fruits of our victory? The problem was debated at length and anxiously
in Paris and London and Berlin. At first it was proposed to imprison
all the socialists, anarchists, nihilists, and dynamiters remaining in
the country; but it was speedily found that this was impracticable. To
say nothing of the others, the Irish who had taken active part in the
revolution or contributed to its support, and who sympathized with the
dynamite warfare on civilization, were not less than eight millions.
All the jails and prisons in the world would not have confined them.
Their organizations were proscribed and their meetings prohibited;
but it was clear from a thousand indications that their spirit of
hatred and cruelty remained unchanged, and that they waited only the
opportunity to renew their crimes. The same was true in even greater
degree of the socialists and anarchists. They regarded themselves as
the friends and martyrs of liberty. The allies were to them simply
minions of tyranny who had combined to crush out human freedom. It
was believed that the patriots of the country, loyal to the old
republican idea, still outnumbered the anarchists, and would outvote
them at the polls. But they were peaceable men, devoted to trade and
industry, and had already been proved powerless to enforce with arms
the decrees their majorities might render at the ballot-boxes. The
summer and autumn passed away, and the problem remained unsolved. It
was decided at last to hold another pan-European conference, this time
at Washington, in which all the Powers which had taken part in the
conference of January at Berlin should meet and reach some definite
decision regarding the future.
This foreign congress met on the first Monday of December,--the very
day on which, in happier times, the Congress of the United States
had been accustomed to convene. It met in the Senate Chamber of
the Capitol, over which the Stars and Stripes floated no longer.
The national flag was replaced by the flags of the various Powers
represented in the conference, that of each being displayed one day at
a time in regular order.
England and France were disposed to restore the republic to the people,
and trust to them to defend themselves against domestic convulsions;
but they stood alone in this. They were unable to reply to the
objections raised by the other Powers, that this would inevitably
result in another revolution, and the necessity upon Europe, as the
guardian of civilization, once more to conquer the country. Was it
expedient to accept the risk of such another war? Moreover, who was
to bear the expense of the struggle just completed? For herself,
Germany protested that she was unwilling to forego her right to demand
indemnity from the United States. England also took this view. There
was no possibility that such an indemnity--amounting to fully three
thousand millions of dollars--could be obtained if the autonomy of
the nation were restored. The following recommendations were finally
drafted by the conference:--
That the signatory Powers should continue in occupation of the United
States at least until another conference should agree as to the safety
of establishing some sort of local government; that the supreme
authority should be vested in a board of European administrators, to
be appointed, one by each Power, and to choose a president from their
own number; that this board should levy taxes and customs, from which
they should repay to Germany, England, and France such sums as those
Governments had respectively expended in the war; that the cost of
maintaining the army of occupation should also be defrayed from the
local taxes; and that a sufficient direct tax should be imposed to
result, within three years, in the payment of three hundred and fifty
millions of dollars to each of the three Governments at London, Berlin,
and Paris, to be applied towards pensions required for the sufferers by
the war.
The recommendations of the conference were accepted and adopted by the
Governments concerned. Their armies still garrison the land; their
agents sit in the Capitol at Washington. Cities and towns are allowed
to elect local councils, but they administer only such local affairs
as do not involve the power of taxation or of expending money. The
purse-strings are held in the hands of the European administrators
and their subordinates. Not even a road tax can be levied except on
their warrants; not even a school-district meeting held without their
permission and the presence of their guards to preserve order and
repress possible sedition.
Nevertheless there are many who find the subject position of the
country quite as endurable as its condition before the revolution. To
be sure, taxation is heavy, but its burdens fall equitably upon all.
Business men find themselves much better protected in their pecuniary
dealings than ever before. Bank cashiers who steal funds committed to
their care are punished with such severity that the crime has almost
ceased to be known. Not a single defalcation has been reported during
the two years of 1894 and 1895.
