Stoddard didn’t kill him, it was a rough man who knew the odds and the truth of the futility of pacifism.
I know that. But the rough man didn’t want the publicity. He killed him knowing that he’d lose the girl as a result, because he knew that Rance Stoddard was what his region needed. Really the fact that Ransom Stoddard’s gun was not the one from which the lead balls emanated that perforated Liberty Valance was exactly the point. He stood up to him and refused to be intimidated, even though he didn’t know how to shoot, because he believed in the triumph of law over brutality. This motivated Tom Donovan to do the actual deed of killing, but Stoddard was the one who killed the spirit of Liberty Valance. Next, the cowardly Marshall Applegate stood up and had Valance’s henchmen run out of town, and next at the convention in Capital City, the homesteaders outvoted the cattlemen and obtained statehood. Really Stoddard did kill Liberty Valance, and Tom Donovan as well, by making brute force obsolete by standing up in its face.
With regards to France, Coleridge says that “if you do not understand a man’s ignorance, presume yourself ignorant of his understanding (Biographia Literaria, somewhere towards the end).” What the French have not understood until now is that you must stand up against naked savagery. They believed that you can reach an accommodation with it and still remain civilized, who cares if you act unmanly. But what they do understand is that civilized is a worthwhile thing to be, because it leads to prosperity, peace, and an enjoyment of the fine things in life. I am hoping that they now also grasp the necessity of making a stand, like Ransom Stoddard, of risking everything to fight for civilization, because it’s worth defending. They seem to have woken up, but you can never know, only hope.