The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1889-07-06

Legislatures of the States sitting at their
homes the oligarchs will demand it-as the
privileged few have always demanded it-for
the protection of their privileges and the per-
petuity of their bounty. Thus, hand in hand,
will walk-as they have always walked-the
federalist and the capitalist, the centralist and
the monopolist-the strong government pro-
tecting the money power, and the money
power, the political standing army of the gov
ernment Hand in hand, compact and or
| ganized, one creating the necessity, the other
meeting it; consolidating wealth and centra-
lizing government; stripping the many of their
rights and aggrandizing the few; distrusting the
people but in touch with the plutocrats; strik-
| ing down local selfgovernment and dwarfng
the citizens-and at last confronting the peo-
! pie in the market, in the courts, at the ballot
/ box-everywhere, with the infamous chal-
lenge, "What are you going to do about it p
/ And so the government protects and the
barons oppress, and the people suffer and
/ grow strong. And when the battle for liberty
is joined, the centralist and the plutocrat, in
trenehed behind the deepening powers ef the
government and the countless ramparts of
money bags, oppose to the vague bat earnest
1 onset of the people the power of the trained
phalanx and the conseien celess strength of
the mercenary.
/ Against this tendency who shall protest
Those who believe that central government
means strong government, and strong
government means repressiou; those who be-
heve that this vast republic, with its diverse
interests and its local needs, can better be
governed BY liberty and eulightment difused
among the people than by powers and privi-
leges congested at the centre; those who be-
lieve that the States should do nothing that
the people can do themselves and the gov
ernment nothing that the States and the peo-
pie can do; those who believe that the wealth
OF the central government is a crime rather
than a virtue, and that every dollar not need
ed for It's economical administration should
be left with the people Of the States; those
who believe that the hearthstone Of the home
is the true altar Of liberty aud the enlightened
conscience of the citizen the best guarantee
Of government Those Of you who note the
farmer sending his sons to the city that they
may escape the unequal burdens under which
he has labored, thus diminishing the rural
population whose leisure, integrity and de-
liberation have corrected the passion and i'm
pulse and corruption of the eities-who note
that while the rich are growing richer, and
the poor poorer. We are lessening that great
middle class that, ever since il met the re.
farming crusaders in England with the de-
mand that the hut of the humble should be
as sacred as the castle Of the great, has been
the balwark and the glory Of every English
speaking commaniiy--Who know that this re-
public, which We shall live 10 see with l50,
0O0,O00 people stretching from ocean to
ocean. and almost from the arctic to the tor
rid zone, cannot be governed by any laws that
a central despotism could devise or controlled
by any armies Il could marshal-yoa who
know these things protest with all the earn
estness Of your souls against the policy and
the methods lha, make them possible.
THE REMEDY.
What is the remedy? To exalt the hearth
stone, to strengthen the home, TO build up the
individual, to magnify and defend the princi-
pie of local self government, Not in depre.
cation of the federal government, but to its
glory; no. to weaken the republic, bat TO
strengthen ii; not to check the rich blood that
flows TO its heart, but to send it full and
wholesome from healthy members rather than
from wilhered aud diseased extremities.
The man who kiadles the ere on the hearth
stone Of an honest aud righteous home burns
the best incense to liberty. he does not love
mankind less who loves his neighbor most
George Elliott has said.
a human life should be well rooted in
some spot Of native land where it may get
the love Of tender kinship for the face Of the
earth, for the sounds aud accents that haunt
il, spot where the defuiteness of early
memories may be inwrought with affection,
and spread, not by sentimental effort and re-
eeetion, bu, as a sweet habit Of the blest."
The germ Of the best patriotism is in the
love that man has for the home he inhabits,
hAE 5Qst t4A4Hs ASA Tug AANeo AA<AA
shade, and the hills that stand in his pathway.
/ teach my son TO love Georgia-to love the
soil that he stands ou-the body OF my old
mother-the mountains that are her springiug
breasts, the broad acres that hold her sub
stance, the dimpling valleys in which her
beauty rests. the forests that sing her songs of
lullaby and Of praise, and the brooks that run
with her ripping laughter. The love Of home
deep rooted and abiding that blurrs the
eyes of the dying soldier with the vision of an
old homestead amid green fields and cluster
/ ing trees-that follows the busy man through
I the clamoring world, persistent, though put
aside, and at last draws his tired feet from
/ the highway and leads him through shady
I lanes and well remembered paths until, amid
the scenes of his boyhood, he gathers up the
broken threads of his life and own the soil
his onqueror-this-this lodged in the heart
of the citizen is the saving principle of our
government. We note the barracks Of our
standing army, with its rolling drum and its
fiuttering flag, as points of strength and pro-
lection. But the citizen standing in the
doorway of his home-eonteuted on his
threshold-his family gathercred about his
hearthstOne-while the evening of we'll
spent day closes in scenes and sounds that
are dearest-he shall save the republic when
the drum tap is futile aud the barracks are
exhausted.
This love should not be pent up or provin
cial. The home should be consecrated tt
humanity, and from its roof tree should a.
the flag of the republic. Every simple frui
gathered there, every sacrifice endured, an'
every victory won should bring better joy ant
inspiration in the knowledge that it viii
deepen the glo-y of our republic and wider
the harvest of humanity Be not like tn
peasant of France who hates the Paris h
does not comprehend-but emulate the ex
; ample of your fathers in the South, who
holding to the sovereignty of the States, ye
gave to the republic its chief glory of states
, manship, and under Jackson at New Orleans
, and Taylor and Scott in Mexico, saved
, twice from the storm of war. Inherit withou
fear or shame the principle of local self gov
E ernment by which your fathers stood Fo
4 though entangled with an institution foreig
to this soil, which, thank God, not planted b
4 their hands, is now swept away, and with
r theory bravely defended, but now happil