The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-04-25
SPEECH OF EX-GOV. WRIGHT,
InMosart Hall. Blu arlington, April ~ 1892.

In Mosart Hall, Burlington. April ~ 1852.
| After referring to the effect of continued
labor, disqualifying him for the work OF
speaking, Mr.. Wright remarked that in
| this hour of the country's peril, he did not
| feel himself at liberty to refuse to give his
| opinions In this crisis, said he, men are
nothing. 1t is a matter of very little mo
ment what shall become of you or me, In
comparison with what shall become OF our
country. He had looked at many of our
public men, men who had held high Office
| in the Government who, from the time the
difficulty had commenced to the present,
had nothing tosay! He thought that, OF all
men, the man who can make political capt.
tai out of the misfortunes OF the country, is
the lowest. The man who has nothing to
say till he thinks he can make capital out
| of it. is worse than those who are in arms
against the Government. He had nothing
to say, personally, of any man. He had
| not come to add to the bitterness and party
feeling which exists. We may be ignorant
of it, it may be concealed, but we may be
nearer a volcano than we think OF. We
have men in our midst who are disloyal,
and the time is coming that will test every
mans loyalty, and that before many days.
There is no liberty where there is no law.
The essence of freedom is law, and the
question we are approaching in this coun-
| try, is whether we have power to execute
the law or not. He had nothing to say OF
the past. Those who had come expecting
| him to talk about the past, would be disap-
pointed. Many men like to talk of thep past.
Some men would be tickled to hear him
talk about what had been done by the par
ties North andSouth. But what good wo'd
that do? He had no respect for man that
would get up and make speech about the
past. When the night is come, the days
work is ended. 1t cannot be changed. 1t
| Sc Ga II 10 uyifh tho n a.
ton. If you are patriot, you are not ask
ing that question. The question is, what is
my duty now? What is my duty tO-mor-
row? If you find man who is tickled to
hear men talk about the past, about who
brought on this war, and how this was
done, you may set it down that that man is
no patriot. [Cheers.] The question is,
what is the duty before me? What must
the nation do to put down the rebellion and
maintain The Government?
He wished to illustrate the subject in a
familiar way, and to make all understand
him. What is the question, stripped OF all
personality and bitterness and hard names?
He could not illustrate it more simply than
by the history of family. A well regula-
| ted family is a miniature government
Every government as well as every family
passes through at least three Ordeals. The
| man who selects a partner in life, lndlvid-
ualizes himself, sets up his family, passes
tuTOUSu tLc OIucdl. No" WHeIi ITO
has done this, when he has his home estab-
lished, he will be a very fortunate man if
| he does not pass through a second ordeal.
Somebody disputes his rights, intertereS
with his liberties and privileges, his rights
of property, his right to enjoy his home;
| and he has got to maintain his rights. That
| is the second ordeal. Then there is third
| ordeal. If he has raised family he is
very likely to have an insubordinate son,
a son that will not submit to his authority
| and direction. He must have peace in his
house. He cannothave peace without sub
mission. His children must submit to the
| control of the father. His advice, his will,
| must be the law of that domicile, or there
| can be no peace there. That is the third
odeal. ~.
Now you can make the application with
out much labor. There is no nation that
has existed on the face of the earth that
has not passed through these ordeals. He
knew OF no nation that had existed one
hundred years without them. In 1861 we
went into our third ordeal. When a nation
sets up for itself, that is great effort, then
it resists its outward enemies, that is u
great effort; but there is a greater struggle
than that when it has to subdue rebellion
within itself.
We escaped that third ordeal until the
eighty-tifth year from the time we set about
getting up our government. Our first or
uSshi " HUH II ~ W 400. W q bIteu SET up
! for ourselves; we broke away from the
mother country, and individualized our
selves, and called ourselves the United
States of America. That was our first or
deal. The second came on us in 1911. We
had been an Independent nation. We
maintained our government from 1889 to
1911, y years. Then we had to show to the
| nations around us that we could maintain
ourselves among the nations around u.s.
Like the head Of family who maintains
his rights, we demonstrated at the close Of
the war in 1915 that we could take care of
| ourselves. We showed the nations that we
could defend ourselves from foreign enc
mics. We passed through our second or
deal triumphantly. Do you know nation
| that has not had its domestic difficulties
Every nation is subject to these feuds; and
! this is the most important question: Can
the father have peace in his family? Can
a republic defend itself against domestic
| foes? That is the most important question.
We are republic. We have gone along
| and maintained ourselves among the ma
tons of the earth. The question now is,
| can the Republic put down domestic re-
bellion? What have our enemies been
saying? Go to your records, and they will
tell what they have been saying. When 1
was in Europe heard of Crowned-heads
and aristocrats saying, You can get along
| in America while you have new ground to
run over; but let rebellion occur, and
you will find that you cannot maintain it.
You will need a King. Your government
is too weak. You must have stronger
government" Now we are going to settle
this question. We are going to try whether
a republic can maintain itself 1t is the
most important question. SD
Has a republic, a government controlled
by the people, the power to maintain itself
against domestic foes? That is the ques-
ton. Can we have peace inside of our own
house? Is there inherent virtue enough in
the people to defend themselves and sup
port their own government? Is there any
question of greater magnitude? Are you
alone interested? Nay. Your children?
Nay. There is not a man in whose breast
thrObs the pulse of humanity who is not
looking on to this controversy with most
intense interest; because unless we put
down this rebellion the labors of your
fathers and mine are gone, the republic is a
| failure, and you must centre the power
somewhere else than in the hands of the
| people. s e.
| While he was in Europe if he heard once
he heard it an hundred times: /" Your re-
public will do well for while; but let the