accustomed under the monarchy
and the empire. Until they give some
evidence stronger than any we have yet