Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1897-07-15
ALTGELD'S SPEECH.
THE EX-GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS
IN NEW YORK.
lie Tells the GOthamites Some Great
Truths In a Fourth OF July speech.
Wealth Always Greedy.

The Democratic Clubs of New York
July 4th. The speech in part was as
follows:
"For more than one hundred years
the American people have celebrated
the anniversary of the Declaration of
Independence. For years it was day
of universal rejoicing. Gradually, as
the country passed through different
crises, it became also day of retro
spection; men studied the experience
of yesterday IN order to meet the prob
lens of tomorrow. To-day a continent
is browning the heroes of 1916. Aetus,
with uncovered heads, join in the coro-
nation.
To-day the most wonderful Nation on
earth is in distress Its children are
suffering, and its foundation stones are
slipping away. May we not ask the
reason why? In the affairs of man, as
in nature, there IS no fixed status.
Everywhere there is motion; there is
either growth, or there is disintegrn-
tion.
In the economic and governmental
arrangements there has been steady
advancement. The forms and appli-
ances of one age, being inadequate to
meet the demands of the next, man
has from time to time had to deal with
new conditions. Progress and pros
perity rewarded him when he succeed
ed; decay and death claimed him when
he failed. All progress and growth
has come from below; evolution works
from the bottom and never goes from
the top. In society and in the govern
meut there is constantly forming at
the top a crust which tends to repress
all there is beneath, and tends to check
progress Established wrongs and le-
galized injustice are always imbedded
in this crust. Reform is simply an eff
fort to improve condition or right a
wrong. Every reform carried out had
to force its way through this crust
LESSONS OF THE PAST.
Let us glance back over the last CEN
fury, the most eventful in the history
of man. Let us read the inscriptions
which that century has written on the
bulletin boards of the nations.
Where were the fountains of patriot
ism? What were the forces that made
us great? Whose were the voices rails
ed for freedom? Whose were the hands
that smote for human rights, and
whose were the lives that were offered
on the altar of liberty? Nearly every
nation celebrates the anniversary of
its birthday. But as rule they CON-
memoratc only the deliverance of some
foreign oppression. They commemo-
rate only the substitution of home
yoke for foreign one, and are of little
interest to mankind.
We celebrate not only the release
from foreign oppression, but the pro
mitigation of new principle which is
destined to lift up the whole human
race. For the first time a government
was founded on the principle that all
men are born equal, and that govern
meuts derive their just powers from the
consent of the governed, as expressed
by the majority. The visions of phi
losophers, even the songs of the poets,
had become reality.
How did the old world receive this
declaration? With contemptous
sneer Kings denounced it; the clergy
denounced il; the wealthy and fashion
able ridiculed it; the office-holding class
ieered Mt it, Lord Mansfield solemnly
decided that Parliament could right
fully tax the colonies without giving
them representation.
How did the New World receive it?
When the agitation in behalf of indie
pendence began in the colonies the
official classes, the clergy, the moneyed
classes, and what was then called
fashionable society" as a rule, were
tories, and adhered to English inter
ests. The men who advocated indie
pendence were denounced as irrespon-
sible agitators. The men who were
clearing the forests, and building q
state, were ready to die for liberty,
and favored independence; but'the in
fluential classes were opposed to it.
When Patrick Henry uttered the fla
nous words, Give me liberty or give
me death, in the Assembly of Virginia
nearly half of the members tainted
him with treason.
When the Declaration of Indepcnd.
ence was read in the Courthouse yard
in Philadelphia on July 4, 1916, writ
err who adhered to the influential class.
es was present, and in giving an ac-
count of it, he stated with apparent
satisfaction that there were very few
people of any respectability in the
crowd that listened to the reading Of
the document II is worthy of note
that in all times men who profit by
wrong or seek to profit by injustice as
sumo an nir of superiority. But their !