Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-04-09
JUNIUS.
The Moral and Social Rights OF the
People and the Excuses
OF LgWlessness.
Purposes, Exotic on Ameri-
can Soil,

Written for the Gazette.
We have not yet done with the abuses
aud usurpations OF government, for their
name is legion, and in our previous COM
munlcations we have only mildly an incl
dental manner referred to few OF them,
more with view of exciting reflection
than conviction. We may hereafter show
the origin of these abuses and
usurpations in government, their
steady growth, and the re-
suits to which they must
inevitably lead unless curtailed aud
checked by the people in their sovereign
capacity, from whom in our political sys-
TEN all power is derived and whose rep
resentatives are merely agents with lin
tied and well defined powers under writ
ten constitutions which reserve to the
\ people all moral and social questions en-
tirely and absolutely, and even such civil
ana political questions as are not spec.
lally delegated TO government for the
public veal and general welfare
The question, however, OF labor and
capital seems to be the all-absorbiug topic
OF the day, and for the time being we VIII
pretermit all questions Of civil and
political nature and devote our attention
to the moral and social rights Of the peo-
pie and the excuses of lawlessness TO
which they have gone in utter disregard
of the civil laws OF the country which are
amply sufficient If appealed to to protect
them In all of their rights whether of
labor, life, liberty or property.
( 1t has been ssid government is n neces-
/ sary evil, while society is blessing.
The two are one as the sea, yet distinct
as the pillows; and while it is difficult,
as 1t seems, In government to draw the
nice line OF distinction that separates it's
: civil and political functions from the
moral and social rights OF the people, as
Ia the blending OF the colors Of the rain
bow, it becomes difficult to tell where
one color begins or another ends,
yet the distinction and line between
the two is real and not an
imaginary one. That line can not
| be crossed by either government or
society without usurping power outside
/ OF Its jurisdiction, and involving both in
| demorali7zEoo, anarchy and ruin. II
this view 10 correct, then 1t follows that
while Ia v5iT;y wrong and outside of
Its ccG:s - 81! power fora government
4 to eNtenu leS clyn and political iurisdic-
ton into the sacred domain of the moral
and social rights of the people, it is
equally wrong for social organiza-
lions, whether of employers or en-
/ ployes, labor or capital, farmers
I lawyers, doctors, merchants or any other
class or avocation In life to invade and
/ take into their own hands the civil and
/ political functions of government and the
I rights Of individual citizens under II. We
have already partially depicted the ter
I rlole results to the public veal and zen
eral welfare flowing from the usurpation
OF government in this direction
aud we know from observation
In the late strike and boycott,
the senguinaly and narrowing
results Rowing from the lawless-
ness Of one Of our social
organizations known as "Knights of In.
bor' IN invading the civil and political
functions of the government and the
rights of individual citizens under il. We
d1 not question the right Of society or
any OF the avocatious in life to orpanize
themselves into moral and social orgaui.
cations or clubs, even OF secret nature
purely and entirely for moral and social
purposes; but when they 20 beyond this
into what In the vcrnscular nomenclature
OF the country are called politics, ana IN
their secret conclayes by the light of darn
'uN'erhs Oioat themselves up with big
otry and intolerance that would
ourn ron-conformists at the
take, and go forth like the yelled prophet
Of khcrissan with hidden and secret
designs and intentions OF a political ma.
ture, unknown to their neighbors. and
the animated and secretly deposit their
intrlgues and strategems in that abomin.
aole modern method Of voting the ballot.
OoN Tor Those oft are strategems which
errors SEEM" or take the redress OF their
own real or imaginary grievances into
their own hands, as was recently Zone
IN the late strike and boycott, then so.
clety becomes demoralized, private and |
pubic morals debauched and corrupted |
and government itself threatened with |
anarchy and ruin. Let II be understood /
once Tor all that secret societies for
political purposes are exotlcs on Ameri. /
can soil and must wither and perish be. I
lore the silent Indignation and scorn Of /
tue nontet American freeman. As was
SAID by some great Athenlan orator. n
crowd, frenzied with passion and de-
'eiyed and deluded by class Of political
ranks and parlahs Tor their own indi.
'idnal seif-aggrandlzemenl, some OF whom