Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1884-06-23
AMERICAN POLITICS.
DR.. TaImage Discoursss On Boss
NJ ism.
@THE COUNTRY GOING TO RUIN"
An Eloquent Political Sermon by the
Brooklyn Divine On Latter Day
Parties and Candidates.
Special 10 ne Re0iHer.

Arm Of the Lord, awake, awake!
Put on thy strength, the nations shake,
And let the world, adoring, sec
Triumphs OF mercy wrought by thee"
The text was Acts ~, 27-2s: Then the
chief captain came and said unto him,
Tell me, art thou a RomanY He said,
Yes And the chief captain answered,
With great sum obtained this freedom,
And Paul said, But was free born.
So, said DIR. Talmage, l,700 years besore
Thomas jefferson wrote the Declaration Of.
American Infs5endca e, Paul wrote his
declaration of independence. Some official
brag had been telling how that by eminent
services or through large compensation he
had purchased his'liberty, when Paul, be
thinking himself that Tarsus, the place OF
his nativity, had been manumitted by Anto-
MUS, responds to the bra3gadocio in these
words, practically; "My freedom dates far
ther back than yonrs; I am not liberated
slave; my cradle had no shack(e on the
rockers; my mother was not serfi was
free born" That is descriptive of all the
population born in this country during the
last twenty-one years and it is true Of all
the white population ever born in this coun,
try. Ard YET the attempt constantly IS
being made to mapaCle the people, Chains
are being forged for our slavery.
speak to you this morning on the
slavery OF Politics
and how We are to break that slavery. We
are half way between the two Presidential
nominations. The hotels of Chicago are
not yet thoroughly ventilated from the re-
cent convention, and yet will vcry soon be
occupied by a convention that will compel
the hotels to still other fumigations, The
air is hot with political imprecation. We
are all being whipped into line as far as is
possible. One Of three or four pairs o.
spectacles we are to wear or suffer for it.
The political guillotine is rolled out,aud the
recalcitrants are shown the knife for the;r
neck and the basket into which their head
will probably roll. The MANAGERS Of the
political machine are tightening the screws
and making more firm the crankS. Dele
gates are having stout rope of ''instruc-
tons" put around their necks and have in
timated to them that if they vote contrary
to the behests of their party the rope will
tighten until their facilities for respiration
may be seriously interEered with. Shad
rach, Meshach and Abednego are com
manded to bow down to the images set up
or be roasted in the furnaces seven times
heated. Every town and village and neigh
borhood has, what is called in old-fashiOled
English parlance, its boss and every
State its larger boss" and then all these
bosses" meet together and elect great
national boss" Against this slavery Of
American politics l utter a protest and de
mand that at convention and at ballot-box
and everywhere without hindrance and with
out malediction men shall vote as they
think best, God their only judge.
No Danger.
First, if we would resist this bos sism of
American politics we must refuse to believe
every four years that everything is at stake.
If our institutions are so rickety that every
four years they are in danger Of smash-up
the sooner they go to pieces the better, and
we have government substituted which
has in it some Of the elements of durability.
| remember eleven Presidential elections
and each election the leaders of parties told
US with vehemence ghastly and terrific that
everything was in danger Of ruin. As near
as | could calculate we were about quar-
ter of an inch from the eternal precipice
Men went to the ballot-boX tremulous with
omens. Carriages were sent to bring aged
voters and invalids. At party expense they
were brought and patriots who by strange
at the same time were candi-
dates for office, lifted these invalids out Of
bed into pillows and mattresses and support
ed them to the ballOt-bOx while they drop.
ped for the very life of the country their
Precious Vote.
The political orators are getting out their
old speeches that they made in the Fremont
and in the Lincoln campaign and
in al the campaigns since; for the speeches
do Just as well for one campaign as thu
other, for We are always in imminent peril
and always lust going 10 ruin and therefore
thev do Just as well now as they did 30
years ago When | was lad 3 years of
age heard the first political speech Of nv
life. stood barefooted in the broiling sun
at Sommerville, New Jersey and heard a
western orator show me conclusivelv that
f William Henry Harrison instead of Mar
lin Nan Buren were elected President Of the
United States there would be no use OF my
living to grow up for there would he no
to live in. A few years ago went
10 Boston TO lecture in the music hall and
heard in the antc-rOum that night that
orator from the West was to
speak in Fanuiel Hall; so hurried through
NY work and hastened down to Fanuiel
Hall, the cradle of liberty and l found
he cradle that night was rocked BY
he very same speech that | had heard
n the days of nv bOyhoo1 and that the
,ountrv was in the same eminent peril as
orty years ago; and the only difference
,Ould observe was that in one speech it was
William Henry Harrison and in the other
t was Benjamin F. Butler Some Of US
when Henry Clay and James
<. Polk were contestants for the Presiden-
ial chair. When Henry Clay was defeated,
ny father pale and sick, with the news sat
lOwn and said that all was lost He had
elt the magnetism of that splendid Ken
uckian whose name cannot pronounce
Without enthusiasm tingling from scalp to
Ieel. But was everything lost? Why
hat election gave US the Texan domain,
ich beyond all agricultural estimate and
pened the door for annexation after an
exation until now when the wind blows
rom the west our national flag dips in the
Atlantic and when the wind blows from the |
ast the flag dips in the Pacific. Then we
Tere told that the existence of the country |
expended upon Mr.. Lincoln's second eiec- |
ion to the Presidency. After his second |
he died, and Andrew johnson |
ut the administration in just the opposite |
irection.
We Still Live.
The majestic army If Republican indie |
endents are mad because they cannot get |
ny more out of the Republican crib an1 !
hey are hoping that the Democracy may
ave so full a bowl that some Of it may !
lop over into their cup But lest these in |
o.onJon4 po.,kI.oox,, ska,A 10 H,-,n