Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1888-06-28
.sAggressiyeIy Good. =


one who had not previously demonstrate
ed beyond doubt what he considers
aggressive /. goodness to be. We
Judge man by his own words.
Aggressive goodness then, means
number of things. 1t means the
goodness that denounces existing laws,
faYors those who under fancied or real
abuses set themselves at variance with
that law and it says of the decision
which condemned the anarchists to
death, that it win in future ''stand with
such COMBINATIONS as those that
hanged witches and later executed
John Brown" Aggressive goodness,
takes the judgement seat and says to a
man accused of crime ''you shall die.
Not by the clumsy, faulty, predjudiced
processes of judicial tribunal, but by
the speedy, righteous, fairminded SEN
tence of few men whose judgment is
above all law" Aggressive goodness
says.to the working man, ''redress for
your grievances lies only in the over
throw of capital and the equal dis
tribution of this worlds goods regard
less of the fact that inequalities of
social circumstance will exist as long
as inequality Of brain, energy, business
instinct and executive ability, exist.
Aggressive goodness champions what
ever is extreme, subversive, revolution
airy.
Aggressive goodness accounts the
plan of creation wrong from the begin
ing and would keep the world abroil
with wars and riots, as if the only way
to reform the world was to wipe out
one wrong with greater.
This is what some people deem
aggressive goodness. This goodness
the wise man scorns, but there is an
other manner of it before which all the
better part of his nature bows in reyer-
ence. This is the aggressive goodness
of William Lloyd Garrison, bounded
through the streets of Boston; the
aggressive goodness of Owen Lovejoy
who gave his breast to the bullets of
the mob; the aggressive goodness of
John Brown, whose righteously unlaw-
full attack on Harper's Ferry and heroic
death upon the scaffold made compro-
mise on the slavery question no longer
possible Those were heroic times and
such times are always tempestuous.
La the war, which followed, thousands
of men took arms to fight, and if need
be to die, for suffering humanity and
Gods eternal thruth. These men were
heroes. They are heroes now,
though the heroic metal is no
longer touched to fire by the friction of
an imperative necessity.
Among these men of heroic mould was
Walter @. Gresham, and who shall dare
to say but once in his life at least he
was 'aggresSiUelq go0d?" Since he was
brought home from The field, where he
won honor and rank, where he had
been ready to die and was seriously
wounded, no other occasion has arisen
in which his steadfast virtues have been
pushed to assume a military attitude
If nobleness of aim, high pursuance of
uty,spotless integrity and life record
which discovers, even in the heat of
political warfare, no meanness that
cries concealment,- all this counts
for nothing in commanding man to
public confidence and honor, then in
the name of all the cardinal virtues
what shall DO the qualifications for
high Officer
"When we see a soul whose acts are
all regal, graceful and pleasant as roses,
we must thank God that such things
can be and are, and not turn sourly on
the angel and say, "Crump is a better
man with his granting resistance to all
his native deyils.n When a man of
whom no evil can be said, whom all,
even his political enemies-he seems to
have no others, pronounce, highmind-
cd, pure. lovable. just, generous,
gracious, experienced and able.is before
the people, not of his own seeking, as
candidate for an office. where just such
virtues are wanted, it is a superficial
Judgment that would say, The is a good
man, but his goodness is not of the
aggressive kind, out upon him!'
There are volcanic eruptions and
earthquake commissions, cyclones
and tornadoes and they serve terrific
purpose, but the steady shining of the
sun and the gentle fall Of rain, the
nightly dews and the patient wasting of
riyulets and rills, works greater wonders
in the end. Earthquake times demand
earthquake virtues. The unheroic
necessities of this day and generation
demand just such virtues as are poss-
essed by Walter @. Gresham, the man
Of settled principals and high beliefs,
who will be at any time ready to
come in battle to the front, if need be,
though he may not be forever spelling
for virtuous fight.
Speak no Evil of the Dead,
1t is a common maxim the world over
that we should speak no evil of the dead.
The earth record is ended recall not
the evil that wagging tongues have ven
ded, true OF false, regarding any man
whose account is closed,
His ills are dead and quit
His good lives after him
So that fruits follow it.
The world generally respects this
maxim, not only do they say no evil OF
the dead but in the heart charity, |