Sharp County record., 1888-11-22
TALMAGEA ERMON.
A Discourse Upon the Ballot-BoX
and Election Franchise.
The Responsibility Resting Upon the Citt-
zen-How the Ballot should be Used
to Strengthen the Dand of
the Government.


the Government.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmag9, in an ante
election sermon at the Brooklyn Taber-
nacle, took for his subj3o5"T lie Ballot
Box and th3 Election Franchise" His
text was:
Two cubits and half was the length of it,
and cubit and half the breadth of it, and a
cubit and half the height of it.-Exodus
XXXVii., /.
Look at 1.-THE sacred chest of the an
clients. 1t was about fivekN1t long, three
feet wide and three feN high. 1t was
within and out of pure fold. On the top
of it stood two angels facing each other
with outspread wings. In that sacred
box was the law, and there were in it q
great many precious stones, With that
box went the fate of the natien. Carried
in front of the host the waters of the
Jordan parted Divinely charged, costly
precious, momentous box. No unhoy
hands might lay hold Of it. It was called
the ark Of the covenant But you will
understand it was box, the most prec-
ious box of the ages. Where is it now?
| Gone forever. Not a crypt Of church or
museum of the world has fragment
| of it.
But is not this Nation Gods chosen
/ people? Have we not passed through the
Red Sea? Have we not been led by pill
lar of fire by nigh2 Has this Nation no
ark OF the covenant? Yes, the ballot
box, the sacred chest of the Nation, the
ark of the American covenant.
+ In it is the law, in it is the Divine and
the human law in it is the fate of the Ma
ton. Carried in front of our host again
and again. Mighty ark of the covenant,
the American ballot-box! 1t is a very
old box.
In Athens, long before the art Of print
ing, the people dropped pebbles into it to
give expression to their sentiment. After
that beans were dropped into it-a white
bean for the affirmative, a black bean for
the negative. After this, when they
wished to vote a man out of citizenship,
they would write his name upon she'll
and drop that into the box.
O'Connell, and Grote, and Golden, and
Macaulay, and Gladstone fought great
battles in h Introduction of the, ballot
boxes in England, and to-day it is one Of
the Businesses of that nation. 1t is one
Of tue corner-stones Of our Government.
1t is older than the Constitution. 1t is
our National safety. Tell me what will
be the fate Of the American ballot-bOx,
the ark Of the American covenant and
will tell you what will be the fate of this
Nation. Give the people, once year or
once in four years, an opportunity to ex-
| press their political sentiments, and you
practically avoid insurrection and revo-
luton.
Either give them the ballot or they will
take the sword. Without the ballot-bo
there can be no free republican institu-
tious. Milton, visiting in Italy, noticed
that on the sides Of Vesuvius gardeners
and farmers were at work while the vol
cano was in eruption, and he askedthem
if they were safe. eyes" said the farm
ers and the gardeners, 'It is safe; all the
danger is before the eruption; then
comes earthquake and terror, but just as
soor as the Volcano b gins to. noJ w
isss. .,rrre,I at fAeas1S 4 aSe " # is the sup
preston of political sentiment, the sup
|
moral earthquake and national earth
quake Let public opinion pour forth,
and that gives satisfaction, and that gives
peace, and that gives permanency to good
government. Aud yet, though the ballot
box is the sacred chest and the ark of the
American covenant, you know as well as
| know it has its sworn antagonists, and
propose this morning, iu Gods name
and as a Christian patriot, to set before
you the names of some Of the sworn ene-
mics tf this sacred chest, the ark of the
American covenant the ballot-box
First, remark, ignorance is a mighty
foe Other things being equal, the more
Intelligence a man has the better he is
| qualified to exercise th3 right of suffrage.
| You have been ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty
| years studying American institutions;
you have canvassed all the great ques-
tons about tariff and home rule and all
| the educational questions, and every
! thing in American politics you are we'll
| acquainted with. You consider yourself
competent to cast vote in November,
and you are competent. You will take
! your position in the line Of electors, you
will wait for your turn to come, the judge
Of election will announce your name, you
will cast your vote and pass out. Well
! done.
But right behind you there will come a
man who can not spell the name of comp
! troler or attorney or mayor. He can not
write or if he eau write he uses a small
81" for the personal prououn. He could
not tell on which side of the Allegheny
mountains Ohio is. Educated canary
| birds educated horses, know more than
he, He will cast his vote, and it will bal
ance your vote. His ignorance is as
mighty as your intelligence. That is not
right. All men Of fair mind will acknowl-
edge that that is not right, Until a man
can read the Declaration of Independence
and the Constitution OF the United States,
and calculate the interest on the Ameri-
can debt, and know the difference be-
tween republican form OF government
and n monarchy, or despousom, he is
unfit to exercise the right of suff rage at
any ballotbo between Key West and
Alaska.
In 1872 in England there were 900 600
children who on 5ht to have been in
schools. There were !. 333, O0)-iu other
words, about fifty per cent.-and of the
fifty per cent not more than five per cent.
got any thing worthy the name of an
education. Now, take that foreign igno-
rance and adj it to our American igno-
rance, and there will be in November