The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-06-18

Forge were proofs positive that they were not
willing to let us CO. Any committee OF Amer.
leans going across the OCEAN to see what could
have been done would have found no better
accommodations than London Tower. The
only way it could have been done was by the
sword, your great-grandfather' sword. JEFF
ferson's pen could write the Declaration OF
Independence. but only Washingtons sword
could have achieved it, and the other swords
bathed in heaven.
So now the sword has its uses although
it is a shsathed sword. There IS not an
armory in Brooklyn, or New York, or fnlla-
delphia, or Chicago or Charleston, or ,oe1% Mg%
be spared. We have in all our American
cities ruffian population, who, though they,
ara small in number. compared with the GOOD
population, would again ana again make
rough and stormy times if, back of our may
ors and common councils and police, there
were not in the armories and arsenals
some keen steel which, If brought
into play, would ms, make quick work
great community unprincipled men, who
like row on a large scale, and they
heat themselves with sour mash and old rye
and other decoctions, enriched with blus vi
triol, potash, turpentine, sugar OF lead, sui
phuric acid, logwood, strychnins, night
shade and other precious ingredients, and
take down whole glass with resound!ng
"Ahn' Of satisfaction. When they get that
with the potash, and the turpentine with the
sulphuric acid, the victims are ready for any
thing but order and decency and good gov
can cs mas sds fRa asaPo oF
been demonstrated.
You remember how, when the soldiers
were all away to the war in 1854, what
liO61ai in thn StraotS or
New York, and what negroes were hung.
Some of you remember the great riots in
Philadelphia at fires, sometimes kindled just
for the opportunity Of uproar and despolla-
ton. In 1S49 a hiss at 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 MIR. Macready,
peared in New York. in Macbeth. the
distinguished Englishman was hissed and
mobbed, the walls of the city having been
placaried with the announcements: Shall
Americans or English rule in this city?
Streets were filled with crowd insane with
passion. The riot act was read, but 1t only
evoked louder wells and heavier volieYs OF
stones ana the wnoe city was threatened
with violence and assassination.
NSAsf
Duryea, marched through Broadway, pre-
ceded by mounted troops, and at the COM
mani: "Firs! Guard! Fire" the mob scat.
tere1, and New York was saved. What
would have become of Chicago, two or three
years ago, when the police lay dead in the
Streets, had not the sharp command OF mill
tary officers been given? Do not charge
They are as old as the Ephesian mob that
howled for two hours in Paurs time about
the theatre, amid the ruins Of which l stood
last January. They were witnessed In 1913
in London, when the weayer5 paraded
the streets and entered buildings to
destroy the machinery of those who, because
of their new inventions, could undersell the
rest They were witnessed in ISL at the trial
of Lord George Gordon, when there was re-
ligous riot Again in l7l9, when the rsoble
cried, Down with the Presbyteriaas! Down
with the meeting housesw There always
have been, and always will be, in great COM
munities class Of people that cannot govern
themselves and which ordinary means can
not govern, and there are exlgencles wnlch
nothing but the sword can meat. Aye. the
militia are the very last regiments that 1t
will be safe to disband.
Aroitrament will take the place Of war
beween nation and nation, and national
armies will disband as consequence, and
Ulo Ul1l6 Will COuc-OOI udSVcu
there will be no need CT an American army
or navy, or Russian army or navy. But
some time after that cities will have to keep
their armories, and arsenals, and we'll
drilled militia, because until the millennlal
day there will be populations with whom
abftrament will be as impossible as treaty
with cavern Of tyenas or jungle of
snakes. These men who rob stores and
give garroter's hug, and prowl about the
,;ol,t ~ fho ~,
gambling hels and 60 armed with pistol
or dirk, will refrain from disturbance of the
public peace just in proportion as they real
izs 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 gun
barrel to see if it is loaded, or getting the
ramrod fast in their bootleg, ara prompt as
the sunrise, keen as the north wind, potent
as thuuderbolt, and accurate, and regular,
and disciplined in their movements as the
planetary system.
Well done, then, say to the legislatures,
and governors and mayors, and all Off
Gals who decide upon larger armories and
better places for drill and more generous
equipment for the militia. The sooner the
sword can safely go back to the scabbard
to stay there the better; but until the hilt
clangs against the case in that final lodg-
ment, let the sword be kept free from rust;
sharp all along the edge, and its point like a
needle, and the handle polished, not only by
the chamois Of the regimental servant but
by the hand Of brave and patriotic officers
always ready to do their full duty. Such
swords are not bathed in impetuosity, or
bathed in cruelty, or bathed in oppression,
or bathed in outrage. but bathed in heaven.
Before I speak of thu doom Of the sword
let me also say that it h:s .deyeloped the
erandest natures that the world ever Saw. 1t
mas developed courage-Ina5 suoIlme energy
of the soul which deies the universe when it
feels itself to be in tho right. 1t has de-
yeloped self sacrifice which repudiates the
idea that our life is worth more than anything
else, when for princpleit throws that life
away, as much as to say: 1t is not necessary
that live, but it is necessary that righteous
ness triumph. There are tens OF thousands
among the Northern and Southern veterans
of our Civil War who are ninety-tve per cent:
larger and mightier in soul than they would
have been had they not during the four years
of national agony turned their back on home
and fortune and at the front sacrificed all for
principe.
1t was the sword which on the Northern
side developed q Grant, a Mcclellan, a
Hooker, Hancock, Sherman, Sheridan
and Admirals Farragut and Porter, and on
the Southern side a Lee, Jackson, Hill.
Gordon and the JohnStons, Albert Sydney
and Joseph E., and Admiral Semmes, and
many Federals and Confederates whose
graves in national cemeteries are marked
"Unknown" yet who were just as self.
sacrificing and brave as any of their Major.
Generals, and whose resting places all up and
down the banks of the Androscoggin, the
Hudson the Potomac, the Mississippi and
the Alabama, have recently been showed
under with white flowers typical OF resur.
rection, and strewn with red flowers COM