The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-09-03

the men who are to be your chief magis-
trates, your Legislators. your judges, your
plut0erats, your bank presidents, your
railroad managers in the next generation
will not be the gilded butterflies of 1895.
They will not be those young gilded
youths, that, like Solomon, are arrayed in
purple and fine linen every day, and who
neither toll nor spin. The men who are
to WELD the power will be the sons of the
men who are today performing slaves
la Dor at the forge, the carpenters bench,
and in the fields of Kansas and the other
states of this union.
No Doctrine of Pessimism.
preach no doctrine of pessimism to
the Iaboring man; l preach no doctrine
of classes or of despotism or tyranny to
any classes in this country. Governor
NJ drill, of whom you may have heard.
Laughter and cheersl- have seen his
name myself mentioned several times
in the papers in the last few weeks
Governor Morrill, said, and he was
harshly censured for it, he was
roughly criticised for it-he said that
! no law could be sustained and enforced
that was not supported by public opin
ion. Although the critics denounced
him for that statement, he said what
was exactly the truth in the United
States of America. (Applause)
l have heard it said that the organic
law of Kansas was her constitution
l have heard it said that the organic
law of the United States was the consti-
tuition. l say to you, fellow citizens, that
the organic law of Kansas and the United
States is the determination of a majority
of her people. Thomas jefferson had no
constitutional nor legal right to purchase
from Napoleon BOnepa the territory of
louisiana for fifteen million dollars. 1t
was an unconstitutional and illegal act;
but public opinion said "Amen! Thomas
Jeffersonp And they sent a congress
there to approve that act and make this
appropriation for carrying it into effect,
and thus it was that we secured that en-
pire which is the republic in which we
stand today. There used to be land some
of the grey bearded men will remember
it, in this country a statute known as the
Fugitive Slave Law"
Fugitive Slave Law.
It was enacted by facile and subser-
Went congress; it was supported by
facile and subservient supreme court,
whose chief justice said that the black
man had no rights that the white man
was bound to respect The law could
not be enforced, although subservient
president attempted to enforce it in that
! portion of the country to which it was
intended to be applied; although behind
| him were the army and the navy
! of the United States; honest, en-
| lightened, conscientious, patriotic pub
| lie opinion was against it. There
was no law preventing a president of
the United States from returning to the
states of the south the regimentaI battle
colors that were captured by the valor
of the union soldiers. He had a right
to take from their cases those ensigns,
rich with patriotic blood, and say that
they should be returned to the regi-
m euts from which they were captured
and the states from which they came.
But an enlightened patriotic public
opinion said sNo! Mr. Grover Cleveland,
| drop those flagsv and be dropped them,
and they were returned to their cases and
there they will remain until the gnawing
tooth of time shall bite each thread from
the standard, so long as valor has voice
or freedom has a champion.
When a man feloniously and violently
assaults the honor of woman, and en-
ragged neighbors and friends take the
wretch and hang him to the nearest tree,
that is murder by statute. 1t is so de-
fined by law. And yet when one of those
men is brought before a jury to answer
! for murder he is always acquitted. Why?
Because an enlightened public opinion
says that punishment by confinement in
the penitentiary for that outrage is
inadequate to the offense, and therefore
they say it served him right.
Finding Fault With Congress.
There have been men during the past
few months, ladies and gentlemen, who
| have had the hardihood and temerity to
find fault with the congress of the United
State& Laughter 1 am appalled, at
your levity! You remember that when,
on the fourth day of last March, the gavel
fell, the telegraphic report went out that
the reporters in the press gallery united
simultaneously in singing the first lines
of the long meter doxology:
'Praise God, from whom all blessings
| flow"
And at the same instant, in the city of
/ New York, in the great markets of our
/ traffic and commerce and business, the
| business men in that great city united in
hilarious antics and gymnastics express
| ing their joy that great national cal
amity had passed by. Laughter. You
smile, ladies and gentlemen, but it is
much more an occasion for lamentation
than for laughter, for if there were a
congress inadequate, incompetent in
sincere, hostile to the best interests
of this country, it was not the fault
of the congress so much as it was
| of the constituencies that sent them
there. l have heard it said that in that
/ lower house of congress there were politi-
| cal freaks who would have been orna-
mental in the recesses of the dime
museum. All I have to say upon that
subject is that if there were freaks in
that body, they were there because the
best men in every district permitted the
freaks to send them there.
There have been men with hardihood
enough during that same interval to cast
aspersions upon the senate of the United
States. There are those that very often
have declared that in that great tribunal
there were sugar senators; that there
were men who. like Judas Iscariot. had
betrayed their sacred cause of liberty
! which they were sent to represent, for
thirty pieces of silver. If there be any
| of that body who has been contaminated
and furnished by the breath of suspicion;
if there be ia that great tribunal any man