The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-07-05

| tnc position NHlch Hhu pcrh pncrcu tu him on the highest court of law in his adopted state. and after gap of very nearly a quarter of century in his legal career. brought 10 his new judi cial duties an ardor as intense and a faithfulness as complete as any ambi- tious young man without means enter ing upon his profession. He did so against the doctors advice and at the risk of his health. simply because he thought he could be useful to his state and his country. And though the sac rifce he made was great. yet the good which he did was also great.
 His, then. Is n splendid example. n magnificent tribute to the dignity of labor unselhshiy and periodically pur- sued. A profound regret it is and ever will be to those who have watched these Woodstock celebrations with loving interest and patriotic pride. that to the long list Of distinguished Americans and foreign guests who have spoken here. Judge Phelps name cannot be added. Death alone has prevented 1t. l know not the sub ject which he would have chosen to speak 10 you about to-day, but surely the theme would have touched n re- sponsive chord in every breast. For though Mir Phelps was national lead CT of the great republican party, re- vered and respected in It's highest councils, yet even more than rcpub- lican he was an American. rejoicing in the attachments of public men to whatever party they belonged, always liberal and progressive in his ideas, cherishing no personal animosities, sympathetic. especially with young men and with the masses. and hay ing, as l have said before, an abiding and q perfect faith in the eventual tri- umph of this stupcndous experiment of ours in the republican form of gov ernment.
 Let us be profoundly thankful to God for his memory! No richer blessing can hope for the future years of these United States than that they may bring forth other judges. more members of congress and many statesmen of the stainless character. splendid talents, lovable characteristics, and intense pa triotism of William Walter Phelps.
 "As thrills of long hushed tone
 
 With keen vibration from the touch divine
 Of noble natures gonc."
 Heroic patriotism knows no begin ming and 1t will never know an end. The very ground on which in the pass at Thermopylae Leonidas and his i'm mortal three hundred spartans fought for the liberty of Greece against the myriad of Persian invaders, has been worn by the attrition of the sea until 1t
 no longer in existence. But the l,emory and inspiration of that exalt- ed deed will last forever. Centuries ago the statue of Horattus, who with Herminius and Lartius kept the bridge over Father Fiber in "the brave days of old" at Rome, has disappeared from the face of the earth, despoiled by ruthless barbarian hands. But Cocles and his noble companions live on, not only in the hands of poets, but in the. hearts and minds of brave men the world over. So, too, at Ticonderoga. at Balaklava, at Fort Wagner and Cold Harbor-in a hundred other fields of battle that I might name-soldiers have been net only willing but eager to face terrible dangers and fight against fearful odds. The pomp of war, it's music and its display, thrills mems souls, stir their pulses and arouse their passions to heroic effort. With the rank and file it is
 'The desire of the moth for the star,
 Of the night for the morrow"
 with the leaders, it is Nelson's excla- mation on the night before battle, "To- morrow shall have won peerage, or Westminster abbey"
 How different in times of peace and prosperity! It is then the most insidi- ous dangers, threaten the republic. Commercialism, selfishness and greed, the wiles of demagogues, and the clam or of the ignorant stalk abroad, secret ly or openly undermining public spirit, capturing the elective offices, corrupt ing legislatures, and at times knock ing at the very doors of Congress and in dulcet tones demanding concession or the defeat of bills. "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance" more ne- cessary now than when the words were first written.
 Selections from the remainder of MT. Porter's speech are as follows:
 Students of history agree that re- public is possible only among thinking men. In republic, therefore, political interest and power are not the privi- lege of the few, but the imperative duty of the many. Every man need not be skilled politician, but no man has the right to permanently exclude himself from the knowledge and inter- est in, public affairs"
 The standard of American legisla- tive powers, says James Bryce, the Ox- ford scholar, who wrote the fairest and most intelligent criticism ever made upon the United States, Is below that of England and Germany, below even that of France and Italy. What most struck me-" wrote Edward A. Freeman, the distinguished historian afterhis visit here, was the way in which in discuss ing matters of almost every kind, cor ruption seemed to be taken as a mat ter of course" "How can a free people which tolerates gross evils be a pure people?" he asks.
 The cause of the trouble is political indifference and the chief blame rests not with the perverseness of the poor, but with the selfishness of the rich: not with the activity of the ignorant but with the lethargy of the we'll edu- cated. '"The state of mind with the average citizen is state rather of lassitude than of carelessness. He comes to think that politicians have a morality of their own and must be judged by it." The most serious diff1- culty, in the words of Professor Bryce, is the apathy of the respectable, steady