The record-union., 1892-02-22

battles. Themistocles. orator, statesman
and chieftain, was banished and died in
exile. Pericles, once master of Athens,
and who gave the world the highest at
tainments in Grecian arts, was deposed
from civil and military authority by the
people he had honored.
Socrates, immortal teacher of Grecian
philosophy, soldier and Senator, and one
of the most shi4ng examples of public
virtue, was ostracsed and condemned,
and drank the fatal hemlock. The Re
public OF Carthage gave the ancients their
I greatest General, and as chief magistrate
he was as wise in craftsmanship as he was
skiilful in war; but in a strange land
Hannibal closed his eyes to his country S
woes by taking his own life.
We need not confine our research to Pa
gan antiquity alone for such stains upon
whatf is called popular government. Lesser
States have furnished examples which
require no effort to recall. 1t is enough
to have shown little of the past. The
future historian will write of the noble
structure, delicate in framework, eX-
quislte i'll harmony and imposing in
progress, which we have reared. VIII he
write down its beneficence as its inherent
| weakness?
1t would be so with any other people
than ours. Scion summed up the history
OF many peoples when, in answer to the
question whether he had given the
Athenians the best of the laws, he said,
! The best they are capable of receiving
England could not intrust her admins
tratIon TO popular control without inYit-
ing convulsive discord and probable dis
lntegration. Her marked distinctions of
rank and widely divided and unsympa-
thetic classes woulds shatter her historic
! spiendor.
FRANCE Is AN EXAMPLE
OF modern evolution, through baptism
OF blood, TO representative Government.
An armed camp, bristling with cannon,
she holds in check the bulldogs of war,
held by slender leashes, bearing imperial
erests, How long will she endure when
opportunity is given ambition to use the
army to place another Emperor in power?
Here we contide the enactment and eX-
eeution of our laws to the immediate rep
resent2tives of the people; but eXecu-
tives and judicial tribunals and conserva-
| tive Legislative branches are firmly estab-
liShed TO receive the occasional surgeS of
| popular error, as the rOck-ribbed shore
makes harmless the waves of the storm
tossed sea. We have no antagonism OF
]. rank and caste, no patent Of nobility save
that OF merit, and the republic has no
distinction that may not be won by the
| humblest of her citizens.
OUR INDUSTRIOUS PATRIOTS,
Statesmen and chieftains are cherished as
| household gods. They have not in turn
| been applauded and condemned unless
they have betrayed public trust. They
| are the creation OF our people under our
exceptional system that educates all and
advances those who are most eminent
and faithful
| We need 30 triumphal arches or tow
I erlng columns and magnificent temples to
| record our achievements. Every patri-
otto memory bears in perpetual fresh
lyac, sc, l.
and every devoted heart quickens it's
| pulsatlons at the contemplation of the
| power and safety OF government of the
| people. Unlike all other Governments.
ours is guided supremely by intelligent
and educated public conviction. Herein
! is the source of safety and advance of
free institutions. On every hand in the
ranks of the people are
THE TIRELEss TEACHERS OF OUR DIES
TINY.
| Our free press is reaching every hamlet
in the land. Our colleges are open to all.
! Our schools are free to rich and poor. Our
| churches teach every faith under the pro-
| tecting 8giS of law. Our citizens are en-
dowed with the sacred right of freedom
OF speech and action. Thus directed and
maintained, our free Government has
| braved foreign and domestic war, and
! been purified and strengthened in the
crucible of conflict.
Our agencies and influences have not
been confined to our own boundaries
! The whole world has felt it's power, and
paid tribute to its excellence. Europe has
been convu1sed from center to circum-
! ference by the'resistIess throbbings of op-
| pressed peoples for the liberty they can
not know and cannot maintain. But we
| do not invoke commentator of others
| Our free Government is what our people
have made it, the highest practical con-
ception of the greatest good for the great
est number 1t challenges alike the past
and the present. We may well be proud
! of this inheritance.