OCR Text |
Show THE. FRAXCO-GER.TIAX 1VA.R BY A FBElCHJiJ. Editors Salt Lake Herald : The sympathies of nearly all nations were, at the debut of the Franco-Prussian war,, with Gennay; for, judging from appearanies, Germany was holding hold-ing herself on the defensive, more than on the offensive, when the mighty nation of France first declared war wiib her. Now, it is candidly owned and acknowledged ac-knowledged by most of the European nations, that they have disabused themselves of this belief, and are be coming firmly convinced, from evidences eviden-ces and facts daily developed, that br,i;! ia tbo r,rln,.i,l !f n, ,!, 1 cause of. tho Hood of blood that has lately flowed so freely on the continent of Europe; and that as a nation she has again recourse to the political terror ter-ror and annexion which so much characterized. Frederick-the-Great in his reign,, and has again disgraced herself her-self more shamefully under the reign of the present despotic monarch. The present Prussia and William are precisely what France and Napoleon Napol-eon were sixty years ago, in a political point of view, only with a greater power for evil and destruction, on account of their military organizations, the masses in action, and the engines of war. The Prussians have, in studying history, made of themselves a second edition of ihe history of the great Napoleon, who invaded Europe with armies made up partly of recruited troops from nations conquered by him; and Prussia returns the compliment by forming her armies from her own r.nd other surrounding provinces, such as Saxony, Bavaria, Wurtemburg, Hanover, Jcc. General Grant crushed Itobert E. Lee by overwhelming forces and superiority super-iority of numbers, and Counts Von .Uokke and Bismarck have perfected the system of Gen. Grant, aud have cucircied the French armies with forces lour times more numerous. It is publicly known throughout Europe, that one year previous to the hostilities between these two nations, hundreds of German officers and engineers en-gineers were peaceably leading the life of tourists in the east, north and centre of France, in farm houses and villages, making excursions and taking plans and maps of the country with pencil in uauu, aim procuring every iocui iiuor-mation iiuor-mation that their government might ue in need and make use of; and, let me here remark that it perfectly coincides coin-cides with the assertion made by Edmund Ed-mund About, alter the disasters of WeisseruDurg, Woerh and Foibach, that the Prussian officers were perfectly acquainted with every by-road and coiner of the Bas-llhinand other places through which they were traveling, while the French officers did not possess pos-sess tho first, map that could be relied upon. That this war was partly urged upon France is beginning now to be visible by many, and in declaring war against Prussia, Napoleon had but little choice of the two alternatives. 1 The greatest error that ho mado was, that France was unprepared for the conflict, while Prussia had made her preparations one year previous, and made such boast at the outbreak of the war- . , , . It is very uncommon, indeed, for two nations to go to war at once, with out time of preparation and with merely mere-ly a warning. I aui prepared to prove that the most important places and fortresses of France, were, five months ago without artillery, ammunition or provisions, to say nothing of Strasburg, Belfort, Bitche, Thiouville aud other frontier cities, which were also without defeuse or defenders. The preparations of defense were made in ha-ste by France, while Prussia quietly organized long before the declaration de-claration of war, and had in view the invasion of the French territory, and 1 J 1 fl;.... o-ll cnniiliprl With uau net vw.cio y... w,.-..- -. maps, &c, for the purpose. It should be plainly understood that Prussia is the actual author of this cruel war and not France. The Berlin cabinet has for a long time endeavored to convince the Germans Ger-mans and per.-uade them tha were unjustly provoked to.-"'s ena, ad that she would use no more than her right of legitime oYtene tow ard France. ,y . . , Was it to fetond Prussia that her Toruiwn;- armies march on to Pans ? a- "iu legitimate delense that they bix-ned, bombarded and destroyed open and unprotected villages, kidmg women aud children and violating the innocent as they marched through the devastated and desolate lauds ol i ranee.' It reminds us of the despots ot dark ages and of the acts of barbarians, and not of civilized nations It is true that the trench stormed the little town of t-aarbruek. although they did so without the aid of a hed or of a bombardment, and without a single one of its inhabitants being ln-iwxd: ln-iwxd: and millions of Pru--ians have 'been readv to curse the French soldier., sol-dier., for takii-zan o) en vi.la.e, one that was utiiortiiicd and on!y protecicu bv a few thou-and men. ' What has Prussia done -ince then, aud how inaiiv unprotected towns ha.--he bombarded and fore d to ieln thronch tire and starvation, and then reduced to ashes the works that centime, cen-time, have taken to tuil i tip' Ami ad this, the cabinet of H r.m assure-Germany, assure-Germany, is d:nc a a right of legitimate legiti-mate defense ot the latherland. And what has the press of Germany accomplished? accom-plished? They have endeavored for the past six months to excite the hatred ot the Germans against the French. It has taken the utmost care to give the greatest and most liberal publicity to a single letter from a German prisoner pris-oner of war, that comp'ained of bad treatment among the French, who were themselves in a pitable condition and in actual starvation, unable to help others through the desolation brought on by the same prisoners; and the.-auie press has refused to publish letters from thousands of German prisoners who denied the assertions made of such treatment by the French people from the very same locality. It has thereby exasperated the German feelings against a people who were doing as much as could be required from them; for the character of the French as a nation, has never been represented cruel and inhuman, even by their enemies. The press of the German States has caused terrible antipathy against France, withont any justification. In concert with Bismarck it designed to accomplish this object: The annexation annexa-tion of Alsace and Lorraine to the German States, now -an Empire. They have demoralized their citizens and enraged them to such a degree as to do what they have been doin for the past few months, aud still what they are doing to-day shedding their noble blood upon a toreign soil and for a cause that they ignore and for a despotic des-potic monarch. The results of this terrible war are only known to Providence. Still, the wealth and resources of France will permit her to carry on the war for years to come, while Germany cannot hold out much longer. Her people are generally poor, and the country has not the resources and commerce that France possesses, acoording to her geographical position. AlthoughFrance has suffered more" (through invasion) than Prussia has, her losses are not to be compared. A few years will suffice for France to be again re-established, while it will take many years of hard labor to replace the damage done to the German provinces; and there is not any doubt, that before Prussia recovers re-covers from her shock, aud while she is struggling for health, that Franoe will demand of her in a voice of thunder, thun-der, aud in tones of auger, to make restitution for the abominations and wrongs inflicted so uujustly upon her people, in this war, and revenge will surely follow. G. II., a Frenchman. |