The courts are presided over by foreign judges, it is true, and they
are not generally favorites with the lawyers. But the people are
not wholly dissatisfied. A New York attorney who was suspected in
the fall of 1893 of trying to clear a murderer by the introduction
of false testimony, was actually tried, convicted, disbarred, fined
to the last cent of his ill-gotten wealth, and sentenced to prison
for ten years. Those who depend upon the courts for justice are not
entirely displeased by such things. The newspapers are held in strict
accountability. There is no longer such an issue as “politics” for
them to discuss and play the demagogue over. They are confined to the
publication of news and the discussion of such topics as cannot be
twisted into a seditious turn. Under the influence of the prevailing
tendency toward honesty and fairness, they are actually coming to aim
at the truth in their news.
In brief, throughout the whole land the moral atmosphere is purer
and healthier than it ever was before. Socialists and anarchists and
dynamiters still lurk beneath the surface, but they have little
opportunity for organization, and a single overt act on their part is
the signal for an instant exercise of such severity as men use towards
a nest of poisonous reptiles which show a tendency to attack innocent
passers-by.
There is no longer private liberty within the land, but there is public
order. Individual rights are respected, protected, and enforced; the
law is justly administered; crime is punished as surely and as severely
when committed by men of rank and station as when committed by less
intelligent, and therefore less responsible, men. There are signs that
the popular mind is beginning to feel aspirations after honesty and
fairness for their own sakes, and to regard successful dishonesty and
corruption with less respect than were common during the existence
of the Republic. If these signs continue and increase, there is the
possibility that the Great Republic of the past may at some future
time arise once more from the ashes in which its memory now sleeps, and
on a purer, nobler, more enduring foundation than that on which the men
of 1776–1888 builded. But it will hardly come in our time. The mills of
the gods grind slowly when their task is to grind into perfect flour
the grist of a corrupt and ignorant humanity.
APPENDIX.
I.
THE SOCIALISTIC SPIRIT IN 1885.
“Working-men! Throw aside your tools; take to guns; destroy your
oppressors; tear down the barriers which close the way to happiness,
to true manhood and freedom; secure for yourselves such conditions
as shall enable every one who is willing to work to enjoy to the
utmost the fruits of his labor! And you tramps, who, hungry, cold,
and homeless, wander through the country, a moving picture of our
splendid civilization, while a lazy, paltry crowd in their well-warmed
palaces treat themselves to the products of your labor,--you may yet
hope soon to have a reckoning, and take what belongs to you. You,
too, will yet be able to enjoy life if you will resolve to use the
power which Nature has given you, and which makes it possible for you
to produce riches. Band together, then, and arm yourselves! To the
fight, working-men! up, proletariat!... Among the friends of freedom,
socialists, and other revolutionists, the fixed idea is still met with,
that the good must in the nature of things certainly prevail sooner or
later. This, too, is a remnant of religious superstition. For the idea
can only be maintained on the assumption of a certain conformity to a
purpose in the course of history; and this in turn pre-supposes the
existence of a higher conscious being. That this idea must enfeeble
and narcotize the energy is evident. It is the most dangerous opiate
that there is for revolutionists. Religion, authority, and State are
all of a piece. To the devil with theory! The savior of the present
world must be one who will free us from the savior of the old world....
His common name is ‘Reason.’ ... His proper name is ‘Atheism,’ or
‘Disbelief.’”--_The Anzeiger, New Haven, Conn., February, 1885._
II.
A REVOLUTION NEAR AT HAND.--“IT MUST
COME.”
“The anarchist leaders met yesterday in secret session in a saloon on
Pennsylvania Avenue. There were delegates present from nearly all the
manufacturing towns in this section of the country. The meeting was
called by J. W. Gorsuch and Samuel Fielden, who were sent here by the
anarchists from Chicago to present a plan whereby the work of the cause
could be carried on among the working-men unknown to the employers.
