The Morning Star And Catholic Messenger

Republican Despotism.
The crisis in Spain has given occasion in this country, to a good deal of newspaper comment, both foolish and out of taste, on the subject of republicanism generally and in Spain especially. They talk about the system of monarchy in Europe as "despotism," of its prevalence as a "pestilence" and of its communication with this country through the immigration of Europeans as an "infection." All this is excusable in children who get their views of life from the Third Reader, or in verdant persons very far in the interior who have never seen a European. But in men who conduct newspapers and must be supposed to know something about the actual condition of affairs abroad, it is, to say the least, unaccountable. Do they really think that there is no despotism in America? It seems really arrogant in admirers of the "Union," who favor the South with their presence, to talk and write in our midst about the blessings of Republicanism. It forcibly calls to mind the old comparison of "whited sepulchres." They virtuously shudder at the "infection of despotism, which may reach our shores from the benighted regions of monarchical Europe." This is as though a man with the small-pox should be very much concerned about shunning another one with the measles. Infection of despotism! Why the despotism of Europe is at least consistent with population, while our Republican despotism tends to desolation and solitude. There, people multiply and communities get overstocked, here decay is upon us and inhabitants disappear. It is insolent in the United States to preach republicanism, or breathe the sacred name of Liberty. Not in Russia, nor even in Turkey, is there such a despotism as here in Louisiana under the iron heel of the "Republic." There is no tyranny equal to the tyranny of a majority. There are perhaps no two words so misunderstood as those of "Democracy and Republicanism." They are often used as being identical, while they are essentially distinct. Democracy is the government of the people, but it is of the whole people, and for the whole people. Republicanism is the government of a majority. When that majority respects the rights of the minority, the Republic is also a Democracy; when it tramples upon those rights and oppresses the minority with unjust impositions and extortions, it is still a Republic but it is not a Democracy. Thus the distinction does not exist in the form of government, but in the spirit of the people. In the same way Democracy may virtually exist under the outward form of Monarchy. There may be a Monarchy so mild, so constitutional, so fully controlled by popular interests, so perfectly conservative of all individual rights, political and civil, that, in reality, the people govern and all the people are protected. And again, Despotism may be in the hands of one man or in those of a reckless majority. Party interests and sectional prejudices may create a misrule, an oppressive discrimination, a ruinous persecution which the victims easily recognize as despotism. Unless the minority are protected in their rights, it matters little to them whether you call the despotism under which they groan, Republicanism or Monarchy. Forms of government as a test of liberty, are but a snare and a delusion. They are a dead skeleton. The vital principle which must give them flesh and blood and life, is respect for popular rights, not for the popular vote merely. Unless the people of a republic are imbued with a sense of justice and with a love of right, their government will be wicked and tyrannical. It is nonsense to suppose that the mere form of a republic can insure good government. As well make a statue of marble and call it a man. The form of Republicanism is indeed, in our opinion the most perfect of all merely human forms of government, and according to circumstances it will be the best or the worst in its operation. Under proper conditions of justice and honor in the public heart, it tends to develop that independence of character without which manhood never rises to its proper dignity. Under circumstances of popular corruption and irreligion, it becomes the most potential and irresistible agent of oppression and ruin. We insist that the United States now affords an instance of this latter truth. and while our slavery of the South exists, no American should presume to read lectures to Spain on liberty.