The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1884-07-03
BOSSlSM,
AS APPLIED TO AMERICAN POLITICS,
Heed Not the nugaboo OF DiAruption by
the Ins, Nor Quake NJ the
Darkly-Painted Pictures
of the Outs,

this morning on the subject, "B0salsm
In Politics." The opening hymn was:
"Arm Of tho Lord awake, awake
Put on thy strength, the nations shake,
And let tho world adOring, aee,
Irlumphs Of mercy wrought by ihec'"
The text was: Acts XIII, 81 and 2s;
"Then the chief captain came and said
unto him, Tell me, art thou a RomanT
He said, Yea. And the chief captain
answered, with q great sum obtained |
this freedom And Paul said, But | was
free b0rn."
SO, said Mr.. Talmage, 100 years be
fore Thomas Jefferson wrote the Decla
ration of American Independence, 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, bethlnking him
self that Tarsus, the place OF his nativity
had been manumitted by Antonius, re-
aponds to the braggadociO In these
words, practically: My freedom dates
further back than yours; | am not a
liberated slave; my cradle had no
shackle on the rockers; my mother was
not serf was free born That 10 de-
scriptlye Of all the population born In
this country during the last twenty.0ne
yeaTa, and II In true OF all the white
population ever born In this country
Aud yet the attempt constantly ie being
made 10 manacle the people, Chains are
being forged for our slavery.
speak 10 you this morning on slavery
OF politics and how we are TO break that
slavery. We are half way between the
two Presidential nominations, The ho-
tells OF Chicago are not yet thoroughly
ventilated from the recent convention,
and yet will very soon be occupied by u
convention that will compel the hotels
to still other fumigatlon. The air Is hot
with political imprecati0n. We are oil
being whipped Into line as far as Is pos:
sible. One OF three or four pairs OF
spectacles we are to wear or suffer for
II. The political gullotine Is rolled out
and the recalcitrants are shown the
knife for their neck and the basket into
which their heads will probably roll.
The managers OF the political machine
are tightening the screws and making
more firm the cranks. Delegates are
having stout rope OF instructions"
put around their necks and have inti-
mated TO them that II they vote contrary
10 the behests OF their party the rope
will tighten until their facilities for
respiration may be seriously interfered
with. Shadrach, MeshaCh and Abedneg0
are commanded TO bow down TO the Inn
ages set up or be roasted In the furnaces
seven times heated. Every town and
city and village and neighb0rh0od has
what Is called In old fashioned English
parlance its "boss," and every State its
larger "boss," and then all these boss
90" meet together and elect q great Ma.
tional boss" Against this slavery Of
American politics | enter protest, aud
demand that at convention and at ball lot
box and everywhere, and without male
dictiOn, men shall vote as they think
best, God their only Judge.
First, II We would resist this bossism
OF American politics we must refuse 10
believe every four years that everything
10 at stake. II our institutions are 30
rickety that every four years they are In
danger Of smash-up, the sooner they go
10 pieces, the better, and we have q gov,
ernment substituted which has In II
some elements of durability, | remem.
ber eleven Presidential elections, and
each election the leaders Of parties told
us. with yehemence CHASTITY and terrific,
that every thing was In danger of ruin.
As near as | could calculate we were
about a quarter Of an inch from the
eternal preclpice. Men went to the bal
l0t-box tremulous with omens. Car
riages were sent 10 bring aged voters
and invallds. AT party expense they
we're brought, aud patriots who, by u
strange coincidence, at the same time
were candidates for office, lifted these
invallds out Of bed into pillows and
mattresses, and supported them TO the
ballot. box while they dropped for the
very life OF the country their precious
vote. admit there have been pivotal
elections on which every thing turned,
but more than half the time there has
been nothing at stake but official pa.
tronage, This disposition to magnify
peril and work before the eyes OF the
nation the skeleton of danger every four
years halts our American commerce and
demoral2es every thing, What do west
ern merchants want TO come TO buy
goods for IN New York II next autumn
the land Is going to be bowling will
dernessp The merchants In all styles
OF business will tell you that every
Presidential year Is dull year. Every
thing II unsettled,
The political ora Tors are netting ou
their old speeches that they made In the
Fremont campaign, and In the Lincoln
campaign, and IN all the campaigns
since, for the speeches do just nv well
for the one campaign ~ for the other,
for are always In imminent peril and
always just going to ruin, and there
fore they do just az well now az they did
forty yeafs ago. When was u lad eight
years Of age | heard the 1rst political
speech Of my life. stood bareiooted IN
the broiling sun at Sommeryille, New
Jersey, and heard q western orator
show me conclusively that II william
Henry Harrison Instead OF Martin Van
Buren,, was elected President Of the
United States there would be no use OF
my living 10 grow up, for there would
be no country To live In A few years
ago went 10 Boston TO lecture In the
Music Hall and heard In the ante-room
that night that celebrated orator from
the west was to speak In Fapeuil Hall /;
80 hurried through my work and
bastened down TO Faneuil Hall, the
cradle Of liberty, aud found the cradle
that night was rocked by the very same
speech that | had heard In the days Of
my b0ybOod, and that the country was
In the same imminent peril Of forty
years ago, md the only difference 1
could observe was that In one speech Y
was William Henry Harrison, and In the
other II was Benjamin II. Butler. Some
OF US remember when Henry Clay and
james X. Polk were contestants for the
Presidential chair. When Henry Clay
was defeated my father, pale and sick
with the news, sat down and said that
all were lost. He had felt the magnet
ism OF that splendid Kentuckian whose
name cannot pronoune without en-
thusiasm tingling from scalp 10 heel.