The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1897-01-27
"WHAT WILL WE DOT"


| liant, ell ,quent, tug unfortunate, FOm
| Watson:
Il sit here by my warm hearth, SUI
roanded by the comforts of home-a CT t.
Izrn secure in many inestimable rights.
Glow did / get them? Scholars con-
C .iv~d them, poets sang them, orators
poke them, warriors fought for them,
rnar,yrs died for them-anu at length
the statesman wrote them into laws.
'sI can worship God as choose, not
as some other man chooses-and there
is no wheel to break me on, as there used
to be, if my conscience varies from the
kings.
IL can vote as l please and claim
voice in the making of the laws and the
choosing of rulers, and there is no block
to behead me on, as there used to be for
hose who could see no divine right
in the one-man POWER.
81 can put forth the strength of my
hands ia any field of industry, and what
Soever l earn is mine, mine, and is not
carted up to an embattled castle to feed
some lazy lout of robber who calls
himself my feudal chief.
Il can think of any thing that comes
into my head, and, having thought j.,
can speak it, nay, speak it vocifernusly,
to any assemblage of human brethren
who choose to hear; and | can attack
the government and everybody connect
cd with 1t for sins of omission and CON-
mission, without the slightest fear of
being hanged for treason, or having the
dragons disperse the meeting, or of be-
ing shut up in prison as riotous and
seditious person, all of which happenings
would have occurred to me few genera
tons ago unless had turned my tongue
to the chant OF the priest and the fatter-
les of the king.
"It has not been long since it was
crime to talk for the rights of the COM
mon people! a crime to assemble and
discuss grievances; a crime to say that
the governed should have voice in
the government; crime to claim liberty
of speech and conscience.
"When think of the awful punish
ment heaped upon those who dared to
denounce wrongs in tie olden DAYS.
when nearly everything was wrong, /
seek in vain for words to express nv
profound admiration for the age of
those who gave their lives to the cause
of the right.
"No such heroism has ever been shown
Ou ACAuS VI DdtIlO dS LIDS UGGu SuOWu DV
the martyrs Of civil liberty. The frowns
of kings could not silence them, nor the
curses of popes turn them. Prisons
could not quench their fires, nor could
the rack break ought but their bones.
As they marched to the block they
stepped lightly-as pioneers leading the
free of great future. AS they mount
ed the scaffold, they rose, step by step,
proudly, like cOnquerOrs leading men
upward and onward.
"The names are lost-nearly all of
them-but here ir my quiet home t,
the legatee of their heroic work.
II lay my hand on the code of my
country, and every great leading law in
it cost some brave man his life. am
guarded round about with guarantees
and safeguards-all consecraUed with
the blood of human sacrifice.
"And do owe nothing to any body
for all this?
cam to nurse the slippered foot by
my own fireside in selfish ease, and new
er stir forth to inquire how fares it with
my. brother?
"Am to be deaf to the cry of human
suffering, bl nd to the havoc wrought by
bad laws, cold-hearted to the plea of the
helpless aud weak against tyranny of the
oppressive strong?
Gam 10 bask in the blessings brought
me by the heroes Of the past, and care
nought for the miseries that may come
upon the children who follow US?
"God forbid
mo man holds life for himself alone,
but hOlds it's splendid gift as trustee
trustee who must come to an account
some day with the Most High"