The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-04-05
cumstanccs as each degree of exaltatio1
is reached.

cumstanccs as each degree of exaltation
is reached.
a GLANCE BACKWARDS.
Allow me to make an apparent d.
gression right here, and talk, for little
while about another subject. Suppose
the events which have happened during
the past twelve months, in the political
world, had occurred five or Xix years
ago? Suppose the corruptious, frauds,
follies and wickedness in official life,
which the Investigations of the past
year have revealed, had been as fully
exposed to public view in 1869 and 1870;
what would have been the probable re-
suit? You surely have not forgtten the
condition of affairs six. years ago?
You can hardly fail to remember that
that was a period Of intense feeling?
That sentiment Of bitter indignation
was widely prevalent throughout this
land? That the masses of the people
felt deeply Inundated by expressions,
and, to a very general extent, INDUCED
in fierce anger against the wealthy por-
ton?
THE DANGERS THAT THREATENED.
Suppose the facts which have recently
been made known had been made known
then, can you avoid the conviction
that anarchy would most probably have
ensued ? You, surely, have not already
forgotten the condition Of the popular
temper at that still recent period?
You must still reccllect that it was suffi-
GENTLY excited to alarm the thoughtful,
who regarded it jeopardizing the very
existence Of our free institutions. You
most still remember the attitude assumed
by the Internationals and various other
working mems associations of that day.
You cannot have forgotten the strong
tendency Of public sentiment towards
communistic savag'sn,, the growing dis
regard for law and order, and the rapid
drifting Of society in the direction Of
revolution Of the most radical and dan
gerous description. Nor can it have
escaped your memory that the individu-
ais of the monied class, who filed prom
inent positions, did the very thing best
calculated to bring about the threatened
CONFUSION, by foolishly insisting that
they had legal right to be extortionate
and oppressive, and that the people had
no other alternative than submission to
their demands, unjust and cruel as they
might choose to make them.
CONSERVATISM OF THE ORDER.
am not reminding you of these
events Of the past with view to max
ing political speech, but to illustrate
and prove the truth of an assertion am
now about to utter, and which I dare
not venture to make without having
thus preface1 it, lest it excite only your
incrcdulity. That assertion is this:
It was the Order of Patrons of Hus-
bandry which lifted this country harm
iessly out Of that difficulty. Had it not
been for this Order, am satisfied that
the Internationals would have obtained
control of the industrial classes and in
cited them to act of violence sufici ent
to involve the nation in CONFUSION 40
fierce that our republican institutions
could hardly have survived the shock!
ITS ADHERENCE TO RIGHT.
Amid all the excite1nents of that Pc
Rod, and despite the pressure brought
to bear upon it by the industrial ele-
ments engagedi in other than agricultural
vocations, backed as these were by the
earnest efforts Of many well-meaning
but misguided members of its own
oranges, the Order Of Patrons of Hus
bandry took a strongly conservative
stand and maintained it unswerving)y.
To the fierce appeals of the rabid advo-
Gates Of violence it said, plainly and
firmly, no and, meanwhile, held them
determinedly from deeds Of outlawry.
At the same time it emphatically de-
nounced the arrogance, injustice and
robberies of inc orporated and combined
monopolists, and applied itself t. stead
lily tearing from around them the huge
piles oflegal franchises, privileges and
presidents under cover of which they
thought themselves securely entrenched.
Had this Order not existed, whatpow
WAS there in the lapd DOssessinu ability