The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1879-07-24

man governments, and is the freest'
the most powerful, and the most pros
porous government ofthe world. IRE
publics are short lived" said the inn
mortal Benton, that boy who obeyed
his mother when she said, my son do
not swear nor drink" and for his
obedience he was promoted and hon
ored with thirty years in Congress.
Said he, 1.-TWO diseases beset them. the
one, the corrupt election of the chief
magistrate when elective, the other,
sectional contention when interest or
ambition are at issue" Said he in
1856, "Our confederacy is now labor
ing under both diseases, and the body
of the people now, as always, honest
in sentiment, and patriotic in design,
remain unconscious of the danger,
and even become instruments i'm the
hands of their destrOyers. Since this
was penned both of these diseases
have reached their crisis, the one cul-
minating in the civil war of secession,
the other in the corrupt influences
that pooled the caucus in the nomina-
tions, and that attempted by cryptic
graphits to gobble the electoral col
lege, both however, have signally failed.
All honor to Elk county Buck Tails
for their prompt and efficient action
in the civil conflict. And all honor
and all praise to the judiciary, the con-
servative arm of the republic, for its
wisdom and love of order and of right
and of truth, in the Presidential con-
test. May kind Heaven avert the re-
lapse or a recurrence of these aggra-
waited maladies. When Ulysses, the
Grecian hero, was returning from the
conquest of Illium, after he had been
driven by adverse winds, he reached
the straits of Messina. TO avoid
Charybdis on the Sicilian shore, he
stcercd close to Scylia, on the italian
coast and six of his braves were
snatched away by the monster, while
Charybdis the more terrible monster,
with extended jaws, horribly yawned
with dreadful noise, in readiness to
gulp all the distinguished heroes.
'Tis thus the republs the great ship
Of State, freighted with $4,000, 900 Of
freenen is tossed about on the turbu-
lent ocean by the political winds, and
has reached the dangerous straits,
where the Scylla of Imperialism, on
the rock bound Italian coast, from its
caves, stretches forth her six heads,
armed with triple rows of teeth, eager
to destroy, while the more dreadful
monster, the Charybdis, of anarchism.
on the Sicilian shore, RACES and foams
and belches like her native Aetna,
threatning to engulpl in its dark whirl-
pools, the entire nation. AS check
to these enemies of freedom, and foes
of civilization, cOmpatfiots of Elk
county. you are engaged in good
work. Your school houses and your
churches yield strength and knowl-
edge and power. But it is to the
court houses, the temples of justice,
that we must look for stability. These
are the bulwarks, the impregnable
ramparts of the nation, the counter
poise to liccntiousness, and to the en-
thusiasm of Democracy. God speed
you in your noble work, and as you
place within the cornerstone Of your
edilice the act of assembly erecting
your county, the laws and constitu-
ton of your Commonwealth and of
your nation. 1t Were well also to
place therein a copy OF that more an
cient code of written law, the Penta-
teuch. The courts OF justice are the
West Point, the people who are the
witnesses and the jurors, are the cadets.
from who alone under Providence the
defense of the Government must be
maintained. If the people listen to
the siren voices of the three sisters,
nihilism, socialism and communism
they, too, will soon be in raptures over
their charms, and will forget home
and wife and child, and country and
all they loved, then, will civilization
end in barbarism and freedom in vas
salage, erect then your court house.
dispense justice and obey and enforce
your laws, then may you beat your
swords into plowshares and yourspears
into pruning hooks aud enjoy the nor
mai franchises of the race under your
own vine and fig tree. God save the
nation.
Forever float that standard sheet,
Where breathes the foe, but falls before us
With frCCdOmS soil beneath our feet.
And freedoms banner streaming o'er u.s."