Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 110, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 May 1918 — Wonderful Record of Achievement of National and Human Freedom [ARTICLE]

Wonderful Record of Achievement of National and Human Freedom

By JOHN BURTON FOLEY.

Chicago

France has a wonderful record for achievement of national and human freedom that makes the whole world her debtor. . 1. The assistance of the French army and navy in the darkest period of our war for independence. 2. The French Revolution and its aftermath which forever destroyed feudalism in Europe. ’ ' , . 3. The freedom of the (Austrian) Netherlands from the yoke of Aus4. The regeneration of Germany, particularly of Prussia: for it is not generally known that the peasantry of Prussia were in a. condition of serfdom until 1807. . • ‘ Queen Louise of Prussia wrote from Koemgsburg to her father. The divine foresight is unmistakably introducing new conations into the world, and a new order of things is brought about for the old has outlived its day. It were a crime to say, ‘God is with the French emperor; bu.he is manifestly an instrument in the hand of the Almighty, to bury out of sight the old order, which has no further purpose. , The Zeitgeist (The Spirit of the Age) was the direct cause of the emancipation edict of October 9, 1807, whereby serfdom was abolished m the kingdom of Prussia. I< also removed the principal restriction that tcrfered with the free traffic in land, the abolition of caste in land and above all' granted to every noble, citizen, and peasant the right of free choice of occupation. This document has been rightly called the »ag Charts of the Prussians.” 5. France sent her fleet in 1827 to assist Greece in her war for inde1 6ln 1831 she sent her army into Belgium defeating the army of Holland, and thus securing Belgium’s independence from Holland. 7. In 1859 she waged successful war against Austria for Italian i erat Tln 1914 at the Battle of the Marne, when France saved the world from the domination of brutal Prussian militarism. France never broke a treaty. These are some of the reasons why France has been called the duvalroue nation.