The advocate., 1897-02-24
$l.OO A YEAR.

full Of people. Very little ceremony
characterized the proceedings. Speaker
Street, Speaker pro tenn. Weilep and
Lieutenant Governor Harvey occupied
the Speakers stand. The legislative re-
ception committees, consisting Of Sena-
tors Harris, Householder and Stocks,
Representatives Rothweiler, Jaquins,
Harvey and McKeever, accompanied Mr..
Bryan and occupied the Chief Clerks
place. Lieutenant Governor Harvey,
whose duty il 10 to preside at joint sec.
stons, introduced Mr.. Bryan. He was
given an ovation when he entered che
hall. In five minutes time he was speak
ing, 1t is impoesible to give his speech
in full, but the liberal extracts which
follow will convey something OF an idea
Of it. lie said:
III esteem 1t high honor as well as q
great privilege to be invited by the Leg
islature OF this great Western common
wealth to address q few remarks to the
members Of your legislative body. / am
not q member OF any legislative body
myself; / am but private citizen, as are
most Of those who are assembled by the
invitation Of the Legislature here TO-
night.
"The flrst principle OF government in
country like this is that all men are
created equal, You tell me that that 10
ancient. Il 10; but, my friends, upon
that principle rests our form OF govern.
ment. Every vicious law violates that
principle; every good law carries it out.
Show me q person who denies the prin-
Ciple OF equality before the law, and !
will show you q person who has yet to
learn the genius Of our institutiong;
show me person, whether he be- q ori-
vate citizen or O public servant, who does
not believe in the absolute equality Of all
citizens before the law, and / will show
you q person who can help his country
by leaving 1t. That principle Of equality
does not mean what some people would
have you think it means. When we
speak OF equality before the law, we do
not mean equality Of possessions. There
are those who attempt TO confuse those
terms; there are those who attempt to
put all advocates Of equality before the
law 10 the position Of advocates of equal
ity OF possession. We do not mean, as
jackson has we'll said, thai under any
just form OK government all people can
be equal in talents or in worldly posses.
sions. y
''If no citizen has natural right to
injure another citizen, this government,
which derives it's just powers from the
consent Of the governed, which is lnsti-
tuted among men TO secure to them their
inRlien@ble rights, then good government
must neither enable nor permit one citi-
zen to injure another This grows out
of the fiTst proposition, and when / have
stated to you that government must
avoid acts OF affirmative injustice, and
then prevent injustice, have stated to
you the whole scope Of government.
Jackson, in the famous message In which
he vetoed the bank charter, said that
there are no necessary evils in govern
ment. Evils, he said, exist only in It's
abuses, IL Jackson had never said any.
thing else, he said enough in that simple
statement to entitle him to o high place
among the statesmen OF our country.
But | want to remind you that no man,
since history began, ever raised his hand
against an abuse Of government but
what he wGs accused Of being an anar-
Chist by men who were profltlng by the
abuse.
"It Ia one Of the strange things, and
yet 60 common that il ceases to be
strange, that the temptation brought TO
government to depart from the strict line
Of justice almost universally comes from
thoa0 who have by nature sD advantage
over others Of their fellow men. Isis
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