Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-06-21

might he no difficulty In finding him
should the efforts for Independence fail.
Ii was Catholic France who came to the
assistance of our fathers when the skies
hung darkest over them and despair
was settling like pail of gloom upon
them. It was her arms and money and
encouragement that alone made Free
dom possible. Would America forget
what Catholicjty has done for her she
must rewrite her history, blot out her
geography and destroy every record
that binds her to the past. With such
page OF glory to look back upon, how
in the future shall deceiving dema-
gogues be heard to say that Catholicity
is opposed to free in situations? The
man who in the face of such II record
would dare to make such an accusation
must be considered as himself an enemy
of society and government.
What Catholicity has done for Amer
lea in the past she is doing to-day and
is ready to duplicate tomorrow. She
favors no perniclous doctrine of des-
tructive nihilism. That brood of social
istic knaves who would subvert society
and destroy government are no children
of hers. They recognize in her their
most uncompromising enemy and would
gladly see her influence totally des-
troyed. In our peculiar situation So
ciety has need of all the safeguards
that can be thrown around her and she
will find no arm stronger or more will
ing to protect. The first duty which
the church imposes on her children is
the duty of obedience. She recognizes
the fact that society can not be held
together without law. that governments
are essential among men, that it is the
duty of the citizen to obey the govern
ment. the duty of the government to
protect the citizen, and though it may
seem at times that the law is .inequita-
bic or the government uniustly admin
istered, she counsels patience, and per-
severance by lawful methods for the
redress of grievances. This has ever
been her course in the past. 1t is her
course to-day and il will be her course
tomorrow. She has always striven for
the elevation of the lowly. She found
the laborer a slave and she made him q
citizen. Tradesmen in the middle ages
under the guilds which she established
for them found that protection which
their condition required and troubles
such as we are passing through to-day
were then unknown. That she can be
and is destined to be potent factor in
protecting society from the encroach-
ments of wealth and monopoly on the
one hand and socialism and anarchy Oh
the other, any candid mind will admit.
There are, however, some who will
consider this vain Boosting, but when
they consider that to-day her children
in the United States number over eight
millions, that she has seventy colleges
and Seminaries for the education of
young men, an average of almost two
for every state, that the number of pro-
fessors in those colleges is over seven
hundred and the number of volumes in
their libraries aggregated over four
hundred thousand, and that she has
nearly seven hundred select schools and
academies for the superior education of
young women, they may perhaps con-
slider that the boast is not so vain.
America need not fear that her free
institutions will ever be endangered by
Catholicity, but rather protected and
cherished. She will ever find in the
future as in the past that the church is
her truest friend.
1t is subject of congratuIation for
us to-day that on Wisconsin's soil re-
ligious prejudice has never taken root
Our early settlers met and mingled
without regard to religious differences.
They felt that they were pioneers to-
gether, that it was their task to clear
the way for coming generations and
each stood ready to lend needy broth
er helping hand. That here at least
this same spirit still survives and will
survive through generations this gath
ering to-day discloses. Your fellow
pioneers of every faith have come to
meet you as old neighbors and asso-
ciates once again to clasp once more
the hand of friendship and extend the
merry greeting as in days gone by, to
review with you again the trials of
those early times and by their presence
her perpetuate that friendship for pos
terity. Through manhood's prime you
toied in peace together In the twi-
light shades you wander now and with
the poet feel you can together say:
Another land more bright than this
To our dim sight appear,
And on our way to it again
Wen soon be pioneers.
Then let US linger while we may.
A backward glance still throw
To the days when we were pioneers,
Some fifty years ago.
Mr. Murphy has fine oratorial powers
and his bursts of almost poetic eloquence
were heartily cheered.
The Grafton closed the public ex-
ercises of the day.