The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1877-04-05
CONSERVATISM
STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS.

ment that has just passed there have
been loud threats Of war and indica-
tions of anarchy, yet we cannot help
thinking that it has been surface
eruption more noisy than powerful.
Underlying our system OF society we
think that there are potent conserva-
tive influences ever at work which it
will be hard for demagogues and VIC
| lent partisans to overcome. And it is
a pleasant task to try to point out some
, of these.
! Property is strongly conservative in
! its intiuence-whoever possesses it is
apt to be content with things as they
are, whoever does not is apt to think
that almost any change in society or its
laws, might prove advantageous to
him. Property though created by la
Dor is yet in an important sense the
creature Of law. It is protected and
guarded by law and every man that
owns it naturally stands up for law
True there may be and are exceptions.
Like Shelly in whom the ideal seemed
to overpower all material interests
But such exceptions are 80 few and
stand out in such bold relief as to give
emphasis to the truth Of this general
statement. AS looked at from this
standpoint the United States would
naturally seem to be one of the most
conservative nations. It would be
difficult to point out any other nation
on the globe in which property is SO gen.
orally distributed-so extensively shar-
ed. Every farmer oWns-or by frugal
|ity and industry may soon own the
land he cultivates. Every Industrious
mechanic and laborer even-except in
large cities-owns, or what is almost
equivalent, may reasonably hope to
ONu St SOO0 0O1ucSHCttu
1t is stated on good authority that
| the United States contains forty mil
lions Of people. It may be also said
with truth that the majority of these
millions actually own the United
States. This binds the people to their
country and makes it strong in their
patriotism. Generally educated as they
are they will not be apt to welcome
revolution except from strong adequate
cause-even although state interests
and jealousies should sometimes stir up
extensive irritation. Deeply interested
in the maintenance of law and order
we are sanguine in the hope that they
will ever prove the decided antagonists
of anarchy. How strong must be the
attachment of those men to the farms
and homesteads that they have earned
and improved through years of toll
and care-yet frightened by the sun
shine of hope. Here they now dwell
in some measure of cOmfort-With
their families-under their own roof
enjoying the beauty and the fruit Of
their vines and trees-secure in the
protection of that government which
yet derives all its strength and power
from their loyalty.
Trade and commerce also, so extern
sive in their range, so multifOrm in
their rami6cations, SO sensitive to all
social and political disturbances, must
ever exert a strong conservative infu-
ence in union with that produced by
strong proprietary attachments.
These bulwarks of our national
strength would we'll bear examination
by those that forbode disaster in the
future and predict an early dissolution
of our great republic.
Having directed attention to these
strong points In our national position,
the anchorage of our stability, it is but
candid to look also at what seems our
weak point.
1t is impossible for these conserva-
tive influences of which we have been
speaking to affect the great majority of |
the poorer citizens of the large cities.
In them the value of property is so
high as to be above their reach. So,
few of them are able to acquire home
steads of their own. They live in
rented tenements, frequently cherries
and uninyiting, close it may be to their
places of employment-yet close also
RI nouoh filth and much moral ond social |