Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1885-06-10

| nations forevermore. And an enslaved
and degraded race was exalted to the
| dignifed position of citizenship, and no
servitude or inequality before the law is
| left anywhere in our constitution or in
| that of any of the states Life was never
| before sacrificed in so glorious cause.
| Blessings of such magnitude were
| never before bestowed and secured by
| anv sacrifice, and the memory Of those
| who died in this cause, remains fresh to
this day, and we may confdeAtly hope
| will be cherished by all people for all
| time.
On an-occasion like the present our duty
to the living not less than to the dead
condition of public affairs, and
| to point out any serious defects in the
administration of the government which
we have observed to exist, and which a
correct public sentiment would tend to
| remove. We think it must. be admitted
by all candid minds that no government
was ever before called upon to meet and
decide, in a single generation, so many
| and grave questions, as was ours during
the single decade that succeeded the capt.
ulation at Appomatox. And the same
minds must admit that the Weightiest of
these questions have been decided wisely
and we'll. The people Of the colored race
which were property before the war, and
at its close neither property nor citizens,
have been vested with all the rights Of
citizenship, and received the right to a
full protection of the laws The pay
ment Of any obligations by any state, or
by the United States incurred in carrying
on war against the United States has been
forever prohibited. The elective fran
.1,y 1oe, III 80
OF the United States without distinction
on account Of race or color. The aid and
influence of the Federal government has
been largely given toward the education
| and mental development of all classes of
our people, and we think it may be truly
said that upon all questions bearing d.
rectly upon the mental and moral con-
dition of the people, the government has
| fully met the expectations and hopes of
the philanthropists and patriots of all
lands.
1t is with deep regret that we are COM
| PEELED upon such an occasion to admit
that upon questions bearing directly up
on the financial and pecunlary welfare of
the people, the legislative department of
| the government, which is more susceptible
to influence by public sentiment than any
other, has failed to pass proper laws re-
lieving the burdens Of taxation and pro-
| viding for an absolutely sound currency,
or to establish perfectly sound system
of finance. Unequal and unjust laws
| passed at time when the attention of all
true lovers of their country was wholly
absorbed with the great moral and con-
stitutional questions that convulsed the
country from 1860 to 1870, have been al
lowed to remain unmodifed and unre-
| al I'D 1oI
country could no longer endure their
burdens. Ounces a1d demagogues have
deluded and deceived the people in MANY
sections into belief that currency with
which the nation was able to carry on a
war successfully was good enough for
days of peace and prosperity.
Another evil has crcpt into our system
since the war which tends ultimately
largely to curtail the happiness and pros
perity OF the laboring masses of our peo-
pie. mean the absorption of vast tracts
of the public domain by foreign corpora.
tons, who have no sympathy with our
government or its institutions 1t is true
that the remedy for this evil is to some,
and probably to a large extent, with the
states, and should be speedily applied if
we would escape the evils of the English
and Irish tenantry system. We have
hitherto felt that by limiting estates entail
to two lives, in being and prohibiting the
descent of property by primogeniture that
this system would he effectually barred
out of this country, and our lands be held
in small tracts by those who cultivate
them. But events have proven otherwise.
The corporation with unlimited power to
has stepped in and taken title to estates
in land which in few years will be of
value and magnitude far surprising any
held under the feudal or any other Europ'
can system. And to-day, in single coun-
ties in the west there are hundreds of
tenants struggling to rear their families
under long leases from corporations, who
receive all the Improvements made by
their constant and honest toll, and the
natural increase in the value of the land
from increasing population and improve.
ment. The Irish tenantry system, with
all it's woes and all it's encrvatlng effect
is thus fully incorporated into our free
Republic. The same oppression and suf
fering of the laboring classes will exist
here, as has always existed in many of the
countries Of Europe under this system
unless the power to all corporations tc
acquire and hold lands is curtailed anC
limited to such quantity as may be neces
sary in the exercise of the special func
tons vested in them by the local legisla
ture, and serfdom of the worst type
grow up under our free system of govern
ment.
We are prone to forget that the happi
ness of the people is the end of all govern
ment, and every patriot should with al
earnest voice call attention to thos,
events and errors which he knows mus
lead to their unhappiness and ultimate
ruin No people of any nation or agt
ever held so sacred trust as that devolv
ed upon the citizens of the United States
of which each OF you is one. You
government is the price of the blood O.
the Revolutionary Fathers, and of mor
that five hundred thousand of the youns
and brave men who started out in lif'
with some of you, but were cut off in tn
morning of their days, that it's blessing;
might be preserved for other generations
Its administration now affects more thar
tifty-fv millions Of men. Learning ant
religion, charity and hope are upheld ant
protected by its power. In matters o
such consequence, what man is he WIZ
would be willing to act carelessly O
thoughtlessly, while the voices of tn
living and dead patriots call upon all tt
act with the fullest consideration and ut
| 1Aoo1 S<hAO uEOA OH duSoIlOAo pCA tuAu11ls
tothe government which holds in its hand
the destiny of all?
!: AT time like this, when we are all re
ceiving new baptism of patriotism, ant
when the tender chords Of memory ant
affection run out from all our hearts t.
the graves of ten thousand of the patrio
tic dead that we knew in life, and wh'
now lie buried upon the battlefields from
New Mexico to the sea, should feel tina
any neglect to call attention to any evi
that seemed to threaten the stability 0
our institutions would be grave breach
of duty and trust, I have already brief,
limited at the leading part that avarice ha
performed in bringing on the wars in tn
earlier days Of civilization and the re
,, tribution that revenge has inflicted 70
such wars. It must be admitted that tn
virus of avarice and venalitY in a Repub
lie is absolutely mortal, unless it is re
, \ T. l. T.. ~