The Canton advocate. [volume] (Canton, D.T. [S.D.]) 1877-1897, 1888-02-09
Cul. Acts of Folly Further 90

That was Il turlulent epoch in French
history. from the execution Of Louis
XVI to iile time when eight million OF
electors used their last right OF free
suffrage to elevate a plotting. intrigu-
ing tyrant to the throne Of an empire
built upon The ruins of republican lib
erty. The student Of political events
is astounded at the repeated acts Of
mad folly Of a people who seemed TO
invoke the rcsentfnl powers OF earth
and skies in their own destruction; but
he looks in vain for one Act Oi those
times moro stnltifying Of The common
instincts Of Sell-nrc5ervation, and more
reckless OF consequences, than the pla-
cling urOn the bench Of The supreme
court Of the United States q man who
holds to the opinion that there is no au-
thority by which this government can
cOcrcc obedience Of Of a state. and
WAY for Snch 4 purpose is unconstitu
tiOnal and wrong: or, in other words
that the federal union has so little of
the clements and powers of a gov
eminent in ii ,hat rebellion
against its authority is not
treason, and an oath to sustain it is not
binding beyond the will Of the one who
SubScribeS to it. Mr.. Lamar held these
opinions twenty-five years ago and has
glorled in them ever since. On the con-
trary, Abraham Lincoln believed that
our government had right to main
tain its life against armed rebellion to
its authority. and that federal officers
who violated their Oaths of oi1ira by
joining the armies of its destrOyerS
were guilty Of both perjury and treas
on. For thus believing and acting he
was scoffed at as "buff6on oc-
cupying the place once occupied by
Washington and Madison" by this same
Lamar who now sits upon the bench Of
the supreme court Of the nation.
At 10 door but that of an infatuated
peoples does this supreme act of folly
lie; a people who have allowed them
selves to be mastered aud led by party
prejudlces and criminalities instead of
sober reason and Justice, 1t has finally
come to this--that the enemies of re-
publicanism will gleefully point to this
ridiculous act as the elimination of
that intelligence and ability Of self
government that has been the boast Of
the people of these United States for
more than century point to this de-
risiyely as the expected result of the
glOrified right of free suffrage in Amer
| lea.
Is this the wisdom learned in that
costly school Of experience had in the
well-remembered perils Of only a quar-
ter of a century ago? What citizen,
the possessOr Of a trreman's ballot, can
revert to that tragic time with this last
taunting insult unavenged upon the
party that conSummated it, without
feeling that he is but a pitiful object OF
commiseration and contempt to the
shades of those seem ingl NJ istaken
men who went down in war: dying in a
delusive dream that their cause was
iust-without a shivering consciousness
that mocking ghosts of ridicule are glib
ing and scot1ing from the shadow of ey-
cry monument and tomb under (which
rest the fallen of those bloody days--
without shameful feeling that deris-
i've voices are whispering and Kissing
their seorn from every.written page of
that cruel history that should never
have been made if this great folly was
soon to follow.
/ Was it for this that we marched over
| the length and breadth of the south
pulverizing her soil beneath the feet Of
invading armies, scourging her people
with the thongs Of war. that the prin.
eiples for which her soldiers and states
men contended should be SO soon vim
dicated by our own actions yindicated
i by placing a man on the bench OF our
I highest court, who, If he had sat there
i4lE4