The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1876-08-02
\ NoN-PARTIsAS LOOK AT THE sIrUA
TTON

TIoN.
Now let Us forget that we are eithe
: Republicans or Democrats, and for
moment look at this state of thing:
as American citizens and Christians
As an element Of free goveramen
II. is an inconsistency which no word
Of tnine can iily characterize. Th,
granite on which our governmen
rests is the declaration that 'ali met
are created free and equal, and ar,
endowed with certain inalienable
rights, among which are life, liberty
and the pursuit Of happiness" Thi
is our boast; we have pfou1iy hilnt-
ed it in the faces of empesors aud
kings: it Is the weapon with which
we have made our merciless assaults
upon the despotisms ofthe world; by
it we have INDUCED the governments
of all history and explained the mys
tery of their destruction; it has point
ed cur logic, inspired our oratory,
and iuaamed our national pride.
/ Aud within the last fifteen wears
thousands upon thousands of persons
have been killed 10 this country for
reasons largely political or social
There is no other civilized or semi.
civilized nation on the globe, republi-
can. monarchial, or autocratic, 10
which one-tenth as many victims
have fallen by assassination for simi-
lar reasons in the same time. Free
dom's plague-spot is the southern sec
tion of this Union; the strongest ar
gument 10 favor of centralized gov
ernment which the world now fur
nishes is that same section Of this
country. IL would be g relief to fy
to despotism from such democracy.
All nations curse the Romish
hieraeby for it's inquisition, and de-
servedly So 1t thrilled Europe with
terror; it threw over the intellect OF
the nations an almost starless night OF
stagnation. 1t manacled the ages,
and hurled then terrOr-strieken at
the feet Of pontifs who grew cruel
through excess Of absolutism and
puerile through excess of security.
1t brought nell on earth aud east the
nations into it
Bt even tue iuquisiIion tried men:
! it m9cked them it is true, but il was
ia formal phrases Of legal import,
1 they were srraigned eondem ed, aad
punished uader some form Of law
But this prescription assails men in
open day, murders them as they sit
by their 6re-si6es: calls them to their
doors, aud when they answer the
summons shoots them in the very
presence of wives and children: seizes
them and then carries them 10 eora-
fields and turns them loose, and shoots
them as they run for their lives, Just
as brutal spOrtsmeu turn rats cut for
terriers in rat-pits: murders teachers
who are peacefully engaged in that
work of education which has been
both our necessity and our boast
since l776 And all this 10 Amer
lea, where We, the other dav, eeie-
bra.ed our centennial Fourth Of July.
when the whole air was resonant
with voices Of orators and th1ader Of
guns, and all for freedom: where we
made the valleys and bills and noun
tains, and the very heavens, luminous
with liberty's beacon fires and
flaming rockets.
Ii dead men know anything Of
what transpires on earth, what an
infinite burlesque all this must have
seemed to the men and women who
have fallen under the assassin's hand
these wears.
repeat that as an element Of our
boasted free government this state Of
things is an inconsistency which !
have no language to characterize.
And it is not necessary il charac-
terizes itself To sensitive and un-
biased minds it is sufficiently appall-
ing without tragic accompaniment.
Remove all this from the field Of pol
ities and it would freeze all of US
with horror Nobody was killed by
that band of robbers in Missouri the
other day, but how the news shot
through the land like a shock from
some huge galvanic battery. Militia
ry interference has been called for,
and large rewards offered for the ar
rest of the marauders. And this is
well. This is as j. should be- But
at about the same time ten colored
men were killed in South Carolina in
conflict which the whites provoked
and began, and some Of the victims
were set loose and shot as they ran.
How does that affect US? Are re-
wards offered for the murderers
Does an outraged natijn call for ven
geance
Such state of things briggs popu-
lar government into disrepute Such
state Of things is not government
at oil, but anarchy, mObo cracy, an
unlimited caricature of government.
1t would make US q jest among the
nations is it were not so monstr0us
as to be appalling 1t would make
monarchists laugh only that it amazes
them with boFror. Ii Turkey should
practice such prescription tbroagh a
term OF years it would demand the
Of k1rops, and the mon-
arches Of the old World would en-
gage in a war for the rights Of men
The shame which came upon US
from ninety years Of slavery ha7 been
through fifteen years Of
assassination and terrorism, and un-
less we ca0 in some way get deliver
enee from Ii ese woes We must become
a byword and a Kissing amorg 'be
nations. This state of things carries
destruction 10 its right hand Ii pal 1
sizes business and mildews social life. /
Men who killed their neigbbors for
political reasons in that act commit I
suicide upon their own interests
The South has sunny climate and
-ich soil, but European immigration
,buns its disturbed territory as men
avoid eoDtagion. Men who fly from
he expressions Of monarchy do not
eek shelter under the terrors Of an
lrcby. They will not take their chill
iren where they may some day be
uddenly made fa,herless by the ca