“Fielden before he came here spoke at all the manufacturing towns. He
found, he said, that many laborers were socialists at heart, but were
afraid to attend the meetings. They came to the conclusion, therefore,
that the work must be carried on secretly until the time when the final
blow is to be struck. He argued that it was time to revolt. There was
no use denying the condition of the working-men, as the producers had
grown steadily worse, while the non-producers increased their wealth
to enormous degrees. This system was criminal to workmen, who must
strike for their freedom.
“Gorsuch said Americans were not free men now, and that the only way
they could demonstrate their right to the title was by destroying the
system which perpetuates the galling contrast of princely wealth and
degrading poverty. Fielden was asked, ‘Do you believe in dynamite as a
means of warfare?’
“‘We will not hesitate to use anything when the time arrives. A
revolution is near at hand. It must come. We want to abolish the
present system of government. Some one must suffer in every reform, and
lives must be sacrificed. I am in favor of the quickest means for the
accomplishment of our purpose.’”--_Despatch from Pittsburg, Pa., to the
New York World, Feb. 22, 1885._
III.
A FEMALE SOCIALIST’S ADVICE.
“Mrs. Parsons, who is a colored woman, made an unusually fiery speech.
She began by berating her hearers as cowards, and unworthy of the name
of manhood, because they allowed the aggressions of capital to continue
and their daughters to barter their virtue for bread. If they were men,
as they claimed to be, she said, they would blow up every house on the
adjoining avenues before they would submit to it. They would demolish
the police-stations, court-house, and jails, and fling dynamite in the
faces of the army and navy. If they were afraid to do this, however,
they need not look for a captain, for she would fill her apron with
dynamite and lead them along the avenues of the city where the rich
reside, destroying as they went.
“Her husband advised his hearers to study chemistry and take lessons
from those expert in the manufacture of deadly explosives.”--_Extract
from a newspaper report of a meeting of “the dynamite section” of the
Chicago socialists, Feb. 22, 1885._
IV.
ATHEISM, COMMUNISM, AND ANARCHY.
The “New England Anzeiger” of March 14, 1885, appeared with a first
page framed in gory red, and containing lurid accounts of the
revolutions of March 14, 1848, in Vienna; of March 18, 1848, in Berlin;
of March 18, 1871, in Paris; and of the assassination of the Czar of
Russia, March 13, 1881. The following extract shows the tone of the
article:--
“The dead of the 14th of March were buried, and with them the
revolution; for everything that then happened in Berlin--yes, in all
Germany--proved the political immaturity of the people; and the friend
of humanity looks on in sadness to think how much good might have been
accomplished in the year 1848 if the people had known what they know
to-day,--to-day, when all the countries of Europe have behind them the
powerful and deep-seated labor movement of more than twenty years, and
when the principles of atheism, communism, and anarchy are daily and
hourly, in the hut and in the palace (in the former with enthusiasm, in
the latter with anxiety), considered and pondered over.”
V.
THE FORCES ARRAYED AGAINST CIVILIZATION.
“There are worse things than dynamite. The godless and law-defying
forces back of it constitute the real danger. These forces are arrayed
against civilization. All over the world the masses are in a state
of agitation. New ideas and false theories are being presented and
expounded by fanatics, charlatans, and demagogues. In an age of
free speech and free print new doctrines spread rapidly. The poor,
unsuccessful, dissatisfied, and lawless elements of society are boiling
over with the maddening thought that somebody is doing them a great
wrong. The restlessness of these people has been intensified by the
teachings of earnest and well-meaning but misguided men. Henry George’s
opinions have spread like wildfire, and taught millions to believe that
private property in land is against the laws of nature and of God.
Hyndman, in England, and other writers are spreading the notion that
capital is the enemy of labor, eating up all the profits and keeping
the working-man on starvation-wages. Others follow Prudhon, and declare
that ‘all property is robbery.’ Others argue that religion, morality,
government are all tricks of the oppressor, designed to keep the
people down and out of their rights.”--_Editorial in The Atlanta, Ga.,
Constitution, March, 1885._
VI.
THE PROSPECTS OF AN ALLIANCE BETWEEN
DYNAMITERS AND COMMUNISTS.
