The free lance. (Fredericksburg, Va.) 1885-1926, 1899-08-17
Astor ana Carnegie.

Whilst Mr.. William Waldorf Aston
has bid farewell to his native country
and has become a subject of QGeeu
Victoria, Andrew Carnegie, VINO IS
animated by quite different seutl
ments, says that he has no intention
Of renouncing his American citizen
ship The mere appointment OF Mr.
Carnegie as Justice Of the Peace IN
Scotland carries with it no political
consequence, and will hot affect his
status in the least so long as he shall
not become British subject, with
out which he could not perform any
of the duties Of his Office. HIS ap
pointment is merely an honorary dis
tinctlOn.
Mr.. Astor has brought upon him
self a great deal of rIdicule, not so
much by his act of expstriation as by
the manner Of Il. to say nothing OF
the sentiments by which it WAS 10
spired. For years he has striyeD to
be taken up by the Bntlsh nobility
and to make himself agreeable to his
new associates by disparaging his
native land. He has furnished the
key to his motives and character in
the curious genealogical device 10
which the AstOr lineage is ltborlous
ly traced through a simple Dutch
peasant to the poor but proud Span
ish Duke de Astorga. Andrew
Carnegie is ap American citizen Of
quite different type. Astor is the
native heir of vast wealth which &C
cumulates without effort and ability
on the part of It's holder. The only
ability required in his case is to hold
on to what he has got, Andrew
Carnegie, on the contrary, has been
the architect of his own fortune, and
he is increasingly making distribu
ton of his immense earnings in the
endowment of libraries and other
public institutions. Astor' latest ap
pearance in his abandoned country
was to dispute the taxes on property
which he leaves under the protection
of its laws. Carnegie, on the other
hand, is keenly alive to everything
that concerns the welfare of his
adopted land.
There is no doubt that Astor is the
representative of type of Ameri
cans to whose perverted spirits the
social and political institutions of
their country are intolerable. To the
Democratic Republican equality
which these institutions secure they
perfer the sristOcrstic distinctions of
nobility. They would all like to be
Dukes de Astorga either by inher-
itance or by purchase. OF the obll'
cations which their wealth and socia
position impose upon them they have
no conception. Astor himself, though
he had but faint sense of his polItl-
cal duties while he remained an
American citizen, was not devoid of
political ambition, nor OF the hope OF
a successful public career. But when
he failed, after the expenditure of a
large sum of money, to secure an
election to Congress from New
York city district be turned in dis
gust lIOlu luO OOuubhJ ohN iNS PNibA
cal corruption. The country never
appeared so corrupt to him as when
his money could not buy him coyet-
ed seat in Congress.
AS to the abstract question OF ex
patriation, there is no doubt of the
right, no matter who may seek to
abandon his status as an American
citizen. The denial Of this right was
one of the causes Of the war of the
United States against Great Britain
whose Government haughtily author
lied searches of American ships and
seizures of American seamen on the
claim that they we're British subjects.
By treaty with Great Britain and
other European Governments the
right of expatriation is now formally
recognized and established. AS the
earliest and foremost champions Of
the right of every man to choose his
own home the American people will
be the last to impose upon it undue
restraints