The Irish standard., 1919-09-27
Dangerous Tendency Of the Times to
confound Erratic Socialistic Ideas
Of Government With Sound Theory
Of Territorial Democracy.

There is marked political tendency
to interpret democracy as popular
rather than territorial basis of gov
ernment. The people are sovereign
in sense that all laws and public acts
run in their name and that their
rulers are chosen by the people and
responsible to them but it is to a peo-
pie that are territorially constituted,
fixed to soil. They make what Dis
raeli called "a territorial democracy"
The personal idea of democracy has
taken in our day the humanitarian
view. 1t obliterates geographical lines
and individualities to build on the
broad basis of humanity. There is a
solidarity of race which forms society
and which creates social rights in
regard to the individual and individual
rights in regard to society. This
solidarity founds society or states on
territorial divisions. There is a real
solidarity of nations. One nation is
not and cannot be absolutely inde-
pendent of another. From this arises
what is called international law. The
defenders of humanitarian democracy
try to look back of the individual and
see humanity superior to the indi-
vidual, superior to states and govern
ments and laws. They would trample
on all of them at the call of humanity
which they term "the higher law"
This socialistic tendency, for it is
nothing more than species of so.
cialism, is impossible in practice and
an attempt to put it in practice would
break up in anarchy.
The danger of this humanitarian
doctrine is that it is supposed to be
built on Christian principles. There
is no more abused word in our Ian
guage than philanthrophy. 1t is the
modern favorite guise of satan Prop
erly understood philanthropy is
beautiful natural virtue but it is grad
ually taking the place of Christianity.
BY his vague generalities the humani-
tartan sacrifices the rights of men in
an endeavOr to secure the rights of
man, just as John Calvin sacrificed
the rights of nature in order to secure
lesson of the European Liberal, who
would identify the people and law
making them even God. The Jacobins
of Europe, who conspired against all
authority, Church and State, are not
dead. They live in the Bolshevik of
our day.
The American protest against this
theory of government was found in
the late Civil War. The freedom of
the slaves was only an incident, as
even Lincoln realized. While Abra-
ham Lincoln was the uncompromising
enemy of slavery in any form and
probably would have suggested legis-
latiOn to drive it out of the United
States, his Emancipation Proclama-
tion was war measure. The people
of Europe, particularly those of
France and England, believed that the
Civil War was fight against slavery
and Abraham Lincoln, to win their
moral support, issued his famous
Proclamation. The Civil War was a
fight between personal democracy and
territorial democracy Our forbears
sacrificed million lives, they suffered
a loss of untold treasure, of years of
industry that the principle of terri
torial democracy might live Real
civilization won its most brilliant vic
tory in all history in the Civil War.
The sacred right of insurrection"
Is too loosely invoked. The passing
good that we may derive by encour-
aging this tendency in some of the
countries of Europe may cost us dear.
We have learned lesson. The integ-
rity of the national domain which was
maintained in the Civil War cost an
awful price. We should not so soon
forget. The United States will never
again send battleship to bring an
assassin from Europe. When Kossuth
made his famous declaration of "the
solidaritfes of peoples" he spoke a
truth. But the great Hungarian over
looked the fact that the solidarity of
peoples meant the solidarity of ma
tiOns.
Those who hope for reconstruction
of Europe on racial lines and see in
such reconstruction a basis for per-
manent universal peace will be disap-