New-York tribune., 1884-03-09
THE GROWTH or NATIONAL SPIRIT

|
II may seem paradoxical but it is demon
strable truth, that though the population OF the
| United States contains so large a percentage
Of foreign elements there is more OF national
spirit in this country than in England, not to
sneak of the Continental powers. In England
if is now beginning to be realized that until the
masses possess the franchise it never can be
possible to tell how they feel in national Issues
| The Door man does not reveal himself 10 those
who are above him in means and social posi-
ton, and though he may aCquiesce in the cur
rent policy of the Government, this acquies-
cence does not necessarily imply approval. A
couple of years ago the London press discOy-
cred that there existed a provincial sentiment
which was neither represented nor understood,
and that this provincial sentiment was more
powerful than that of the metropolis. Ex-
tension Of the franchise will doubtless reveal
the existence Of still more remote sentiment
which has hitherto not been reckoned
with yet which is destined to exercise
the most important influence upon the Govern
mcnt In England thespirt Of natiOnaliSm has
long been taken for granted, but this was be-
cause minority had acquired the habit OF call
ing itself the majority. and because also an OPP
position without votes is necessarily an oppOsi-
ton without weight, and therefore to be
ignored As to the Continental peoples, none OF
tbcm have ever possessed or exercised the true
national sentiment. They have always been
dominated and represented arbitrarily by MIN
critics, and they have never known what 1t was
to make their own Government. The instances
in which the evidence of national spirit has
been most closely simulated will appear on ex-
ail nl 10 y
ample if not Of class dictaton The only pos
sible real national sentiment is that which Is
the outcome Of genuinely popular express
ion. and such genuine popular expression has
been impossible to the peoples spoken OF.
But because in the United States all men are
enabled, after short probation, to declare
their opinions upon public policy, the growth Of
a true national sentiment is fostered and de-
velopcd, and though here IA IN Europe men de-
eide in great masses. their decisions here have
TO be fortified by reasons which appeal to the
individual intelligence. There Is no class
with Ms that cannot make itself heard at the
polls, but we find The London Spectator saying:
" So little are the English nation, so complete
"ly have the rural majority been forgotten be-
cause they have no political Importance, that
"eJen those who live among them are not
"ccrtain of their opinions on vital domestic
"ouestions." Certainly that could not be said
of any class in this country, and no country i'll
which it can be truly said has just
claim to the possession of national spirit.
Freedom which discriminates between
classes. which denies political expression
TO this or that clement, which keeps this Orthat
element under tutelago, is at best makeshift
1t may broaden slowly down, from precedent
to precedent" as the Laureate puts it, but IN
the process of broadening it leaves gOOdmany
people politically enslayed. Democracy based
upon an extended suffrage can alone build mp
a national spirit of the true kind spirit, that
is to say, which is the crystallizltiOn and
Guintessrnce of the best and highest aspirations
and convictions, not OF any class or classes, but
of the whole body of the people, declaring their
preferences in ordered ways, and with compre-
hcnsivc intelligence.