The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-05-14
LIBERTY IN RUSSIA.

No sooner is one plot TO take the life OF
the Car discovered, than another con-
spiracy having the same object in view is
on foot The hanging of one gang of con-
spirators, the Imprisonment of another and
the transportation to Siberia of third,
have no lettering effect on those Russians
in whose minds ideas of liberty are being
born. The determination to free them
selves from autocratic rule is frmer than
ever today, throughout Russia, and the
ranks of the liberty demanding ''conspi-
rators" are growing. all the time. The
rigors of the Siberian climate, the fortunes
Of solitary confinement, the certainty of
encountering the gallows in the event of
discovery, will not keep men quiet. Many
years ago a few courageous ones set out to
obtain constitutional government for the
oppressed people of Russia There were
not many of them, but they were earnest,
able and active, and they sowed seed which
scattered and has taken root everywhere
in the empire. To-day there are thousands
Of men and women who are as earnest and
determined in the matter as were the little
handful from whom the inspiration was
derived. One autocrat who had per-
sistently refused to yield to the re
asonable demands of his subjects,
was blown to pieces within few hundred
feet of his imperial palace. The present
emperor is prisoner within his own house
when in his capital, in constant fear. of
daggers, dynamite and poison. His days
are filed with nervous watchfulness and
~ ;,rI,+ c1aa INho,, no
goes abroad his route is lined with soldiers
and the masses are driven back, yet he
travels over a mine which is liable to eX-
plode at any minute and scatter his miser-
able carcass to the winds. Now, there
has been discovered another plot to assas-
siuate him, the conspirators being army
officials This would indicate that the love
of freedom has at last taken root in the
very soil on which the Car stands,
the army being his sole reliance and pro
lection. If he cannot trust his officers and
soldiers, where can he find shelter and
safety:
The end of autocratic rule in Russia is
fast approaching. The love of liberty has
gained so firm foothold that it cannot be
uprooted. Human rights cannot be denied
much longer Another Gar may have to
be sacrificed before autocracy will under
stand fully that its day has passed, and
this age will not endure it, but no more than
one other martyr to TIE idea that men
are born to be slaves viii be necessary in
the great northern empire. All signs
point to the early establishment of
constitutional government in Russia.
1t may come through the yielding of the
Car to the manifest demand, and his sur
render to the inevitable: but it will come
Its opponents will either stand aside, or be
overwhelmed, and the people, in whom all
power inherently exists, will assert their
right TO rule in Russia as they have in
other countries. 1t would be astonishing
if the mighty empire were overthrown and
demolished, and on its ruins were erected a
great republic. 1t is said that the Ameri-
can idea is exciting powerful influence on
the public mind Of Russia and it is not
among the improbable things that the
revolution which that idea is leading
is now dreamed of by the most
literal of the imperialists. 1t may be that
the most powerful of the autocracies will
not only be metamorphosed first, but be
brought lowest, the transformation being
sudden and complete, instead of gradual,
as in the case of the others which are
being led up to recognize the fact promul-
gated on this continentmore than a century
ago, that all men are born free and equal