Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-06-03

humanity.
Honor, cherish and protect the Union
for as the Father of his country said in
his Farewell, "The Union is the edifice
of our real Independence, the support
of our tranquility at home, our peace
4 abroad, our prosperity, our safety and
of the very liberty we so highly prize.
That for this Union we should cherish
a cordial, habitual, immovable attach.
ment, and should discountenance what
ever may suggest even suspicion that
it can in any event eyer be abandon-
ed" Watch over and jealousy guard
your liberties. remember that any lib
erty worth having is worth fighting for
TO preserve. Be as faithful to them as
your fathers were.
Our country is not perfection. as nc
human thing can ever hope to be, but
it is immeasurably nearer it than any
other. And one of the chief advan.
tages over some others is we have nc
caste. To you bright boys, children OF
poor laborers it may be, there is nc
| barrier of caste to keep you down.
There is no position in all this magnifi-
| cent and mighty United States to which
you may not honestly, honorably and
lawfully aspire and reach.
| Honor and obey the lawsi One OF
the growing evils of the day is con-
tempt for law. OF course in this coun-
try the people are the final arbiters OF
all questions, they can change laws and
change constitutions, but while law
stands upon the statute book it is the
| first duty of all good citizens to obey it,
simply because 1T is law. your own de-
claration of what you will abide by, the
decree of the whole people and the
| highest, hottest human thing in the
land. There are laws to-day upon our
statute book that are dead letters, and
they should be enforced or repealed,
for every dead law is a stencil in the
nostrils, and contempt for the dead law
breeds contempt for the living.
You have felt so secure of your liber-
ties, been so prodigal of them that YOU
have shared them with men who never
intend to be Americans! Isn't it about
time that it should be understood that
all who come here to better themselves
and 90 through the form of taking the
oath of allegiance shall become Amer
leans? That men who come here from
choice and voluntarily of their own free
win and accord take the oath of ale
glance, shall do so without mental res
ervations? That when they swear fidel-
itY to these United States and the Stars
and Stripes as the emblem of our and
of their nationality, should come to
understand that that ceremony is not
purely pro fornaa performance, TO put
the ballot into their hands and qualify
them to hold office, but is something
more than this That there is vital
significance accompanying which they
do not now comprehend, can be made
plain to them by the following addition
to that oath: sAud that while | claim
American citizenship and the protec-
ton of the stars and stripes, will be
in thought, word and deed an Ameri-
can and obey its laws
This taking the oath of allegiance
with mental reservations; this dividing
our population into orders, classes or
societies, bounded by lines of previous
nationality, or drawing any other lines
of division among US, is an evil and
worse. In America we should all be
Americans, and the only class strife
should be, who can be the best Ameri-
can.
This reckless prodigality of your
liberties, this unwise squandering of
your privileges among men unworthy
of them has permitted your great cities
to be captured by class whose con-
temptuous scornlng of some of your
laws unresisted has borne its legitimate
fruits, emboldening them to attempt to
overthrow other and vital ones, that
has cost valuable lives.
A class of foreign agitators who come
here TO abuse the open-handed hospi-
tality OF our laws, which say, Come
and share the blessings our fathers
left us, come and abuse our hospitality
and insult us in our homes, by telling
us our wise forefatherS were fools; that
the benehcent system of laws they have
enyironed us with are the maehina-
tons of the oppressor, and other
equally driveling bosh." These would
be apostles of the new peace. say they
want no laws. no government. just as
though this was anything new under
the sun! Why, that system or lack of
system is older than Magma Charta!
In fact, it died on that very day July,
Is, 1915, when the igrant John signed
Magma Charta. Previous 10 that it had
existed and borne fruit for centuries,
and the only law was the strength 10
take and the only right the strength to
hold. All civilized races have passed
through many phases, but the first of
,ol g., oil lu al T. H.
who has the power, let him hold who
can
TO the misguided ignorant dupes of
these designing Williams | would coun-
sci merciful restraint. but for the edu-
Gated, intelligent, miscreant, who 10 an
angry mob says, Take your pistol in
one hand a knife in the other and
bombs in your pockets, and destroy!
destroy! destroy, to get your rights"
would counsel the same grade of mercy
granted TO mad dog: shoot him on
sight. Such men must be taught that
American freedom is not license. and
that our freedom of speech will not
hold him guiltless who incites q crime.
Liberty is benefit to those only who
have moderation and self-control and
know how to use it, and in the aggre-
gate it comes to people only SO fast as
they are prepared for it, know. how to
use it and protect it; otherwise it be-
comes a curse to them as it did under
Robespierre. TO the ignorant or such
designing wretches as mentioned before,
it becomes an instrument of anarchy.
The American flag with its history
represents humanity, and all its hopes
and aspirations. To such of our recent
importations from Medieval Europe,
who do not comprehend this, | would
counsel merciful liberation for the first
offense and expectation for the second;
but to the scheming villain who would
be the leader of this ignorance and ex-
cite it to violence for his profit and who
counsels the displacing of the American
flag by any other, would counsel ex-
termination.
/ know ! may not be an impartial
juror, for | have seen the glorious old
flag stained with the blood of my com
rades, and have seen it wave above ex-
ultant hosts in the ecstatic moment of
victory many times, and love. / love
it, But / still think only fairly repre-
sent the average American devotion to
that glorious emblem.
But am free to confess that | never
want to see in any place where | may
chance to be, any man in defiance of the
stars and stripes marching under red
flag; for, By the Eternal, if / were torn
to thousand tatters the next moment.
I would shoot him on the spot! And
why not? for what does it mean? why,
the very antinodes of all we foupht for