Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-06-03
THE TRIUMPH OF nIHILIsM.

The apparent termination OF the struggle
between the Emperor of Russia and the
Nihilists by the virtual surrender OF the
former. deserves serious consideration. For
if it be true that Nihilism has compelled
the Russian Emperor to promise constr
tuition to his people, it is clear that Abso-
lutisrn has at last found its master, and it
is not less clear that this must be con-
quest of Absolutism in general, as well as
of that of Russia in particular. The
foundation OF all government is force
Rousseau and the sentimentalists tried to
deny this, but the only result of their fan
tastic theories was to give a CHASTITY bur
lesaue or bouffe air to the French Revolu-
ton, and to alternate its most hideous
phases with mockerY OF suasion and
brotherhood which disguised sober men,
and detracted greatly from the moral ef
feet of that stupehdous protest against bad
government. The Revolution proved the
futility Of all attempts to base government
on anything but force. The Utiltarlans,
the Benthamites, though they sought to
found it upon % the consent OF the gov
" erned, and though they strove hard to
bring all things to the test of g the great
" est happiness of the greatest number,
were nevertheless obliged to fall back on
force as the ultimate substructure in even
the most philosophic OF states. Majority
rule is after all the rule of force quite as
much as one.man rule. The army that
upholds the despot does so because 1t has
obtained It's own consent to do so. In the
last days of Imperial Rome the army could
not be relied upon to uphold the heads OF
the state, and it had to be bribed. When
the Pratorian Guards put up the Empire
to auction that body was doing precisely
what modern "piece-club " does in an
American political campaign. Majority
rule is only more reasonable arrange
ment of force than despotism, but it is
always susceptible OF despotic application,
and the tyranny of the many is for the
most part more to be feared than Absolu-
tism.
But there is in these days a growing
tendency which aims at subverting all the
familiar doctrines in this connection. A
spirit mas arisen which insists on the right
OF the few to coerce the many 4; on the
right of the weak to strike down the
strong; on the right of the minority TO
override the majority. This is the spirit of
Assassination, which has left its traces in
the freest as well as IN the least free
OF countries and which, however mani
tested, now finds applaudiDg echoes not
only in Europe but America. Nihilism Is
only one phase of this startling modern
tendency, which doubtless grew out of the
rank soil OF the French Revolution, and
which combines the fallacies, the ambi-
tons, the malignities, of the most morbid
and unwholesome aswell as the most vicious
minds of half dozen races. And what
makes this spirit so disturbing is that
no form OF government can claim exemp-
ton from it. 1t is as liable to be directed
against the executive officer of democ-
racy as at the head of an sbsolutist gov
eminent. 1t strikes down Gar and Presi-
dent with equal malignity. 1t assassinates
the peace. maker, and then insolently exults
over its own atrocities. And the civilized
world stands aghast, and does not know
how to deal with this new Red Specter.
For what can be done with men who in
sist upon their right to do for minority
more violent things than maiorities will
undertake for their own protection
Which claims, and exercises, right to
kill those who thwart it Which deties
logic and reason, and responds to argument
with glass bombs
The Gar could answer none OF these
questions He could do nothing but yield.
But in yielding he has established terri
bic precedent he has demonstrated in the
face of the world that the new Red
Specter can impress itself upon the age
can by sheer audacity and persistence de-
feat intelligence, science, organization,
discipline, valor, public opinion, every.
thing; can, by sheer defiance OF every
moral principle, bully society, and carry
its point. For this, and nothing less, is
what the triumph of Nihilism means, and
something like this is also signifed by the
successful employment Of assassination in
Ireland. In two great nations violence has
obtained what nothing else could obtain.
Let no man think that these lessons will
be lost, or that they will not produce mo-
mentous consequences hereafter. Nor is
it in the line of greater characterization that
the new spirit is tending. 1t is rather in
the direction Of anarchy and the paralysis
and swift destruction of all forms of gov
eminent The theory which WHITES Mill
ism and its congeners is incompatible with
majority rule in any form. What it really
looks to and provides for is government by
and through the most violent, determined
and reckless minority element. And if we
trace the genesis of this spirit patiently we
shall find that it brings US out just where
we went in at the dawn of European CIV
ilization.
The governments of to-day were all
founded upon force, and by the superior
resolution and violence of small minorities.
As reason expanded and civilization grew
there was tendency to clothe the element
OF force with justification, and to refer all
coercive measures to public necessity. Thus
the will of the majority az last came to be
substituted for that Of the minority as the
prime mover in legislation and government.
Put now the new tendency is distinctly
away from all this democratic movement,
and as distinctly towards the revival, in a
different and more repulsive form, of the
tyranny and anarchy which preceded