The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-06-24

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How it came that the idea of duty
exists in human kind we may not know
but without it institutions and gov
ernmenes and all the sanctions of or
der. peace and happiness fail. If it be
q hard taskmaster yet 1T bears a
smile for all. and in elevated moments
it attests the beauty and the truth of
WordsWOrth's majestic line.
Thou dOst preserve the stars from
wrong"
If We were only wiser we should
know that unquestiOning obedience is
often truest freedom w haIeVer Iu-
ture is before US, our duty as citizens
can be performed only by standing fast
to our highest conceptions Of a true
national polity. And this thought,
gentlemen, unfOlds itself in far reach
ing conclusions. 1t means that pat
riotism, to be worth the name, cannot
be q mere passive feeling; 1T means re-
spect and reverence for. and loyalty to
our cOuntry'S name and honor. Null
ford has well defined the nation as a
conscious moral organism, and it
is hardly a figure Of speech to
say that it hopes and believes
and aspires, and, as we too sadly
know. it sins and suffers. As mem bers
of that organic unity, the people of the
nlred states are the agents through
which it acts. as it is the agent through
which they act BY no possibility can
we escape that great law OF q self-gOV-
erning people, that each is for all and
all is TOR each. When a wrong has been
done to nation, and none the less
when a wrong has been done by the
nation, you are commissioned to set it
right.
lit was a hard task our fathers set for
themselves and for us. A Chinese des-
potism is admirable in it's simplicity
but q free government under a written
constitution is, in it's very nature, arti-
fetal complicated and open to manifold
dangers. Nevertheless, Europe is bet
ter than Cathay; and the United States,
beg you to believe is better than
either But in one sense, no govern
ment in the world bears so heavily up
on its people as ours, for none needs
make such demands upon them These
demands, gentlemen, Will come to you;
they do come to you now. while the
blood of youth is in your veins and the
faith of youth in your hearts.
Snail ii be said that the American
scholar is too good or too respectable to
mingle with the unlettered thrOng2
Such q belief disgraces no one but him
who is weak enough to hold ii. Tt is
better TO soil the sOles of your feet go
ing to the polls, than to soil your man
hood by staying away All sensible
men underst and-and the higher their
scholarship the better they understand
that constitutional governments are
conducted, in large degree, through
the agency of political organizations,
and that they must be so conducted.
The practical wisdom of the Anglo
Saxon race-a wisdom which has car
ried arms. language, literature and in
=
zOne-grasped this truth long ago.
Parties are not only the mechanism by
which the functions OF government are
brought into efficient play. but they are
true schools of political instruction. In
their historical development they meas
ure the growth and expansion of pOlit-
zeal ideas
There is a class of diIettante thinkers.
apable of any half views, who declare
that parties do bad and foolish things
which is true-and draw the conclusion
that good men should shun them. But
organization is indispensable if you
would exercise any effective influence
upon human affairs. The steam that
drives an express train from city to city
is e potent force, bat if you unlOOse it
to go whittier it viii, it floats away in
idle vapOr An impulsion stronger than
any refinement of abstract reasoning
compels united action by men whose
aims are alike. But parties are never
to be glOTifed as superior to the faith
are not higher than the end the hand
not greater than the master. Individ-
ual conscience is above all, and neither
parties nor men. nor laws, nor govern
ments may stihe it.
After all, when we reach ultimate
Verities, we learn that the ideal is the
only substantial thing. There is some
thing very noble and Inspiring in an
army going out to battle: but if it ex-
lists only for the sake of being an army,
If it has no cause to defend, no wrongs
to smite, no rights to Vindicate.-its
beauty and its inspiration are gone. So
gentlemen, if a political party has no
aim higher than the personal interests
of its members it is but a body of mer-
cenaries. Do not misunderstood me I
know that perfection is not attainable.
I grant that there are many evils that
may be borne rather than to lose the
practical good which can be accom-
plished by organized effort But high
err than party, infinitely higher than
any claim it can ever assert. is truth
which alone can make men free
One of the highest duties which
now appears to the patriotic
instinct of this country is, not to abol-
ish party rule, but to curb the power of
party rulers 1t would be a shame to
say it if it were not true, and coward
ice to deny it since all men know it is
true, that in some Way-by stealth, by
management or by the subtle influence
that always accompanies pOwer-a new
force has arisen in our politics. There
was a day when parties had leaders.
Far be it from me to say they do not
have them now. But they have also
that other almost omnipOtent person
age who organizes wards, counties and
states, not for the party and not for
the country, but for himself. In every
party there are men who give their
days and their nights to meditating ig-
noble schemes for controlling the peo-
pies VIII They rule the organization
from within. erecting an imperium in
imperiO; fostering an aristOcracy Of
spOOils, a despOtism of deceit and
fraud They sit in judgment upon
men and policies, depressing mer-
it and advancing the incapable and the
unworthy who do their bidding. 1t is
a vicious system; worse, a thousand
fold than that described by Kinglake.
which, in the Crimean war, decreed
that royal favOrites fresh from Lon
don drawing rooms, should be invested
with high command, while Colin
Campbell With his wounds and his
forty years of service, should only be a
colonel
Gentlemen. as I conceive American
patriotism it viii not always submit
to such methods. 1t viii find a way
to vindicate the right Of individual
Judgment, but it viii find it only when
the American people apprehend
clearly their duties and their obHga-