Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1884-09-24


party lines against personally OBJ
jectionable candidate. Further thar
this they can not, or will not. see
Theirs is the history of all overfed
powers. When the people of Paris
came down TO Versailles and shouted
for bread, under the Kings windows
Louis XVI, doubtless understood that
they wanted bread, and the only ques
ton to him was whether they should
get it or not. When a few years
later. he stood on the scaffold one win,
ter morning, the idea had probably
made its way into his dull head that
the people had all along wanted some,
thing more than mere bread. They
had wanted, he saw, justice, the right
of self.government, personal freedom
and, more than any one thing, the
recognition of principle of Equali-
ty.
When certain men arose in this
country and said that slaves should
not be held in the newly-made States,
the politicians Of the day discussed
the question as it was given to them,
and when they made up their minds
to side with the shareholders, they
thought the question was settled.
When the Free-Soil agitation took the
phase of lawless violence, they
thought only of putting it down.
When John Brown gave the signal
for an uprising of the negroes, they
saw before them only the immediate
duty Of capturing and killing John
Brown. But after four years of a
cruel and unnatural war they grasped
the truth that the Free-Soilers and
John Brown had been but factors in
the great scheme of Emancipation,
and that tho killing of such men in
droves would not have quelled the
spirit that made for the establishment
of true liberty in America.
To-day, Mr.. Blaine does not under
stand that he is enlisted on the wrong
side in war which next November's
election can not possibly end. The
system of political laxity and corrup-
ton, which he and men like him have
fastened on the country, is to him
what the system of slaveholding was
to the Southern sympathizers" of
generation gone. Their formulas
would fit the defense he has to make.
The system has evils, which are to be
deplored but, after all, it is the only
practicable system. Criticism which
condemns it is chimerical to look for
higher standard of morals in public
affairs. Human nature is selfish, and
absolute honesty is a beautifully ideal
impracticability. Experience outval-
ues theory. Radical change would
only open the way to other troubles
of different kinds. We exist, we are
prosperous, under the present order
of things. Why should we risk a
changel
Such sophistries as these are like
straws in the path of whirlwind.
This is the idle chatter that was
drowned in the roar of the French
Revolution. These are the stale for
mulas that were abandoned for ever
before our civil war was closed. The
voice of selfinterest and policy is
loud before the storm but it is silent
when the storm breaks. This wind
has been long rising; but now it has
risen, and it will not fall until it has
done its work, whether that work be
done next year, or the year after, or
ten years hence.
The revolution that has begun, the
revolution that turns our world over
into the sunlight of honest govern
ment, is not struggle of blood. 1t
will know neither guillotine nor rifles.
1t is a revolution of thought and feel
ing. For the most part unorganized
as yet, the honest and thoughtful men
Of this country are gathering around
one standard for common purpose.
In one sense the nomination of Mr..
Blaine has been blessing to the
country. Now that the very stand
ard-bearer Of corruption is put up for
President Of the United States, we
have something concrete and tangible
to fight against. The issue is put
squarely before us, and we may sift our
friends from our enemies, and know
whom to trust in the coming struggle.
We have no longer to seek an unac-
knowlcdged enemy in the dark. We
may now divide the people of the
country into two camps-on the one
side the men who are willing that we
should have a corrupt government;
on the other the men who are deter
mined that we shall not.
And now the sitting is going on
and day by day the soberer men are
stepping out of the ranks of the
thieves and the bypocrites, and the