Daily Los Angeles herald., 1881-07-28

vsrsity, delivered on the 30th OF
June. treated the Russian question
as follows:
Then note the scorn and disgust
with which We gather up our gar
ments about US and disown the
Sam Adamses and William Pres
colts, the George Washingtons and
John Browns of st. Petersburg, the
spiritual scendsnts, the living re-
presentatives, of those who make
our history worth anything in the
worlds annals-the NlhiIists.
Nihilism is the righteous and bop-
orable resistance of a people crush
ed under an iron rule. NihIlism is
evidence OF lite. When "order
reigns in Warsawn it Is spiritual
death. NihiIism Is the last weapon
of victims choked and manscled
beyond all other resistance. IL 10
crushed humanity's only means of
making the oppressor tremble. God
means that unjust power shall be
insecure, and every move of the
giant, prostTate la ch aims, whether
Il be TO lift single dagger or stir u
city's revolt, Is Is lesson
in Justice. One might well
tremble for the future of the race
IL such a despotism could exist
without provoking the bloodlest re.
sistapce. I honor Nihilism since
it redeems human nature from the
suspicion of being utterly vile,
% made up of heartless oppressors and
coutented slaves. Every line in
our history, every interest OF civil
ization, bids US rejoios when the
tyrapt grows pale and the slave re-
bellious. We cannot but pity the
suffering of any human being, how
ever richly deserved; but such pity
must not confuse our moral sense.
Humanity gains. Chatha rejolcs d
when our fatheis rsbelIed. For
every single reason they alleged,
Russia counts a hundred, each one
ten times bitterer than any Han
cock or Adams could give. Sam
Johnson'5 Standing toast In Oxford
port was "'Success TO the first ius
surrection OF slaves ia jamaica" a
sentiment Sonthey echoed. "Es
chew can'r,u said tue old moralist.
But of all the cants that are canted
In this canting world, though the
cant OF pisty may be the worst, the
cant of Americans bewailing Rus
sian Nihiiisn is the most disgust.
Ing.
I know what reform needs, and
all 1t needs, in "a land where dis.
cussion is free. the press untrana-
melled, and where public halls
protect debate. There; as Emerson
says, "what the tender and poetic
youth dreams to-day, and cotjures
up with inarticula speech. is to-
morrow the y0ciferated result OF
public opinion, AMI the day after
is the charter of nations" Lieher
said, la 1870: "Bisnsfck proelains, },
to-day iu the Diet, the very priu-
ciples for which we were hunte /
aud exiled fifty years sgo." Sub.
init to risk your daily bread, ex-
pect social ostraeism, count on a
mob now and then, "be ia earnest,
don't equivocate, don't excuse,
don't retreat q single insh," and
you will finally be heard! No
matter how long aud weary the
wait ng, at last
"Evtr the truth come, upermost,
And everis Just ce done.
"For hun auity sweeps onward;
Where tod y the nariyr st nds,
On the NOR w crCuches Judas
Nith he silver IL hla hands.
"For in front the crop stands rfady,
And the cract ling fagVts turn,
Whil9 the hooting mob q yesterday
In II eut awe return
To gather up the scattered ashes
Into history = aolIen urn"
In such O land as this he is
doubly and trebiy guilty who, ex-
cept In some most extreme case,
disturbs the sober rule Of law and
order. But such Is not the rule in
Russia. In Russia there 10 no
press, no debate, no explanation OF
what government does, no remous
STRANGE allowed. no sgitation of
public issues dead silence, like
that which reigns at the summit of
Mont Blanc, freezes the whole EN- ..
pire-lo1g ago described as "a des.
potism te mpered by assassination"
Meanwhile such despotism has un-
settled the brains of the ruling
race, as unbrldled power made
some of the Cwsers insane; a mad.
man, sporting with the lives and
comfort OF a hundred million OF
men, The young girl whispers in
| her mothers ear, under a oeiled
roof, her pity for = brother knoute
and dragged half dead into exile
for his opinions. The next week
she is stripped naked and floggesi
to death In the public square;
no inquiry, no explanation,
no trial, no protest-ons dead, uni
form silence, the law of the tyrant.
Where 10 there ground for any hope
of peaceful change? Where the
| fulcrum upon wbioh you can plant
any possible lever? Mscbisvelli's
sorry picture of poor human nature
would be fulsome hsttery IL men
could keep still under such .oppres-
sion. No, no in such land dy-
Mantle and the dagger are the ne.
| cessary and proper substitutes for
Faneuil Hall and the Daily AdUer-
tissr. Anything that wall ma X 9
the madman quake in his bed
cham Der, and rouse his vietima
into reckless aud desperate resist
auce! This Is the only view an
A m ericap, the child OF 1920 and
1910, can take of Nihilism-any
other unsettles and perplexes the
ethics of our civilization.
Born within sight Of Bunker's
Hill, In q commonwealth which
adopts the motto of Aigernon Sgd
ney, SUB Hbertdte Quieten (accept
no peace without liberty)-son Of
Harvard, whose first pledge was
"Truth," citizen OF a republic based
on the claim that no government
Is riehtfuI unless resting on the
consent OF the peop e, aud which
assu mes to lead in asserting the