Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1878-05-30

I'VE shall not enter into TIE field
skas hes before your every thought.
Why was this deed done, and what shall
be the end of these things if allowed
to 60 anrebuked of the the nation, ye
need not that / should teach you?
Your hearts are inditing no pleasant,
though it may prove profitable mat
ter. The sodden lamb, the unleav-
ened cake, and the bitter herbs, made
useful meal to the Israellte. He
reflected on the hour when death
reigned in every Egyptian household,
and his own, by miracle escaped, 50
We may sup on lenten food this hour,
and find it nutritious to soul and spirit.
The angel of death, not God-sent, but
devil-driyen, hovers over much of our
land, shifting with blood-strokes the
victims OF his cruel wrath. He has
left your homes free, yet only for a
season. IF we allow murder for
opinions sake to be the law of one
part of the land, it will soon be in all
parts. Can one member suffer and
not all suffer with it? Can leading
citizen and his family be set on and
slain in Mississippi? No more can the
the reverse be true. The present
honey-combing of Pennsylvania with
murder, which stern and unrelenting
justice cannot abate; the communistlc
threatenings in Chicago and California;
the bloody strikes along the Ohio;
the tramp wandering murderouslY over
one half of our Union, is the natural,
the inevitable outcome of the unwil-
lingness Of the national government to
protect its citizens in the other half.
The theory that state governments
have such absolute control of life and
death within their territories that the
nation cannot cross their boundaries
to protect its citizens and punish their
murderers, has brought US to this
weak and miserable pass We are
affrighted at the shadow glowering at
our own hearthstone. In secluded Yer
mont, in crowded Cincinnati. In remote
Maine; in central Indiana, the same
terror besets us by night and by day.
"One Indian massacre arouses every
part of the land, be it the Modocs oil
Oregon, or the Sioux of Minesotta, or
the Utes of Colorado, or the Canaan.
ches of Arizona, and wrath leaps from
end to end Of the continent, and that,
too, when no one dreams that the
dread foe is to steal again into eastern
homes and renew his horrors at Wyo-
ming or Schenectady. But this deed
has unusual national application. 1t
proves universal national weakness;
it broods universal disaster. "A people
that cannot protect itself is no people
1t falls to pieces when it allows Its
members to be cut to pieces, Said a
gentleman to me, but yesterday, who
| had lust returned from abroad: 'The
old world is over governed; we, I'M
der-governed.' Nothing strikes one
more forcily on re-entering his land
than the lack Of national poger over
its own citizens Unless a stronger
government arises we shall dissolve
and disappear as a nation. We sigh
for the verifcation of the seal of Mas
sachusetts, an uplitted arm, holding a
sword, which alone gives placid quiet
under liberty. We have taken the
first step in verifying our right to exist
as nation on gigantic fields of strife,
by bloody and costly valor. We must
carry forward and complete this
work in the national protection of
every citizen in his every right,
We must defend freedom of speech
and freedom Of ballot, or We perish
from the earth. To this coming per-
fectlon of national peace and power
this sad event will contribute. This
family group are martyrs to American
equality of right, to the Declaration of
Independence, and to the Preamble OF
the Constitution. 1t was for the cause
of equal rights the father fought and
the family fell. 1t was for the pro-
protection of every citizen at the polls;
for true Democracy; the government
Of the majority of the voters, legally
and fearlessly expressed; for the Amer
can nation; for the rights of mankind
that this citizen of America, with his
brave son and brave daughter, laid
down their lives.
Their cries of agony and death shall
I L. Ill