Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-01-30
A NIHILIST EXILE'S PLEA.
HIS ARGUMENT ON THE PROPOSED
 ExTRADITION TREATY.

 Why the United States Should Not Ente
 Into an Arrangement Which Weuls
 Suppress Freedom of Thcught-Irclant
 and Russia Compared.
 WASHINGTON, Jan. 30.-A plea for the re Jectlon of the proposed extradition treaty be tween the Russian and United States govern ments has been sent to Senator Joseph R Hawley, of Connecticut, and Mir r. G. Heath a newspaper correspondent of this city, b, Sergius M Stepnial, the Russian exile, Min list and revolutionist now located in London whom those gentlemen met ill Russia las summer. Stepniak makes a special requesl that the matter be laid before the senate com mittee on foreign relations, and it is consid cred one of the strongest if not most violen' arguments that could be made against tn. alliance between this and the Russian govern mentS.
 Stepniak, who is noted author, lays dow1 his text that it is the rule with all civilized nations that nobody can be condemned with out being heard in his defense, and that th. projected extradition treaty with the Russian government, if ratified by the American senate, will be wholesale condemnation tt capital punishment, and worse, of any number of Russian patriotic people, designated as Nihilists, who may seek refuge from the despotism of the czar. He compares the Nihilistic party in Russia with the Irish Ma, tionalists, or Home Rulers. The Russian. want to overthrow the czar's despotism, to break the yoke of the autocratic bureaucracy and to establish a national representative assembly, or @ government by the people an object similar to that which the Irish are striving for in their native country under the title of home rule, and which. Stepniak says, receives the plaudits of the American people. He calls attention to the fact that the work of the Nihilists or revolu- tionists in Russia is similar to that of the ome rulers in Ireland, and they are granted much less latitude than the subjects of Grea: Britain, and for urging free speech and fret education and the advocacy of change in the form of government they exiled to Siberis or executed like criminals of the most bruta type He holds that the United States gov elnment would be party to these expressions and crime ill the name of the ear of Russia if it formed the alliance contemplated in the extradition treaty to come before the senate.
 That the instincts of American citizens naturally turn again against the oppression in Russia Stepniak cites the fact that nearly all Americans who visit the czar's country become syrnpathizers with the revolutionists, and not only write and speak against Rus sian deS,,otisni but actually tender outside as tance Should the treaty be ratified. therefore. it would be in opposition to al Americans who understand its meaning ano through ignorance on the part of the senate. Many citations from history and newspaper accounts and tho official reports of Russian officials made showing that the politica. offenders which this treaty is intended to take from the United States tt the parent country are tried before military o, II1r:S I1 wit nesses, and that there are discriminations il, trials end punishment of the most cruel order against people who take issue with the presen' form of government over those who commi. murder and crimes of the baser sort; th:t, while the murderer is given jury trial, the man who advocates education or change ils the present form of government is tried be- fore a court martial and denied all the rights of counsel witnesses, etc. and the accused is even denied the name of the accuser, and is prevented oven from proving an alibi. He holds that the present expressions and forms of government are maintained only by forcs of military and the most unreasonable obsti nate and free use of crown power.
 The benefits to be derived from the treaty, he says, are all on the side of the Russian government, inasnuch as criminals from the United States cannot gain admission to Rus
 
 there can be no more effect on the part of the United States in securing the ratification O. the treaty than indorsing the tyranny of the cZar.
 Stepniac declares that regicide and politi cal assassination in general are not the only form of activity of the Russian rebels, ol Nihilists. They publish and circulate clan destine papers and pamphlets, and the effec- tive men and women do not defend the prin- ciple of assassination. Under the present system Russian papers dare not express opinions, even reference to the killing ol students for alleged Nihilism being sup pressed, while girls of F and 15 and boys of 14 years of age are exiled to Siberia because their brothers were killed by the gendarmes and they are thought likely to sympathize with the victims.
 In concluding his long and vigorous argu ment against the ratification of the treaty Stepniak says: After being first to proclaim the right of rebellion will you be first to as sert at the end Of century the divine right of kings ard emperors to trample down al. that men hold most sacreda For this is the only standpoint from which rebellion in any form is blalnable in Russia of to-day"