Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1888 — America is Not Russia. [ARTICLE]

America is Not Russia.

The Century. We do not see how anything could more clearly demonstrate the folly and crime of an anarchical movement in America than the papers by Mr. Kennan on the condition of affairs in the Russian Empire, now being published in the Century. These criticisms proceed from a country whose relations with Russia are particularly cordial. They are printed in a periodical where “The Life of Peter the Great,” published as a two years’ serial, did much to increase the amicable i-'ter : est of Americans in the affairs of Russia, and they are from a hand that has shown conspicuously its friendliness toward the Russian government. Without favoring or defending the methods of the Russian revolutionists, Mr. Kennan shows that the violence which individuals, or groups of individuals, are guilty of in Russia is a natural result of the absence of civil liberty. The Russian Liberals (not revolutionists) demand—what? The readers of the November Century have seen the moderation of their demand: they desire freedom of speech, freedom of the press, security for personal rights, and a constitutional form of government. America, above all nations of the world, means these very things. Anarchy, and the dastardly methods of the anarchist, • Slav* no slightest color of excuse to exist in a free country. And, thank Heaven, America is continually making it evident that a free country is abundantly adapted to the defense of its own freedom; that is to say, es its own existence.