The Delawarean., 1900-07-18

We may think that our brand of hu-
man nature is so different from human
nature in general as to make us i'm
mune against ills that other nations
have not been able to resist. But that
is another delusion. The Roman of
the fourth century before Christ was of
sterner, more unyielding republican
fibre than the American of to-day. He
was more jealous of the slightest in
fringemenit on his rights. He did not
treat betrayals of trust on the part of
his servants as jokes-his sense of hui
NOR was rudimentary. When his re-
sentiment was aroused it was relentless.
There was Brutus once that would
have brook'd
The eternal devil to keep his state in
Rome
As easily as a king.
Within two years from the time
when descendant of that Brutus
struck the last blow for republican
liberty Antony was laying a third of
the Roman world ait the feet of llarlot
queen, and before some of the children
then living were dead Caligula was
making his horse a Consul.
There never was more turbulent,
independent democracy than that of
Athens. The people there were not
dependent upon trust-owned Senators.
They got together in their own popu-
lar assemblies and made their own
laws. They did not hesitate to try and
execute victorious generals for slight
breaches of customary requirements.
But the time came when Athenian
philosophers were the humble fiatter-
ers of Macedonian and Roman rulers,
and when Athens degraded even her
primacy in taste to the point of giving
her highest honors in music and poetry
to the imperial mountebank Nero.
Who would have thought, to look at
the raving democracy of the French
Terror, when it was as much as a man S
life was worth to call lady Madame
instead of "Citizeness," that in five
years France would be walking with
bowed head under the rule of mill
tary despot?
Nor are we without hints nearer
home of the possibility of radical
changes in the government of people.
Americans were not always republi-
cans. Two years before the adoption
of the Declaration of Independence
they were protesting their enthusiastic
loyalty to the Crown of Great Britain.
After the Revolution thousands of the
foremost inhabitants of the colonies,
unable to reconcile themselves to a
republican government, emigrated to
Canada, where their descendants are
now the most extreme supporters of
monarchical rule
American women, after a long and
honorable apprenticeship at the wash
tub, have availed themselves of the
first smiles of fortune to go to London
and kiss the hand of royalty. Foreign
noblemen find their titles readily
transmutable into American cash.
Americans like William Waldorf Astor
and Bradley Martin have exchanged
their republican birthright for the
privilege of calling themselves subjects
of the English Queen. The trusts that
are working for the reelection of Will
liam Mckinley would just as cheerfully
work for the coronation of an emperor
if they thought the step would pro-
mote their interests.
If a visitor from Mars had been per-
mitted to see Rome at the beginning
of the First Punic War and then had
been able to see America to-day, which
country would he have considered more
likely 10 hold on to its republican in
stitutions?
The republics of the past have fallen
| from various causes, but one rule We
believe to have been invariable:
i NO REPUBLIC HAS EVER GOV
ERNED SUBJECT PROVINCES AMI
PRESERVED ITS OWN FREEDOM.
| dDlOdu 6uuCu III tiIuCi
empire or collapse at home.
But do we believe that William Me
Kinley, if reelected. will be formally
crowned as the Emperor William the
: First? Certainly not. Revolutions o.
! this sort are not usually carried
ithrough in that way. Despotism is
the same. but the type of despot chang
es. When the Roman republic wa.
ripe for its fall the people did no
crown a king. First one general ant
then another exercised power through
the forms of law. After the excesse.
of Marius and Sulla there was TEN
porary revival of constitutional gov
ernment under Cicero. Then the Sen
ate conferred the powers of number
of different officials upon Caesars
many that he was in fact a monarch
although in name only the head of {
republic. Then, after a period of an
archy this concentration of power il
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