The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1883-05-29

authority plunge the nation into civil strife
and bury our proud institutions in the
grave OF anarchy? These are solemn cues
lions. It becomes us to ask them by the
graves OF our fallen heroes. They are dicta'
ted BY no feeling Of alarm. They are sim.
ply interrogation points, intended to arrest
the attention and to direct our thinking.
They are bell.buoys intended 10 warn the
careless mariner that he 10 nearing the
shoals on which other republics have been
dashed to ruin. The traveller, passing down
the rapids oil the st. Lawrence, finds
himself tossed to and fro by swirl
ing waters past rocks that seem
like monsters waiting for their prey.
AS he nears the last and most danger
GUS OF them all, the engine 10 suddenly re-
versed. The vessel pauses in the rushing
stream. They are waiting for the pilot.
The careful company will permit but one
man to steer their steamers through that
narrow straight. In his hands alone they
are safe. But with him they pass without
a scar or scratch down and out into the
calm waters beyond. And 80, amid the
shoals and rocks that bestud the pathway
OF our ship Of state, there Is but one pilot
in whose hands she Is safe; and that Is not
the power OF our wealth, the strength
OF our armies, the wisdom OF our statesmen
or the philosophy Of our sages, It ISIS pure,
noble, patriotic manhood OF the people.
Those who "Quit them like men and are
lsrong." .H
Third-The demand upon us is in proper.
ton TO the possibilities before US. 1t is a
simple fact in philosophy that the outcome
OF nature unjust be in precise proportion TO
the aggregate OF its inherent forces. The
law OF human responsibility as given In
Revelation Is according to what a man
hath" But what is possible 10 mani !
know OF no question upon which we are
more skeptical. 1t iscommon on fete days
to speak in glowing terms Of the grandeur
OF our powers and 10 give ourselves to gilt
tering rhapsodies on the possibilities OF our
race; butin daily life wepractiCe thetyrants'
arts, and crush to earth the men whom we
declared were capable Of noblest things.
The eloquence Of Wednesday next will
glow with grandest sentiments; but the feet
OF the orators the next day will touch the
earth, and their lives will be on the plane
OF common men. The reason is we have
not yet reached our ideal. The staB
shining above our heads reveal to US land
radiant in Light. We strain our eyes to its
far of heights, and believe it is the prom
ised land OF the race. One day we shall be
led across the Jordan and up the slopes to
its possession. In spite OF our doubts, in
our truest moments, when we are most
ourselves, We believe in the higher lie for
man. Let us ask what is possible to us as
a country? What demands should we
make and what should we hope for?
| u.l We should demand that the fullest
rights OF manhood BIZ secured to all, and
that every impeachment to individual pro-
grtss be forever removed. This subject is
too wide for discussion. Fortunately it is
too obvious for argument. This lies at the
root OF all free institutions. The glory
OF State is not in its laws and
observances, but in its men.
Manhood is the onep test OF
trueness. Whatever dwaris men should
be thrown aside as shell fish cast of the
covering that is oulgrown and useless! Age,
custom, prejudice may not decide the
question OF utility. Says Phillips: when
u man plants an acorn in flower vase, ha
must destroy the vase or dwarf the oak"
Every vase that cramps the faculties OF a
single man must be shattered. 1tis the
oak, not the vase, that is OF value. The
true glory OF state lay in the development
Of its individual members. Weakness,
| ignorance, imbeclity in the subject
detracts from the strength and glory OF the
nation. No question OF color, OF race, Of
previous or present condition is pertinent.
Is he man then crushed be the foot that
would tread upon his PROSTATE form,
withered be- the hand that would tear a
siugle laurel from his brow. have gone
fo.th in early spring and seen the tiny
plant, just peering above the earth, strug-
Cling to hftthe ponderous clod that pressed
It down and as have looked upon the ten.
der thing, so weak and colorless that sin.
gle blow might crushit, yet painting for
the sunlight, and bending all its pow.
ers to lift itself into daliance with its ray,l
have imagined that saw before me
the picture Of human soul crushed by
ignorance, cursed by prejudice, weighed
down by poverty and oppressed by power,
as it struggled for the manhood 1t felt to be
it's birthright. And not more certainly did
that plant, when relieved OF It's burden,
shoot upward toward the sky array itself in
in beauty, take on its native splendor, burst
forth into corona OF dazzling glory, and at
last ripen into an abundant harvest; then
will man, the weakest and poorest of our
race, when the burdens that have crushed
him are uplifted, bound upward to the
image OF his God, array himself In divine
beauty, and glow with every virtue, and, at
last, ripen for the heavenly garner. My
bretherD, man is the worlds microcosne,
heavens yicegerent, Gods representative.
| There is about him sacredness that
makes oppression sacrilege. The time will
come, yea 1t must come, when the last
burden shall be lifted and the last impsdi.
ment 10 his progress forever removed.
When terrorism shall be unknown. When
masked marauders shall be converted'f from
the error oil their ways, or each one ill
prison or a grave, H 0y. a
2. Again, it Is possible and a duty
to attain to universal belpfulness. Gentle.
men, 1900 years ago the sublime, teacher
OF Nazareth enunciated new law for in
dividual and national life. "Whosoever will
be great among you," said Jesus, "shall be
your minister; and whosoever you will
he the chiefest shall be servant OF all. y
This was new law. II has taken II nearly
sixty generations to break through the In.
crustation OF human selfshness and pro!
claim alike its truth and beauty. But, lit.
tie by little, the truth is dawning upon the
mind that the weak are the wards OF the
strong; the ignorant, OF the wise; the de.
graded, OF the elevated. That it Is the
duty OF the State to protect tho helpless,
upliit the fallen, elevate the degraded.
Aad yet In this country the law is rendered
practically valueless by single error that
mars our theory Of government. The doc.
trine OF state rights renders the Republic
powerless for the protection Of It's citizens
upon their own soil. Aud this is the sin.
gular anomoly. The American eagle will
follow me with its eye Of fire, and protect
me with It's shrek oil power to the ends'of
the earth. Let the Car Of Russia, the En-.
peror OF Germany, or the Queen Of Britain
treat me with indignity, or inllict upon
me an injury, and that cage will swoop
down upon him or her with all the forces