The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-07-31
In PRISON.
FOURTH OF JULY REFLECTIONS
UPON THE ADVANCE
OF DESPOTISM.
In the United States Since July 18th,
1875, When a New Nation
Was Born.

free rein, what more natural than to con-
template the resounding acclamations Of a
great nation celebrating the anniversary
of the birthday of Liberty? What more
natural than to commune with the dead,
who, when living, in the spirit of heorism
expanded to the full stature of patriots
and dared all things, battles, wounds, Inn
prisonment. confiscation and death, to Sc
cure liberty for themselves and their pos
terity.
But in the midst of such ardent admira-
ton of the men who wrested the sceptre
from England's proud monarch and Sc
cured for the American people the price,
less boon of liberty, am compelled to
ponder present conditions and ask myself
WHAT REMAINS OF THE LIBERTY
thus secured to the American people?
Why celebrate the birthday of American
liberty when Liberty itself lies cold and
stiff and dead, stabbed to death by nine
gowned and ermined men, who, if they
have any mission connected with the af-
fairs of the American people, it is to
forever stand guard over their constitu-
tional and alienable rights It has been
regarded as a patriotic duty for Ameri-
cans, on the Fourth of July, to apostro-
phize Liberty and to select from the vo-
cabularies Of all languages eulogistic
words to describe its value and its glory.
and when words failed to express those
essential attributes Of liberty which made
life itself an inferior blessing, bonfires
have blazed, cannons have belched their
thunder, banners have waved, drums
have throbbed, and bugle blasts have
called the people to assemble and rejoice
together over Gods inscrutable decree
in bestowing upon Americans blessings
denied to all other people, kindreds and
tongues since time began Nor do l
doubt that on this anniversary such ex-
hibitions will be repeated, but it will be a
hollow mockery.
THE STAGE.
will be gorgeous with scenery for the play
of liberty, but liberty will be absent-only
its ghost will appear, only it's "canonized
bones" will be present, only it's skeleton
jaws will move to tell American slaves
that the supreme funeral directors" have
buried it in potter's field without so
much as slab to mark its resting place.
And yet the farce will proceed and orators
will be found to lombard the air to con-
vince the people that in the nations grand
march across the continent and in its
physical achievements, the ultima thule
OF it's destiny has been reached If lib
erty is referred to at all, it will be to en-
phasize the plutocratic doctrine that a
government Of the people, by the people
and for the people and const.Lu. lonal
guarantees Of liberty are as so many
vagaries and that strong
CENTRALIZED GOVERNMENT
is what the Fathers designed should be
established upon the ruins of the republic.
and that the constitution itself, ceasing to
be guarantee of the liberties of the peo-
pie, should be eventually so construed
that one man, robed, crowned and scep-
tered as Judge, combining the charac-
teristics of caitiff and satrap, could, as
whim might influence him, strike down
every constitutional right of the citizen
and send him to prison.
1 am familiar with the often quoted
| maxim:
mo man e'er felt the halter drawn
With good opinion of the law"
1t has been said of every martyr from
the first time that thumb-screw was
ever applied by the inquisition. 1t was
SAID OF every victim broken upon the
wheels, disjointed upon the rack or burned
at the stake. 1t has been handy excuse
for tyrants in all ages and is as current
now as when the beasts Of bigotry first
Tapped the innocent blood Of their victims.
know with what gusto corporations and
their
ERMINED SYCOPHANTS
and all their brood Of degenerate crea-
lures regard the Imprisonment of the Off
GERS OF the American Railway Union, and
yet it is not law, nor the administration
OF law that called forth our protest, but
the abrogation of all law and the substitu-
ton OF iron-clad despotism. Innocent
men, unstained by crime, we appealed to
the courts and to the constitution for pro-
lection, for guaranteed rights. We ap-
pealed as American citizens to the Su-
preme Court of the nation. AS we'll might
we have appealed to so many man eating
tigers in an African jungle. Our destiny
was imprisonment, and it tells the story of
the final triumph of Russian methods of
government in the United States Of Amer
fca. For my associates and myself I
may say:
vi all the work my hand hath wrought
Beneath the sky,
Save place in kindly human thought.
No gain have IT,
And yet, when, on the morning OF the
Fourth OF July, the effulgent glories of
the sun gid my cell and when his softer
evening rays invite to meditation, my
thoughts must turn upon conditions which
give.
THE LIE DIRECT
to the old-time American boast of liberty
and independence. The law of injunc-
ton, a despotic decree, Is the death knell
Of liberty as once enjoyed by the Ameri-
can people. That myself and associates
in prison happen to be the victims of the
unspeakable outrage in no regard empha-
sizes my adherence and detestation Of
the traitorous grasp of power by which
the atrocious crime against the liberties Of
the people was perpetrated. l would have
demanded for the most brutal, base-born
and red-handed criminal a trial by an
IMPARTIAL JURY,
under due forms of law, and would have
punished him by the fiat Of a verdict le-
gally obtained, but in the case of myself
and associates, we behold American cit
liens, charged with no crime. and without
indictment or trial branded as criminals
and sent, like galley slaves, to prison by
one man who, arrogating to himself the
authority Of law-maker, judge and jury,
plays the role of car and sends whom he
will to prison, as the Russian despot sends
men to Siberia, to prison or to death as
suits his caprice. The question may be
prudently asked: What remains worth
saving Of the liberties Of the Americans?
l answer
THE BALLOT.
II is a noWerful weapon il the American