Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1890-06-13

alliance. Imagine this nation yet q part OF
English possessionsI The trouble the mother
country has to-day with Ireland would be q
paradisaic condition compared With the
trouble she would have with u.s. England
and the United States make excellent neigh
borS but the two families are too large TO
live In the same house. What o godsend
that we should have parted, and parted long
sgoi But / can think OF no other way In
which We could have possibly achieved
American Independence. George III, tn,
half crazy King would not have 'st US go.
Lord North, bis Prime Minister, would
not have let us 90. General Lord Corn.
wallis would not have let US go, although
utter Yorktown ne was glad enough TO have
- Let him 20. Lexington. and Bunker HUI.
and Monmouth, and Trenton, and Valley
Forge were proofs positive that they were not
willing to let us go. Any committee Of Amer
lcans going across the &C san TO see what could
have been done would have found no better
accommodations than London Tower. Ths
only way II could have been done was by the
sword, your great-grandfather's sword. Jef
terson's pen could write the Declaration OF
Independence. but only Washinzton's sword
,ould have achieved IL and the otaer swords
bathed in heaven
30 now the sword has its uses although
u Is = sheathei sword There Is not al
armory in Brooklyn, or New York, or Phila-
delphia, or Chicago or Charleston, or New
Orleans, or any American city, that coult
be spared. We have in all our AmTical
cities ruffian population, who, though thsy
Are small In numbsr, compared with the good
population, would again and again msSs
rough and stormy times IL, back OF our may.
crs and common councils and police, thsrs
were not in this armories and arssasis
SONS keen steel which, IL brought
INTO play, would make quick wori
with mobocracy. There are IN every
great community uuprincipled men, who
like row on a large scale, and they
heat themselves with sour mash and old rye
and other decoctions, enrichsd with blue VIZ
triol, potash. turpentiue, sugar OF lead, SUI.
phuric acid, logwood, strychnine, night
shade and other precious ingredients, aud
take down a whole glass with a resounding
"AhF OF satisfaction. When they get that
stun In them and the blue vitriol collides
with the potash, and the turpentins with ths
sulphuric acid, the victims are ready for any.
thing hut order and decency and good gov.
srnment. Again and again. In our-Amerl.
can cities, has the necessity OF home guards
been demonstrated.
You remember how, when the soldiers
were all away to the war In 1884, what
connagrations were kindled in the streets OF
New York, and what negroes were hung.
Some OF you remember the great riots in
for the opportunity Of uproar and desp0ila-
ton. In isi9 hiss at theatre would have
resulted in New York city being demolished
had IL 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 Mr.. Macready,
the English actor, when the latter ap
peared In New York. in Macbeth. toe
distinguished Englishman was hissed aut
hal ha WA Of tha citW ha wing haafy
placarded with the announcement: Shall
Americans or English rule in this cityp
Streets were filled with a crowd insane with
passion. The riot act was read, but 1t only
evoked louder yells anl b .avier volleys OF
stones, and the whole city was threatened
with violence and assassination.
But the Seventh regiment under Gen.
Duryea, marched through Broadway, pre-
csded by mounted troops and at the com
mand' "Firel Guard Fire." the NIB scat.
tered and New York was saved. What
would have become Of Chicago, two or three
years ago, when the polics lay dead in the
streets, had not the sharp command OF mill
tary officers been given, Do not charge
such scenes upon American institutions
| They are as old as the Ephesian mob thai
howled for two hours in Paurs time about
| the theatre, amid the ruins OF which stood
last January. They were witnessed In 1879
| In London, when the weavers paraded
the streets and entered buildings to
| destroy the machinery OF those who because
! OF their new inventions, could undereell tn.
! rest, They were witnessed in f75l at the trial
| Of Lord George Gordon, when there was a re
! ligous riot Again In 17l9, when the rabbls
cried, Down with the Presbyterians! Down
with the meeting housesp There always
have been, and always viii be, in great COM
muuities q class Of people that cannot govern
themselves and which ordinary means can
not govern, AMI there are exigsncies which
| nothing but the sword can meet Ave, the
militia are the very last regiments that II
| will be safe 10 disband.
| Arbitrament will take the placs Of war
bew weeu nation and nation, and national
armies will disband as a consequence, and
! the time will come-God hasten it!--when
there will be no need Of an American army
or navy, or Russian army or navy. But
| some time after that cities will have to keef
their armories, and arsenals, and we'll
drilled militia, because until the millennial
day there win be populations with whom
abitrament will bs as impossible as treaty
with a cavern OF kyenas or a jungle Of
snakes. These men who rob stores and
give garroter's hug, and prowi about the
wharves at midnight, and rattle the dice In
gambling hells, aud 60 armed with pistol
or dirk, will refrain from disturbance OF the
public peace just In proportion as they real
ixs that the militia OF city, instead OF bs-
ing an awkward squad, aud In danger OF
shooting each other by mistake, or losing
their own life by looking down into the gun
barrel 10 see IL it is loaded, or getting the
ramrod fast in their bootleg, ara prompt as
the sunrise, keen as the north wind, poten,
as thuuderbolt aud accurate, and regular,
and disciplined In their movements as the
planetary system.
Well done, thsn / say to the legislatures,
and governors, and mayors, and all Off
cials who decide upon larger armories and
better places for drill aa1 more generous
equipment for the militia. The sooner the
sword can safely go back 10 the scabbard
to stay there the better; but until the hili
clangs against the case In that fiual 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 reginental servant bu
by the hand of brave and patriotic officers
always ready to do their full duty. Suct
swords are not bathed in impetuosity, o.
bati,ed In cruelty, or bathed in oppression
or bathed In outrage, but bathed In heaven
Before speak OF the doom Of the swor,
let me also say that IL has developed th
grandest natures that the world ever saw. II
mas developed courage-tnat suorime energ,
OF the soul which defies the universe when
| feels itself 10 be in the right. lt has de
veloped self sacrifice which repudiates th
idea that our life Is worth more than anything
else, when for a principle IL throws that liz
away, as much as to say: 1t not necessar.
that live, but II is necessary that righteous
ness triumph. There are tens of thousand
among the Northern and Southern veteran
of our Civil War VINO are ninety-iv per cent
larger and mightier In soul than they woul
have been had they not during the four year
OF national agony turned their back on hom