“The communists were in high feather last night at the Germania
Assembly Rooms. They met to commemorate all operations of rebellious
societies against governments in general and the Paris revolution of
1871 in particular.... When the speaker referred to the barricades, and
prophesied an early recognition of the ‘establishment of human liberty’
and the destruction of all crowned heads by an agent more powerful than
the dreaded guillotine, the sons of Clavis sent up a roar of applause
and bravos, intermingled with an occasional ‘hear, hear!’ from a dozen
nitro-dynamiteurs who came to explore the prospects of an alliance,
offensive and defensive, with their fiery Continental brothers on behalf
of the ‘rights of man.’”--_New York Tribune report, March 23, 1885._
VII.
TWO CONTEMPORARY CRITICISMS.
“The existence of passion, favoritism, nepotism, and subjection to
the behests of party, instead of love of country, thoughtfulness, and
systematic business principles in the administration of government,
with too much esotericism in its conduct, gives posts of honor to
servants that impede, and retains officials that resist reform and
accuracy in the civil service of the country. They forget that they are
chosen to be about their country’s business, in which every citizen
has an interest. Thus the want of business capacity and fidelity to
the people’s trust furnishes many causes for the law’s delay, and some
for its death.”--_Chief-Justice Thomas F. Hargis in the North American
Review for April, 1885._
“The predominant vices of America, especially as represented by
its great cities, are its irreverence, its recklessness, its
impatience,--in one word, its materialism. A nation in which the
artistic sense is almost dead; which is practically without a
literature; which is impatient of all sanctions and indifferent to
all religions; which is corrupt from the highest pinnacle of its
public life down to the lowest depth of its primalism; which is at
once thin-skinned under criticism and aggressive to criticise; which
worships material forces in every shape and form; which despises
conventional conditions, yet is slavish to ignoble fashions; which,
too hasty to think for itself, takes recklessly at second-hand any old
or new clothes philosophy that may be imported from Europe, yet, while
wearing the raiment openly, mocks and ridicules the civilization that
wove the fabric,” etc.--_Robert Buchanan in the same number of the same
Review._
VIII.
THE COURTS.--ONE JOURNALISTIC WARNING
OUT OF MANY.
“One of the main reliances of the criminal element of our city for
escaping from the clutches of the law is the subornation of perjury.
A class of professional false swearers has grown up, and their aid
is invoked without hesitation in the criminal courts. This startling
and shameful fact was fully revealed to the public on the Ford trial.
Society can find no protection under the ægis of the courts until this
iniquity shall have been uprooted and cast out. The ermine sits under
a upas-tree as long as men and women in droves dare commit the crime
of perjury. No jury can justly decide any case if a terrible blow
be not first struck at false testimony. And there are back of these
perjurers the suborners. The master should be reached as well as the
hireling.”--_Editorial in the New Orleans Picayune, March 2, 1885._
IX.
THE UNPROTECTED ATLANTIC COAST.
Early in February, 1885, the New York Produce Exchange presented a
Memorial to the Congress of the United States, setting forth, among
other things, that the city of New York and the adjacent cities of
Brooklyn and Jersey City “represent an interest in house ownership and
real estate amounting to over $3,000,000,000; that all this realty is
entirely unprotected from an attack by hostile fleets, which could
bombard the city and the neighboring populated districts without even
entering the Narrows.
“It is known abroad as well as at home,” the memorialists say, “that
the shores of this country are entirely unprotected; and it would be
only an act of reasonable precaution that New York, the chief city
of the nation, should be defended by such permanent forts, floating
batteries, gunboats, and torpedo service as will give us a guaranty
against sudden invasion until the country shall have time to build an
adequate fleet for defensive purposes.”
X.
A SINGLE ILLUSTRATION OF THE IRISH-AMERICAN
SPIRIT.
