Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-03-19

NihilIsm and GreenbackiSm.
The action Of the San Francisco
Greenbackers on Thursday in passing
resolutions indorsing the horrible assas-
sination of the Car of Russia by the
Nihilists in his dominions, was very
much out of place in this country, and
will serve to extinguish the last spark Of
hope of that party ever becoming a
power in the land. The present fnan-
cial and prosperous condition of the
country has proven of itself an effecr
tive blow to the success of the wild
fancies and follies OF the fiatists.
If they had confined themselves to
their financial heresies, however, they
might have some ground for hoping that,
if at any time in the future the favorable
conditions under which we are now liv-
ing should be changed, they might revive
at least to the same extent in which they
have existed in the past. But to openly
avOw themselves the friends and allies of
the Russian Nihilists is too heavy a load
for any party in the United States to I'M
dertake to carry.
Nihilism can never possibly gain
even a foothold in this country while
it remains q republic. So long as
freedom Of the press, liberty of con-
science, and political freedom are enjoy
ed under the Constitution of our fathers,
so long will Nihilism be an absurd propo-
sition, for the simple reason that it will
have no food to feed upon. Despotism
and tyranny alone are its fomentors, and
through envy of the rich, and of those
who, whether by hard and patient labor,
or by friendly circumstances, have been
enabled to place themselves in better
positions than are occupied by others
less fortunate, may excite a feeling of
communism among the worthless and
malicious, still no man nor set of men in
this country, while the people enjoy
constitutional liberty, will ever be able
to successfully carry out the criminal
designs of Nihilism. The great power
of free people would be raised against
them without mercy, and they would be
literally crushed beneath the weight of
popular indignation.
A second powerful reason also exists
why Nihilism can never make Roadway
in this republic. 1t is because of the
great and ineradicable respect which the
vast majority of the masses have for re
ligiOn, the Deity and the rights of their
fellow men. The fundamental principles
of Nihilism are infidelity and disregard
of all right, for Michael Bukunin, who
has been called the father of Nihilism,
said in a speech at Geneva in 1868: "The
first duty of mankind is to obliterate
from the heart any belief in a God, who
is but the personification of absolute
tyranny invented with the idea that
nine-tenths of the world should be sub
jet to the remaining tenth. Tear out
of your hearts the belief in the existence
of God, for as long as an atom of that
superstition remains, you will never
know what freedom is. The second lie
is right Might invented the fiction of
right, in order to insure her reign.
When you have freed your mind from
the fear of God, and that childish respect
tor the fiction Of right, then all the re-
manning chains which bind you, and are
called science, civilization, property, mar
riage, morality and justice, will snap
asunder ike threads; let your own hap
piness be your only law"
Where is there to be found in this free
land respectable squad Of persons who
do not now, and who always will, shud-
der at the mere utterance of such infa-
nous blasphemy and atrocious doctrines?
They are, we admit, the legiti-
mate fruit of the tyranny of des-
pots, and the insOlent grinding
down of the many by the fortunate
few, which crush out all hope in man
and make him desperate. But bad as is
such grinding tyranny, even as that
practiced in Russia, it is decidedly
preferable to the horrible moral, as well
as physical tyranny and degradation,
which would surely follow in the wake
of the success Of such teachings.
Whan the Grpenhackers of America
then, unite their political fortunes with
the men who propagate such doctrines as
the above, they simply commit political
suicide. We do not believe that Weaver,
De LaBIatyr or any others of the shining
lights of the Greenback party who have
any claims to responsibility would give
their Endorsement to such doc
trines, or would sanction. the action
of the San Francisco Greenback
Club, which has committed itself
unreservedly to sympathy with the Nj
hilists of Russia by adopting resolutions
indorsing the assassination of Alexander
III. The respectable element of the party
will no doubt hasten to abandon it as
soon as It's GnimuS becomes apparent.
and this, added to the fact that it is al
ready dead politically, will soon leave it
merely band of Communists and friends
of assassins utterly unworthy to associate
with human beings.