Wichita eagle., 1888-06-15
hearthstone while mother runs across the

80 the contest goes on between reason
and beneficence as against worn and rusty
tyrannies, numbering precedent, and the
efforts of intrenched evils to get them
selves regarded as vested rights The
sound Won hear is the advancing steps of
freedom preceded by her heralds, calling
clear the way" As between those who
maintain that all men were created equal.
and are everywhere equal to the duties of
seif-goyernment, and are everywhere i'm
proved by the exercise of that privilege:
and those who maintain that to bear rule
is the right and duty of the few, and vino
everywhere resist any extension of the
governing powers; who believe that only
certain classes of men are fit to take care
of themselves, and who hold that the
government should be conducted on the
principle of a church which nobody was
allowed to Join unless there was vacancy:
a rule which long prevailed in China and
has been lately suggested for the United
States: between these two classes, decis-
ion must be arrived at by the test of sx-
perience.
Ia matter of this kind it is allowable to
bring in individual experience. That IS
always evidence and I trust it shall not
sighting what may be called the expert
ence of family, even though that family
be my own: and especially, as the story is
told, not because it is remarka-
bic but because it is not; be
cause it is the history of
thousands of American families, OF an av-
erage history.
The first Of nv name in America was an
English Immigrant who landed on the
shores OF Massachusetts, bay in 1881. He
was no Lord or belted knight that is
certain; no learned doctor was he from
any school; the annals of the poor man
are short and simple;'' five lines from the
old record comprises it all. He came to
this land" says the old chronicler, and
endured much bodily affection" and
died and left behind him "a SAVIOR of god
liness," and this one thing more, The was
made a free man" He had undergone no
special education, nor resided in the cOun-
try for a long time, nor did he possess an
extensive property qualification, which, if
required, would have been fatal to his po-
litical advancement, as well as that of
most of his descendants since, but he was
made a free man" He had no prece-
dence 70 guide him. 1t was not an age Of
freedom. Louis XIII was king Of France.
Charles |, q Bourbon III every drop of his
blood was king of England; the dark and
bloody Wallenstein was rayaging the
fields and cities of Germany; but still this
poor invalid, who IN Il government based
on force, would probably have not been
counted in, was made a free man" the
equal partner of other free men, in the
structure of the state. Thus before Hamp-
den, before Cromwell, this humble man
and his associates, taking upon themselves
the title of free men, established free gov
eminent, made war and peace: preserved
order, depressed crime, and laid the eternal
foundations of a commonwealth. The son
of this freeman, d blacksmith, went with
others, farmers, sailors and mechanics,
through the wilderness and forge fire first
lit the woods and rocks and waters of New
London, and the blacksmith, as he shaped
the glowing iron, shaped in his free and
equal brain the laws, the ordinances, the
codes and policies of the infant state of
Connecticut This freeman's son sailed
away with the other seafaring men of that
coast and humbled the house of Bourbon
i'll its strong fortress OF Louisburg Later,
when came the bloody issue between the
colonies and the crown, English bourbon
ism with its sword and American freedom
with her sword, two lineal descendants of
that fist FRESHMAN died in the rauks-one
in the bloody redOubt at Bunker Hill and
another on the victorious field of Saratoga.
No glittering rewards were held out to
these; 10 seignOrial grant of lands at
tracted the first emigraHt; no dukedoms,
or stars, or garters, or largeSseS of any
sort were held out to them later; ii was
enough to live and die freemen. So for
two hundred and fiftysix years the struc-
ture was reared, as | have told you, with
out a model, has endured and the gates of
hell have not prevailed against it. That
plain, strong house shelters me and my
children, and it sheltered seven genera
lions of my name and race before me. In
that two hundred and fifty years the
foods have risen aud the rain has beaten
on the house Of Bourbon and it has fallen,
for it was based ON the shifting sands of
human arrogance and baseless pretence.
The government of freemen, adoped at
first by a handful of eXiles gathered on the
narrow shore between the devouring
wilderness and the hungry sea, has proved
its adaptability to the wants and needs
and aspirations of common men, by over
two centuries and a nalf OF trial. 1t has
enlisted, as ! have shown you, the atfec-
ton not of those whose trade IS royalty"
but the bone and sinew; the farmer in his
furrow, the blacksmith at his anvil, the
sailor Whistling as he climbs. For that
free government, and that il might be
kept free these have shed their freely
given and unpurchased blood. 1t has
grown stronger as II has grown more free,
aud as its privileges have been extended.
The first Freeman in the family story
which | have been giving you was re
uuired to be member of the church, the
community being, by express understand
ing, a religious as well as civil society.
In short time the religious test was re
moved, and we have gone on making
''fIee men" add removing restrictions ever
since; religious restrictions, property re
stsictions, race restrictions, and now the
restrictions of sex, and the country is
stronger and better for it. We have not
torn down the old house, we have only
made it roomier and more comfortable
In the two hundred and fifty-six years
but one serious danger has ever Inenaced
ON, Government and that came in the
shape of revolt in favor of the
house of Bourbon. In the middle OF the
century there came an attempt
over against this free government, an aris-
tocracy, based, like every aristocracy, on
It came on with the old cries: the
old assumptions of chivalry and SUPERIOR
w of blood and lineage; its banners were
blessed by the old priests. with the ancient
and it failed. And amid the
crash of its fall was heard the voice of the
humbly born raised to the summit OF the
State. proclaimIng a government OF the
people, by the people, forever and forever.
For myself as one American citizen, |
have no fears OF freedom | fear nothing
except Pharisaisln, exclusiveisn. resoric-
bourbonisn. / fear the ballot no
where / am not afraid Of it in black
hand, | am not afraid of it even in my
wife's hand. / do not fear, either, too
many will come to this blessed land to en-
JOY its sun or It's soil or Its freedom. 1t is
not for me TO set out from this land, where
the poor English emigrant of the seven
tenth century brought his broken body
but undaunted soul. to find grave for
one and freedom for the other, it IS not for
me In the nineteenth century to shut ont
from this land a single human being who
seeks. as he did, To be made a Freeman"
There is. in my opinion, no more danger Of
this country being conquered or its iiber-
ties overthrown by the advent OF the foreign
born. than OF its invasion by the armies Of
Cog and Aagog. and as TO the anarchists,
this great, stroug, powerful country Is in
the same danger from them that il is from
srl.fay rrr,..aY4r Oh offf ivreaE If