Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 December 1894 — THE CZAR'S MANIFESTO. [ARTICLE]

THE CZAR'S MANIFESTO.

The remarkable state paper promulgated by Czar Nicholas 11, Nov. 26, in celebration of his marriage would seem to indicate that the spirit of the age ’had at last penetrated the obtuse brain of a Romanoff ruleir. That such a paper from the Russiah throne has been so long delayed is one of the mysteries of our day. So obviously a correct policy should have been adopted years and years before, not only for the betterment of the oppressed subject but for the advantage and additional stability of the throne and government itself: The Russian Czars —always arbitrary—have during the past fifty years exceeded all their predecessors in the severity of their home policy, yet their intercourse with foreign powers has shown them to be men of unusual intelligence, well educated and fully alive to modern progress in every phase. The friendship of the Russian government to the United States has always been proverbial, and during the war of the Rebellion that friendship wasjextremely valuable to ,the Union cause. Yet the government of the United States is in the -greatest possible contrast to the existing state of internal affairs in Russia. Rigorous repression has been the policy of every Czar for a hundred years, and the stories of Siberia, the horrors of the dungeon and the knout, and the desperation of Nihilism and every form of organized revenge upon these rulers who refused to relax in the slightest degree their rigid rules is familiar to every well read person in this country. Just why the Czars have been so f riendly to the United States is not easy to understand. Probably much the same spirit actuated them that animated the man who whipped his wife at home and was a perfect gentleman in society. They felt like being good part of the time. That a Czar has at last come to the throne who can see that a liberal policy to his own subjects is the best policy for himself, and that it is one conducive to his own safety and happiness, will be gratifying to every lover of liberty in the world. The manifesto speaks well for the intelligence of the hew Czar, and is a >'ay of light that will illuminate One of the darkest spots of earth to-day. May it be the dawn of a still .brighter day for that great, powerful and benighted land. ■