The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1881-05-05
REVOLUTION.

Neither Hobbies nor Carlyle had con-
fidence in the ability of the common
people to govern themselves and they
both regarded monarchy as an institution
securing the greatest good to the greatest
number. Despotic forms of govern
ment belong to that period when man
was most brutal and least intelligent,
and the progress of the human race is
marked by the participation in govern
mental affairs of those having no right of
hereditary succession and deriving their
authority from the wishes of the people.
To person who has enjoyed the liberties
and privileges of popular government
no idea is more repugnant than that he
is born the subject of sovereign whose
right to govern is hereditary. When
that sovereign's will is the law, the people
are mere chattels, having everything
manly within them depressed by the
consciousness that they are owned by
some person whose right rests on Gus
tom originating in antiquity and ignor
ance.
Governments have made progress and
when their progress failed to keep pace
with that of society, considered apart
from government, armed rebellion has
made the wheels of progress revolve more
rapidly. The government of England,
to-day, is no more similar to the despot-
ism existing before the granting of Mag
ma Charta, than is the condition of com
nlerce now to what it was before the in
vention of the steamship and the loco
motive. The degeneration in signifca-
ton Of the word tyrant indicated a pro-
gressive sentiment in matters pertaining
to the rights of individuals and commu-
mites.
The reign of terror in France followed
Just upon the establishment of republic
in America. and was simply the exagger-
ated expression Of public opinion which
in the attempt to leap abreast with the
times reached excess through its force.
Those countries which failed to progress
gradually thus bringing about peaceful
revolution, are simply delaying an newt
able step. Russia feels the evil of re-
preston, aud the assassin is the exponent
of progress too long delayed. The muir
dered car did more for the people than
any of his predecessors, much more than
any of lis immediate successors are likely
to do voluntarily. But while it was a
great deal it failed to satisfy the demands
of increased intelligence which taught
the people that governments are designed
for the public good and not for the ag-
grandizement of a favored few. The
Russian government is not yet OF the
nineteenth century. 1t is relatively a
despotism of the worst form. No one
can defend assassination but if it effects
its purpose and leads to constitutional
government does it not prove as efficient
and less destructive than open rebellion
1t is revolution in & new guise and not at
all attractive, but sweets are gathered
from poisonous plants. Will not politi-
cal assassinations be less odious if through
them Russia becomes a constitutional
government? Open rebellion in Russia
would prove futile and disastrous. The
imperial family would assert its power at
the cost of thousands of lives. For whose
benefit? For that of the reigning car
and his successors. Is it not better that
in a contest between the car and the
beople that the principals should suffer
the punishment which either party is
able to inhict?
It is just so in Ireland. The Irish
people have long suffered grievances and
haye made many Intellectual attempts to
better their condition through open re
bellion. If the iandholder of Ireland can
/ only be reached through fear, does not the
end Justify the means2 We shrink from
| a murderer and there is something in the
name which strikes harshly upon the
moral sensibilities. But if it be possible
to ennoble murder, those men who take
| their lives in their hands and like Char
lotte Corday, strike down tyrants and
oppressors, ARE bringing it within the pale
of respectable warfare.