Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-07-27
THE NEW INDEPENDENCE.
Eloquent Speech Of Gen. Fisk at the
Fourth of July Celebration in
Woodstock, Conn.

Gen. Clinton Is. Fisk was one of the
orators Mt Henry 9. Bowen's 4th of July
celebration at Woodstock, Conn. We
make the following extracts from his elo-
quent address:
Oh, that from every hilltop and val
ley, from mountain and prairie, from city
and hamlet, from lakes to gulf, and from
sea to sea, there might this day arise the
united voice of our sixty millions of peo-
pendence of this cruel king, whose injur-
les and usurpations threaten the dcstTuc-
ton of our free government. AS did our
fathers when they resolved to throw off
the absolute tyranny of a bad king so let
us give certain facts to candid world.
This monster, sitting supreme in the poll
tics of this country, has enacted laws
authorizing him to open i'll all our towns
and cities laughter-houses OF men,
women, and children and Of all virtue.
"He has enacted laws permitting him to
transform men into beasts. He is the di-
rect cause of nine-tenths of the woes and
SORROWS which blight and curse our peo-
pie. He, hiding his monstrous deformity
under the forms of law enacted by his
own vassals, over whose heads he cracks
the slave drivers lash in halls of legisla-
ton, maintains at our expense an army of
miscreants who, at the very doors of our
homes and i'll the shadow of our sanctu-
aries, prosecute the work of murder and
death. He has despoiled labor, burdened
property with excessive taxation, impover-
ished whole communities, hindered edu-
cation, corrupted morals, fostered crimes,
aided all classes of vice and wrong, and
plunged his unhappy victims into shame
and degradation. He would have us
+r,,,cO,;f to o,,r Oh, 11,o,, Eo rito,ra If die
tilleries, breweries, and saloons, and chain
to the weary backs of society increasing
burdens OF paupers, criminals, idiots, and
insane. He seizes and debauches innocent
children, tears sons from the arms Of sor-
rowing mothers, and bears them away to
diskonored graves. He wrings hot tears
from the eyes of widows whose husbands
he has sacrificed at the shrine of the
drunkards Moloch. He sits supreme il
the National Congress, and makes laws
i'll the conntry's capital. He governs courts
Of Justice, and makes ministers of the law
and legislatures his lackeys. He silences
the preacher in his pulpit and muzzles
the editor at his desk. He wastes, direct
" and indirectly, in his revels annually
more than thousand millions of our
dollars, and marshals in his staggering
procession to death and hell q half million
of our people. He is a cold, heartless,
cruel murderer and assassin of the deep
est dye. He counts his victims by millions.
His butcheries go on daily and nightly
within sight of the portals of our homes.
We can hear the shriells of his victims and
the vail of the bereayed.
"The time would fail me to tell the
thousandth part of the evils, multiplying
and destructive, that flow out of the in
famous liquor traffic, and in all this vast
throng the great evil has no friend. Dear
friends, have we the courage this day to
issue, and thereto affix our signatures in
the pronounced handwriting of John
Hancock, our new declaration Of indie
pendence, and with q firm reliance on
Divine Providence, pledge our lives and
fortune and our sacred honor that from
this day henceforth no word or act of ours
may be construed into allegiance to this
felon king? He must be driven from his
places of power and utterly overthrow.
The conflict is upon us. 1t is life-and-
death struggle. Oh for an uprising of
righteous Indignation, for an aroused
American conscience, for patriotic devo-
ton to home and country like that which
gave inspiration and faith to Jonas
Parker and his ncighbors when they red
dened The village green OF Lexington
with their DlOOu Oh tutl GLORIOUS
morning a century and moro ago,
when the old revolution burst into
magnificent blossoms as the shot was
fired that echoed round the world; for al
enlightened public opinion, the miglhtiest
advocate of any question forthe combined
forces of Christian home, Christian
church, and Christian commonwealth in
battle array against the traffic in theft and
murder until it shall be Numbered from
every political Sinai national and state,
'Thou shalt not, and there shall be no
legalized saloons where floats the starry
flag of the free Not until then will the
Infamous business cease; not until then
will we be delivered from it's satanic sor-
ceries. Temporizing policies are fail
ure. Under all systems of license resu-
lation or tax, the work of ruin and death
goes on. M riads of homes are poisoned,
The The prosperity of the nation is undermin-
ed the streng 9Th of our race wasted, mill,
ions are hurried to early and dishonored
graves, and lurid shadow is cast upon
The life beyond. The prohibition OF the
liouor traffic is the demand of the people,
and politicians and statesmen who fail to
heed it are treasuring up wrath against the
10TH Prohibition ia in the air,