Sword and shield. (Clinton, Miss.) 1885-1888, 1886-04-10
The old Ship Of State Carries the
Elements OF Destruction Within Her.

De TocquiyiIle predicted in his ad-
mirable work on American government
years ago, that the growth of great cities
would ruin the American Republic IN
less kept in order by standing armies.
Lord Beaconsfeld was accustomed to
point his jeweled finger across the At
lantic, and affirm that not one American
city Of commanding size is well gov
erned by universal sufferage, nor ever
will be. Sir Robert Peel predicted that
American forms of government would
fail to protect life and government in
crowded districts As for America,
says Lord Macauley, Iappeal to the Goth
century. Either some Caesar or Napo-
leon will seize the the reins of govern
ment with strong hand, or your Re
public will be fearfully plundered and
laid waste BY barbarians in the 10Th
century, as Rome was in the fifth with
this exception. that the barbarians who
.zss, ssgt.tl sAt1sa ss-.-4- frs.ss as.ss~ a.
Borders, while yours will be engendered
within your country.
While we do not believe such dan
ger to be inevitable we do honestly be-
lieve it to be imminent Great natural
resources. unprecedent advantages for
the poorer classes at home, together
with calamitous events and misrule III
foreign lands, have brought from their
dense populations wave after wave Of
emigrants to our open and inviting
shores, consisting Of every nationality,
and bringing their own ideas and Gus
toms, social, civil and religious. If, in
the next six or eight decades, the in
crease be proportionate to the same
number preceding, our population will
be equal, about, to the combined popu-
lation Of all European powers. In 1900
there will be 88,000.0O0. This with
what raw material we now have is the
element out Of which. we as a people.
are to work ont the destiny of our Re
publican government Does it require
any great wisdom to see that with our
form Of government, selfish, designing
men can use this crude element so as to
completely overthrow order, morality,
and convert our land into a conglomer
ated, lawless state, unfit for the home Of
moral, law-loving and law-abiding cit
izens
All the great statesmen who had to do
with the founding of our Union saw.
and declared its only safety was in adj
herring to the principles of religion, jus
tice. truth and righteousness. The
moral and religious element must guide
and control Yet to-day one-ffth of
our population is in towns and cities.
Onefourth of the population of these
towns and cities is made up of the pa
irons and employees Of the whisky and
beer traffic. Nearly all these towns and
cities are corruptly ruled by whisky
powers!
With whisky money and whiskey bot
ties, designing men use the lower. rough
element to win elections, gain Office and
take the relns of government in their
hands. These same hands are reaching
out in the same way for the reins of
State and national government. IF they
the baser elements will come
into the ascendency-the moral and re-
ligious element goes down, and the
fruitful parent of nine-tenths of all
crime, will rule, and the prediction Of
those tar-seeing men mentioned above.
will be realized. Are we to blame them
for calling upon you for your influence
and vote for home and native land? Is
not every man who seeks by his vote or
influence to put the moral and religious
under the domination of the
whisky power an enemy to his State, his
nation and his race?-SigmQ, IA W. G..
a. q. Column, Yazoo Sentinel