Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1892-11-25

officer after dining in the home of the emf
nent politician. Thurlow Weed, that maker
and unmsker OF presidents, What are you
doing here with those Russian vessels OF
warT' Not until the war was over was it
found out that IN case of foreign interven-
ton all the guns and the last gun of these
two fleets in New York and San Francisco
harbors were to open in full diapason upon
any foreign ship that should dare to inter-
fere with the right Of Americans, north and
south, to settle their own controversy
But for those Aeets and their presence in
American waters there can be no doubt
that two OF the mightiest nations of Europe
would have mingled in our fight. But for
those two fleets the American government
would have been to-day only a name in his
tory. declare before Go and the nation
that | believe Russia saved the United
States OF America. Last July l stood be
fore a great throng Of Russians in the en-
barrassing position OF speaking to an audi
ence three-fourths OF which could not I'M
derstand my language any more than
could unierstan1 theirs But there were
two names that they thoroughly under
stood as we'll as you understand them, and
the utterancs of those two names brought
forth an reclamation that made the city
hall of st. Petersburg quake from founda-
ton stone to towers and those two names
were George Washington and Abraham
Lincoln
Now is it not important that we should
feel right toward taat mighty, that God
given friend OF more than one hundred
wears? Yea because 1t is nation OF more
possibilities than any othe except our own.
should we cultivate its friendship. There Is
vast realm OF Russia as yet unoccupled.
II the population Of the rest OF Europe were
nourei into Russia it would be only partially
occupied. After awhile America will be so
well populated that the tides Of emigration
will go the other way, and by railroads
from Russia at Behring straits-where Asa
comes within thirty six miles OK joining
America-miliions of people will pour down
through Russia aud Siberia, and on down
through all the regions waiting Tor the
civiliz alton Of the next century TO come,
and culture great harveSts an / build mighty
cities.
What the Unitel States now are on the
western hemisphere Russia will be on the
eastern hemisphere. Not only because OF
what Russia has been to our republic but
because Of what she will be, let us Cease the
defamation of all that pertains to that great
empire. II Russia can afford to be the friend
of America. America can afford to be the
friend OF Russia. And now | procesd to do
what told the emperor and the empress
and all the imperial family at the palace OF
Peterhof / would do il l ever got back to
America, and that is to answer some OF the
calumnies which have been announced AMI
reiterated and stereotyped against Russia.
Caiumny the First-1he emperor and all
the imperial family are in perpetual drea1
Of assassination. They are practically prls-
oners in the winter palace, and trenches with
dynamite have been found dug around the
winter palace. They dare not venture forth
except preceded and followed and surround
ed bv a most elaborate military guard.
NV answer to this is that | never saw a
face more free from worriment than the en-
peror's face. Toe winter palace, around
which the trenches are said to have been
charged with dynamite, and i'll which the
imperial family are said 20 be prisoners, has
never been the residence of the imperial
family one moment since the present en-
peror has been on the throne.
The winter palace has been changed into
a museum and picture gallery ana place
of great levees. He spends his summer in
the palace at Peterhof, fifteen or twenty
miles from St Petersburg; his autunns at
the palace at Gratschna, and his winters in
a palace at st. Petersburg, but in quite a
different part of the city to that occupied
bv the winter palace. He rides through the
streets unattended; except by the empress
at his side and the driver on the box. There
is not a person in this audience more free
from fear of harm than he is. His subjects
not only admire him but almost worship
him.
There are cranks in Russia, but have wa
not had our Charles Guiteau AMI john
Wilkes Booth? But" says some one, did
not the Russians kill the father Oh the pres.
ent emperor? Yes but in the time that
Russia has had one assassination of EN-
peror America has had two presidents assas-
sinated But is not the emperor an auto
craiy By which you mean, has he not
power without restricdony Yes, but 1t all
Deepen Is upon what use a man makes OF his
power.
Are you an autocra. in your factory, or an
autOcrat in your store. or an autocrat IN
YOUR style Of business? 1t all depends on
what use you make Of your power. whether
TO bless or TO Cypress, and from the time OF
Peter the Great--that Russian who was thu
wonder of all time the emperor who became
incognite a ship carpenter that he might
help ship carpenters, and a mechanic that
he might help mechanics, and put on poor
mems GARD that he might sympathlz, with
DOOR men. and who in his last words said
NV Lord, am dying. Oh, help my unbe-
lief"--I say from that time the throne OF
Russia has, for the most part, been occupie
by rulers as benefcent and kind AMI syn-
pathetic as they were powerful.
To go no further back than Nicholas the
grandfather of the present emperor.
Nicholas had for the dominant idea Of his
administration the emancipation OF the
serfs. When 1t was found that he premsdi-
tated the freedom of the serfs he received
the following letter of threat from deputa'
ton Of noblemen your Imperial Majesty
We learn that the council and senate OF
the empire have before them for delibera-
ton. with your sanction, the plan to abolish
serfdom throughout the Russian empire.
We are perfectly willing to abide by your
majesty's decision in this matter and 70
lo7ally support your will, but there are in
Russia a large number of small owners of
serfs who are dependent for actual subsist-
ence on the labor of those serfs, and who
consequently will be left wholly penniless
and without any resource by the operation
Of emancipation. They will then undoubtedly
resort to desperate measures, and in the ex'
tremity of their despair will put the life Of
your majesty in jeopardy"
The emperor replied in words that will
last as long as history. Gentlemen, it
should die because of my devotion TO such
cause, | am willing to meet my fate When,
under an attack of pneumonia from ex-
posture to severe weather in tn 9 service OF
his people, that emperor put down his head
on the pillow of dust, Russia lost as good a
monarch as was ever crowned. Then came
Alexander the Second, father of the present
emperor. Amid the mightiest opposition
and innumerable protests he, with one
stroke of his pen, emaucipated twenty mil
lion serfs, practically saying, GO free Be
your own masters, aud this is for you and
vOur phildran fOravar
On the day he was basely asSassinate
tand will parenthetically say that | saw
his carriage in splinters, as it looked when
he stepped from it, not TO save himself, but
to look after some poor people OF the street
who had been hurt, aud | saw the bed on
which he died, the mattress yet crimson with
his lifes blood on the day he was assassin
ated he had on his table, found afterwarl a
free constitution that proposed to give the
right Of suffrage to the people of Russia. II
IL had not been for the assassination he
would bave soon signed that constitution
but that horrible vio.encs put things bacS,
as violence always does.
What a marvellous character Of kinlness
was Alexander the Second, the father OF the
present emperor. so that the present en-
psror, Alexander the Third, inherits his be-
nightly. Alexander the Second, hearing
t1at nobleman had formed a conspiracy
against his life, had him arrested. Then the
eyes Of the criminal were ban1aged, and he