The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-11-20

trader that he is possible soldier. Great
states are evanescent unless they rest for
protection and perpetuity on great hearts,
who are ready to die with their armor on,
not only in defense of their merchandise.
but in defense of liberty when assaulted and
human rights trampied in dirt. There
fore, if men dwell on an heroic past and
gather enthusiasm from it for noble pre-
sent and future they do not dream in vain;
they hope to high and splendid purpose.
One of the most melancholy proofs OF
the depressingly non-patriotic cynical
peddler spirit of our people in society,
business and politics is found in the fact
that some of the survivors of the great
war for the Union have surrendered to the
spirit of the hour and taken a mercenary
view of their honorable service to the
state. They have not been able TO resist
the insidious moral malaria of the atmos-
phere that has wrapped them round like
garment. This decay of patriotic spirit
comes at time when we are threatened
with periodical eruptions of anarchical
state socialism whose lawless. ierocious
ranks are constantly being recruited
from foul stream Of European immi-
sionate people who are Iazzaroni under
European bayonets, but are sure to be-
come formidable social and industrial
banditti In America. The prospect before
US is not pleasant; We are not only grow.
ing in lawlessness, but the iawless classes
threaten to capture by fraud and corrup-
ton the ballot box, and entrench their in-
cendiary purposes behind the forms of
law, as was done in San Francisco before
the vigilance committee of 1856 cleared the
decks of that city of its swarming crew OF
municipal land pirates.
It is true We are in a state of profound
peace. bu. world at peace is not worth
having unless it be the peace of justice,
law and order; any other peace is but
tranquility under the worst and most
fatal kind Of tyranny. The peace of the
Puritan sheocracy was not half as blessed
q season of national life as the seven years
of contiic, that followed the revolt of the
colonies; the peace of slaveocratic America
was dry rot of Northern manhood COM
pdIcu Win LIE HaI IOE Suc OuiOn tut
peace of plutocratic America is not today
bow of blessed promise in the sky.
The ultimate of America is, let US hope,
steady drift toward greater and purer
patriotism, whether it come by the victories
of peace OR the fiery purging of war, but
let US remember that as long as there is
evil there will be no peace with it. Wen
dell Phillips spoke an eloquent and true
word of the future of America when he
said: The ever restless ocean is our en-
blem, which, grit within the eternal laws
of gravitation. is pure only because never
STILL" Conflict oxidizes the foul water Of
the would; it is in peace that stagnant
streams and noisome pools prevail; ''the
sheathed blade may rust with darker sin"
1t was the most patriotic of American
poets in war time TIL at sang:
God, give us peace! not such as lulls to sleep,
But sword on thigh, aud brow with purpose
knit!
And let our Ship OF State to harbor sweep,
Her ports all up, her battle lanterns Lit.
And her leashed thunders gathering for their
leapl