The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1889-06-15
Annual Address before the Literary
Societies..

L. DOlllyer, Nj. u, MEMBER OF the
class of rs.
DIR. Turner introduced the speaker
in brief and titly spoken words.
Mr.. Delivers address was at once
eloquent, logical, philosophical, pro
found-a thing of masterful power.
For mort than one hour, his vigor-
Gus and polished oratory held the
larger attention of the audience and
the time seemed all too short when
he closed amid hearty rounds of
general applause.
His style is unique and inimita-
BILE He speaks extemporaneously
and it is impossible for the editors
of this paper to give an adequate
report or even a just outline of Such
an address, from the hurried notes
that were taken. After few happi-
ly expressed personal "reminiscences,
Mr.. Dolliver announced as his
theme 1.-THE Relation of the Morali-
ty and Virtue of the People to Secu-
lar Politics."
We are rightly a nation of politi
clans, American babes arc born
and created in an atmosphere con-
tinually blue with the smoke Of po-
liitcal warfare. And we have been
greatly benefited by the struggle.
We put more practical wisdom into
practical politics than any other ma
ton, ancient or modern. The nine
teenth century has developed more
sound common sense in public af-
fairs than all preceding time. With
valorous hand we have thrust into
slavery the old masters of men, and
have achieved liberty of mind and
soul and political estate. We are far
in advance of the Englishmen whose
most radical leaders are not now up
to the craftsmanship of John Mil
ton. And yet in the Denmark of
our politics something has always
been rotten. 1t has always been so
the world over. Lewis could say Il
am the State, and Napoleon could
declare that, with the armies of
France behind him, he was always
right. But royalty is everywhere
dismantled. The great, divine
thing we call The Age, and the
greater diviner thing we call Our
Country have thrown off the bonds
of kingly tyranny. Men care not
now what comes to the palaces, if
only virtue and peace abide in the
cottages. And yet there are still
vast and ominous evils that threat
en- society in its centres of popula-
ton.
Among them is RIGHTEOUSNESS,
that monster of monsters, that Col
gotha which for centuries has re-
ceived the skulls of men and women
cast out by society and by the di-
vine law of purity itself. Whole ma
tions have been plague stricken and
ruined by it,
Then drunkenness is another aw-
full menace to political purity Some
states, like the one to which / be-
long, have already outlawed tina
great criminal of modern society
the liquor saloon.
Then there are crimes against life,
citizenship, the ballot box, capital
and labor. The moral condition of
any country finds expression first, in
the character of it's laws, and then in
the vigor and business of their exc
cution.
When good laws are badly exc
cuted, when as in Cincinnati, the
very magistrates of law abdicate in
favor of the criminal classes, virtue
and progress become impossible.
The mills of man grind slow, and they
grind exceeding course.
Forces which are to produce re
sponsible and worthy citizenship
must be found somewhere above the
court house and above the State
house.
Mere education will not purify So
ciety. 1t never has In polished
cultured Greece, mad, awful internal
things were done within the very
shadow of the academy and the
porch Infinite spaces may come
between what man knows and
what he does. The dialogues of
Lucian, the defensive victims of
Cicero, the Medieval theatre and
the present political complexion of
France, illustrate this truth. Edu-
cation is right. Let all men have it.
l hope to live long enough to see
illiterate suffrage put away, and to
see this noble University as
well as every other in the
land, opened to all races and to both
sexes, as mere matter of general
right
But secular education must not
ignore the moral sense of mankind
must not put out the souls eye, and
then graciously hold out it's candle
to the minds eye.
The world has struggled on in Pa
gan darkness from mighty need
to a mighty hope. And there were
voices in the midnight that the sages
did not utter
But the Christian gospel is the
ark of our political covenant. The
spirit Of Christ in a man is, after all.
the only sure warrant of good.
citizenship. And this spirit will
prevail. Modern criticism of the
old truths is in itself giving way
Free thinking, if free thinking will
not produce atheism. Natural sci
ence with its fatalistic tendecy can
not uproot established beliefs. The
new theology is ever so old. Con
vention- holding American infidelity
event. has not put a single well known
bound book through the second edi
ton. Its thought is neither great
nor deep. But Christ is great
enough to fill the devout soul, and
to exhaust the thought of the age.
The escape ofthe Republic, the true
interest of patriotism, the answer to
the great labor question and other
geeat questions, are to be found in
the daily application Of his divine
precepts.
| The universal brotherhood Of man,
| trulv fores h adowed among tiis. Per-