The hundred and seventh anniversary of Robert Emmet’s birth was
celebrated in Faneuil Hall by the Irish citizens of Boston in February,
1885. The chief address of the evening was delivered by the Rev. P. A.
McKenna. In the course of it he said, as reported by a Boston daily
paper:--
“It seems almost advisable that since the Prince of Wales goes to
Ireland as an invader, he should be treated as such. There is one
principle which justifies the taking of human life, and that is the
principle of self-defence of the person or the nation. It would not be
becoming to advocate extreme measures; but let Irishmen contemptuously
ignore the presence of the Prince of Wales.” [Applause.]
Mrs. Marguerite Moore was introduced as a woman recently from Ireland
who had suffered incarceration for the cause. She spoke of love for
Ireland, of hate for England, and pictured the misery of her native
land in the past and in the present. “The Irishmen of America demand
vengeance. The opportunity has come in England’s present difficulty,
and advantage will be taken of that fact. The sappers and miners, who
blow the people up, are as necessary to the Irish army as are dashing
cavalry or steady infantry. [Applause.] Every man to his like in this
respect,” said she. [And voices cried out “Dynamite!”]
Thomas Riley spoke on the topic of “Dynamite.” He did not think it
necessary to say that they preferred to use that mode of warfare, but
they would insist that they had no tears to shed at the consequences.
“Is there anything wrong in the use of dynamite under certain
conditions?” [“No, no!” cried out a dozen voices.] Dynamite, the
speaker declared, had done no more injury than had other methods used
by England. O’Donovan Rossa was mentioned, and a continued round of
applause, cheers and “tigers,” followed. The speaker urged unity among
Irishmen. “Ireland is ripe,” said he, “and the hour is approaching. If
England but raises her hand against any nation, even a third or fourth
class nation, Ireland will stab her in the back and stab her to the
heart; and if she needs the knife, we’ll send it to her.”
The meeting closed with three cheers for O’Donovan Rossa; but before
so doing, passed, as suggested by the last speaker, resolutions as
follows:--
“Whereas the present unsettled condition of Europe, especially our old
enemy England, indicates that an uprising of the oppressed people will
in the very near future occur;
“And whereas the Irish and those of Irish-American descent have
been for a long period of years proclaiming to the world Ireland’s
sufferings and wrongs and England’s unlawful and brutal usurpations;
“And whereas, as in the past the principal cause of our weakness and
failures to effect the removal of said usurpation was disunion among
ourselves, through which unhappily the common enemy was armed and we
disarmed;
“And whereas, if we expect to effect the freedom of Ireland it must
be accomplished as united brothers tolerant of each other, working
harmoniously in the same sacred cause, to secure the same holy object;
“Therefore be it resolved that we, Irish-American citizens of Boston
and vicinity, in Faneuil Hall assembled, send forth from this historic
cradle of liberty an earnest appeal to all aspirants and workers for
Ireland’s disenthralment to forget all past differences and unite for
the opportune crisis, fast approaching, to strike the successful blow
for Ireland.”
XI.
THE ARMY OF THE DISCONTENTED.
“That a deep-rooted feeling of discontent pervades the masses, none
can deny; that there is a just cause for it, must be admitted. The old
cry, ‘These agitators are stirring up a feeling of dissatisfaction
among working-men, and they should be suppressed,’ will not avail
now. Every thinking person knows that the agitator did not throw two
millions of men out of employment.... That the army of the discontented
is gathering fresh recruits day by day is true; and if this army
should become so large that, driven to desperation, it should one day
arise in its wrath and grapple with its real and fancied enemy, the
responsibility for that act must fall upon the heads of those who could
have averted the blow, but who turned a deaf ear to the supplication
of suffering humanity, and gave the screw of oppression an extra turn
because they had the power.”--_T. V. Powderly, 1885._
XII.
DEFENDING DYNAMITE ASSASSINATION.
On April 7, 1885, O’Donovan Rossa delivered an address in Tremont
Temple, Boston. From a report of his remarks which appeared in the
“Boston Herald” of April 8, the following extracts are taken:--