The Opelousas courier., 1890-07-12

American independence. George III, the
half crazy King, would not AVE let us go.
Lord North, his Prime Minister, would
not have let US go. General Lord Corn.
wallis would not have let US 60, although
after Yorktown ne was glad enough to have
US let him go. Lexington. and Bunker Hill.
and Monmouth, and Trenton, and Valley
Forge were proofs positive that they were not
willing TO let us go. Any committee Of Amer
leans going across the ocean to see what could
have been done would have found 10 better
accommodations than London Tower. The
only way it could have been done was by the
sword. your great-grandfather's sword. JEFF
ferson's pen could write the Declaration OF
Independence, but only Washington's sword
could have achieved it, and the other swords
bathed in heaven
So now the sword has its uses, although
It is a sheathed sword. There is not an
armory in Brooklyn, or New York, or Phlla-
delphia, or Chicago or Charleston, or New
Orleans, or any American city, that could
be spared. We have in all our American
cities a rufian population, who, though they
are small in nuEaber, compared with the good
| population, would again and again make
| rough and stormy times il, back Of our may
ors and common councils and police, theirs
were not in the armories n arssnals
some keen steel which, if brought
14bo pANy VSO4N A@SA 1~N~A F~
with mobocracy. There are in every
| great community unprincipled men, who
like a row IN a large scale, and they
heat themselves with sour mash and old rye
and other decoctions, enriched with blue vi
sriol, potash, turpentine, soga= of lead, sui
phuric acid, logwood, s~trychnine, night
saade and other precious ingredients, and
! lake down a whole glass with a ~resounding
| "Ahr' of satisfaction. When they get that
] Z 5uff in them and the blue vitriol collides
| 18th the potash, and the turpentine with the
~sulphuric acid, the victims are ready for any
thing but order and decency and good gov
eminent. Again n again, in our Ameri-
can cities, has the necessity Of home guards
been demonstrated.
You remember how, when the soldiers
we're all away to the var IN 1854, what
conaagrations were kndled in the streets OF
Kew York, and what negroes were hung.
f-ome of you remember the great riots In
philadelphia at fires, sometimes kindled Just
for the opportunity Of uproar and despoiia-
ton. In 1s49 a hiss at q theatre would have
resulted In New York city being demolished
had it not been for the citizen soldiery. Be-
cause Of an insult which the American actor,
Edwin Forrest, had received in England
from the friends of MI. Macready,
the English actor, when the latter ap-
reared In New York. In Macbeth. the
L 4Hu& NL0 . DAA
Jmobbed, the walls Of the city having been
S,,iacarded with the announcement: "Shan
Americans or English rule in this cityr"
Streets were filed with q crowd insane witt
passion. The riot act was read, but ID only
evoked louder yells and heavier yolleys OF
stones, and the whole city was threatened
fsith violence and assassination:%
But the Seventh regiment undeF Gen.
TL,rx-an Yanr01oa fhwnvrrh RRnahvyav nTE&
neded BY mounted troops, and Oh the COM
mand: 1sFirel Guard FfreP the mob scat
tered, and New York was saved. What
would have become Of Chicago. ewo or three
years ago, when the police lay dead In the
streets, had not the sharp command OF mill
sneR scenes scenes u non american institutions.
They are as old as the Ephesian mob that
howled for two hours in Paulss time about
the theatre, amid the ruinsof@ which ! stood
last January. They wereTwitnessed In 1919
in London, when the weavers paraded
the streets and entered buildings " ia
destroy the machinery Of those who, because
of their new inventions, could undersel the
rest. They were witnessed I'm 1881 at the trial
of Lord George Gordon, when there was q re-
Iigious riot. Again, in lis, when the rabbIe
cried, Down with the Presbyterians! Down
with the meeting housesp There always
have been. and always viii be, in great COM
4 q O10oC OL ROOEAO HA@SS %ANS
themselves and which ordinary means can
not govern, and there are se1igencies which
nothing but the sword cantmeet. Aye. the
militia are the very last regiments that ii
will be safe to disband.
Arbitrament will take the place Of war
bewesn nation and nation, and national
armies viii disband as a consequence, and
the time will come-God hasten itt-when
there will be no need of an American army
or a or a Russian army or navy. But
some time after that cities will have to keeE
their armories, and a~rsenals, and we'll
drilled militia, because until the miliennlal
day there win be populations with whom
ahitrament will be as impossible as treaty
with q cavern OF Eyenas or 9 jungle Of
snakes. These men win rob stores and
Give garroter's hug, and prowl about the
Wharves at midnight, n rattle the dice II
gambling hells, and go armed with plsto
Of dirk, win refrain from disturbance OF tins
public peace just in proportion as they real
fga that the militia OF a city. instead of be-
ing an awkward squad, and in danger Of
shooting each other by mistake, or losing
their own life by looking down into the gnu
barrel to see if it is loaded, or getting tht
ramrod fast in their bootleg, are prompt a.
the sunrise, keen as the north wind, pocen'
as a thunderbolt, and accurate, and regular
and disciplined in their movements as Tn
planetary system.
We'll done, then, I say to the legislatures
and governors, md mayors, and all OH
Gals who decide upon larger armorles ant
hattar places for drill and more generous
equipment for the militia. Tbs sooner Tn
sword can safely go back to the scaooart
!. to stay there the better; but until the MI
clangs against the case in that hnal Iodg
msnE. let the sword be kept free from rust
sharn all along the edge, and its point like
needle. and the handle polished, not only b,
the channels Of the regifnental servant, Oh
by the hand Of brave and patriotic officers
always ready to do their full duty. Sue
swords are not bathed In i~mpetuosity, @
bathed in crualty, or bathed IN oppression
ar bathsd In outrage. but bataed In heaven
Before I speak Of the doom OF the swor
Lat me also say that it has developed th
!. arandegt natures that the world ever saw. /
has deyalopsd~ courage-that sublime energ
os the soul which dedss the universe when
feels itself to be in the right. 1t has d
] yaloued q seIf sacrifice which ~repudiates I'd
: idea that our life is worth more than anythin
alse. when for q principlei it throws that LII
anav. as much as to say: 1t is not necessaT
D that live, but it is necessary that righteou
+ mes triumph. There are tens Of thousand
among the Northern and Southern veteran
8 of cur Civil War who are nineey-hve per cen
. larger and mightisr in soul than they won
have been had they not during the four yea
Z Of national agony turned their back on hon
and fortune and at the front sacrificed all f
: . principle.
= It was the sword which on the Norther
i side developed q Grant, q Mcclellan,
!; Hooker, a Hancock, q Sherman, q Sherids