New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-01-18
NEW PUBLICATIONS.



rrrprpps NysCEII. ANGUS WRITINGS.
sxzr MIsrrTJANEous WRITINGS OF FRANCIS
LIEBER Vol "Reminiscences Adare; IS p sha
s scsnd sp S SS sS go fhadephis LppHcOts
,hese two Volumes are made up chiefly of public
addresses and articles contributed to magazines anu
reviews in this country and Europe, which
have neysr before been put in form ior
preservation. They comprise what the
EDITOR calls the major-minor writings OIL
DIR. Lieber, and are valuable pendant TO the more
elaborate works upon which his fame rests. exhibit
ioe az they do to marked degree. the breadth ana
catholicity OF his thought. the freshness ana VI
vaeity of his STYLE his ardent faith In liberty ana
seIfgoyernnent aud his close sympathetic stuuy vi
the progressive tendencies OF the age Anoeo
who knew DR.. Lieber during the ias'
years of his life, when he was MEMBER Oh 'ho
faculty of Columbia College Law Schsoiln TINS Guy,
will remember that he was one OF the Youngest VI
old men, 1t was hard to realize that TINS s'uiuJ
man. with the massive head that recalled somewhat
the poriraits of Napoleon the keen, cordial eyes,
the smile as winning as youths. ana the HOW Oh
bright. animated, witty conversation. which never
uwelt upon the past gave for lessons appicaoie 10
the present, had actually fought with Butcher on the
field of Waterloo and served with Byron in the
cause of Greek independence. There was nothing
old about him save his gray hairs, and when nc
died in 1870 in the midst of study and work. MS
death seer ed untnely and hisfriends found edll-
emit 10 conceive that his life had begun WIN 'ho
century, and that his seventy-third birthday was
close at hand. His mental powers had suffered 10
decline. They ripsned early. tor lie o's
played a singular maturity OF thought "nou
MT TWENTY-FIVE ne became the loved companion y,
Niebuhr in Rome, and they escaped to the las. All
touch of decay The collection OF WRITINGS III '''e0
II. vl,ola
duetiye abo1s but it would be Impossible 10 c'aS
ffv them with epochs of his life, because the same
CHARACTERISTICS of mingled freshness and maturity
of thought run through them ALL
Tho frat volume contains Dr. Liebers reminis-
cepces of Niebuhr and of the Battle OF Waterloo
number of academic dlscOurses and other educ'-
tional addresses and three essays-on Napoie"h anu
Washington. on Laura Brideeman and on Tue o'uoS
of Foreign Languages The second voiuino IL less
nersonaI and more abstract, and connects ITSELF
closely with the authors widey-known oooh vi.
Civil Liberty and Self-Government and his MANUAL
of Political Ethics, most OF the papers
being the products OF his studies III 'ho
fields where he gathered his most Vaiua-
BILE harvess of thought. Among them IS MS incoin-
pIete stuty of the riss of the Constitution OF the
limited States his elaborate lectures on It's charac
ter and his suggestions for ITS amendment, ana
a,so for the amendment of the Constitution OF New
York. The volume also includes a number of essays
npon International Law aud topics connected with
Political Economy and Education, and Llebers
General Order No. 10O prepared during
th rahell,on and incorporated in the
Army Regulations for the government OF
armies in the field. This order, winch Dr. Leber
used 10 call his old hundred" was drawn up at the
request of President Lincoln, and was received with
great praise on both sides u the Atlantic a. an nd
mirabe restatement and coditcation OF the law OF
war tempered with noble and humane sentiments.
In his views of the American Constitution Dr.
I,eber was eminently National. He stood with
Hamilton and Madison. He looked upon the doc
trne of State Rights as advocated in the South and
nv the greater part of the Democratic party in the
North AZ the dry rot in the ship of state He believed
the United States to be a Nation, and not a league
of States He was opposed to that strict and nice
construction of the Constitution which would de-
priye the National Government OF Its vlgOr ana
unity Indeed, he pushed his theories far along on
the road which to most politicians of his
day looked a little nebulous. AS early
as 1865, in his article proposing amend
ments 70 the Constitution, he took broad ground
which has only recently been occupied by one OF the
two great parties of the country and still assaed
By the other. The first of his suggested amend
ments declares that every citizen owes Dlenary
land ia entitled to- and shall receive, its full pro-
lection at home and abroad" The doctrine that II
ia the duty of the Government to protect its citizens
against ali infrngements upon their civil and polt-
cal rights by local authority by combinations OF
men unchecked by such authority, is now generally
entertained by Republicans, but has thus far failed
of uniform and efficient enforcement.
The principle underlying Liebers political ideas
was once admirably stated by himself in an address
TO his pupils in the following language " You can
bear ME witness that have underworld to convince
you of mans inextinguishable individuality and OF
the organic nature If society; that there is no night
without az parallel duty, no liberty without tho
supremacy of the law, and no high
destiny without perseverance," On this
foundation he based the structure which he called
Constitutional Liberty" that is to say. liberty de-
pendent upon certain fundamental institutions OF
Government which are essential TO its existence.
These institutions he found in the United States ard
he was an ardent admrer OF our political system.
Although German born and bred he became an
American of the Americans. No one better under
stood the history theory and value of the free nsi
buttons Of this country. After his reputa-
ton had spread to his native land he visited
Berlin and was personally urged by the King Of
Prussia to accept profes sorship In the university
of that city, but he declined because he was not
willing TO nye elseWnere lnah LII tne AneIicah nc
public.
We have space here for but single quotation
from the volumes under consideration, and, per-
haps cannot do better than select the conclusion Of
Liebers fragment on "NatiOnalism and l terna-
tionalism" y; which Garelh, the Italian pnblieist,
called the Golden Tract:
The main characteristics Of the political develop
nisnt which mark the modern epoch are:
The national polity.
The endeavo to define more clearly. and TO ex
tend more widely human rights aud civil liberty mot
uneonnected as this movement 10 WITH the pervadIng
critical spirit age. and the wedOck OF knowledge
and Labor, which marks the ninteenth century,.
And he decree 1ich has forth that lead.