The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-04-30

was received WITH UnuHucIS VI applause
by a Roman audience: Homo sum, hui
mani nihil me alienum puto. am Il
man, and whatever concerns the Weifare
of my fellow men can never be without
interest to me-" Called upon to address
educated talented young men who are
to 90 out and become captains OF Thought
and leaders in the hosts OF our Israel,
should be unmindful of the duties and the
uncertainties of the occasion If l were to
waste It in rhetorical platitudes or well
rounded sentences signifying nothing. The
Situation is too grave, the issues too am
portars the inn ending conflict too GER
tain a I'd the results tGo great and last
ing. Il | can say aught to impress upon
your Ingenious minds that a great strug
gle. more important far than that of
1861, and as inevitable, Though, we trust
to be settled in different forum) is be-
fore you and that you Will be factors Of
consequence in that contest, then perhaps
not altogether in vain | shall have stood
before you. Al Waterloo. when for
hours the conflict for the mastership of
Europe had hung in nearly even balances,
and at last as the sun was bending low,
victory seemed to iacline to the French,
a body of troops was seen far off to-
wards the North marching towards the
field of battle. On and on they came,
Every glass was leveled upon them. Lead
ers and generals strained their vision to
discover to which side the reinforcement
belonged, for it would be cast into the
scales, like the sword of Brennus. If
they were the columns of Grouchy, then
once more, and brighter than ever before,
the star of Napoleon would beam upon a
field lost and won, if they were the lead
ing files of Butcher, then the Empire
would pass away like troubled dream
and England, England would be the cry.
On they came, with strides as steady as
fate, as irresistible as destiny. They
proved to be Bulows division of Bluch-
er's corps and fortune fled forever her
spoiled and favorite child. The present
generation is engaged i'll like momen-
tous struggle. not on the narrow battle
field of a Belgium plain, but on an
amphitheatre that reaches to the silent
oceans. In the press. on the hustings,
i'll the close converse Of neighbor with
neighbor the conflict OF IDEAS is going on.
1t is becoming more aud more intense.
The forces are nearly evenly divided and
both sides, like the contending armies at
Waterloo, are looking for reinforcement
to the genera ton that is arriving at man
hood, for your weight Will decide the is
sue. The arrival of your generation upon
the battlefield viii dec.sively end the
struggle.
What are these ce;l;ending forces and
what is the true issue: Is it the tariff?
That is a party issue over which either
II
and disastrous consequences if it fails
and alternately one or the other wins and
with better or worse conditions the coun-
try goes ON. Is it the silver issue, the
financial question? That is nearer the
mark, yet that question is rather an incl
dent, symptom, a phase with suggest
ed remedies and not the disease itself.
Nor yet is it the conflict between labor
and capital, nor the old, old struggle be-
tween States Rights and the centraliZing
tendencies of the Federal government
The vital question lies deeper than any
of these. 1t is that which the Roman
republic had to face, which every Re
publican government has had to deter
mine, and upon the answer to which Its
continued existence as republic depends.
That question was very dimly and indis-
tinctly discerned in the beginning of this
great republic. 1t took on increased i'm
portance after the late civil war. To-
day it has become the great underlying
question upon which men. instinctively,
often unconsciously perhaps, are taking
sides. 1t is a question which in Republic
must be settled, and there can be no peace
until it is, and the result must be safe
or n rfla or nv 81
changes. The vital question which this
country is called upon to determine. and
towards the determination of which we
are intelligently it may be, or blindly it
may be, cropping our way is Where shall
the actual governing power reside"
"Shall it be in men or in money!" 1t is
not new question, but in a Republic
it is the inevitable question whose deter
minatiOn settles all others. What matters
it If the Constitution says that all politi-
cal power resides in or is derived from the
people if it has ceased to be true in fact?
The Roman legions bore to the latest days
OF the empire upon their standards the
words The Senate and the Roman Peo-
ple' centuries after Augustus and Tiber-
ius and Nero had stamped out the last
vestiges of the popular will. There were
still Tribunes of the People, and Consuls
and Senate and the forms of Repub-
lie in official documents and proceedings
long centuries after the real power had
passed from the curia and the comitia to
the barracks of the Pretorian Guards, and
when there was no will in Rome save
that of their master Years after the
victor Of Marengo had been crowned
Emperor and the sword of Austerlitz had
become the supreme power in France, the
French coins and official documents still
bore the superscriptions of the Republic.
The nature of a government is not de-
termined by it's forms and titles These
usually remain unchanged long after the
governing power has become vested else
where. What boots it if on parchment
we shall continue to read that "All poll
teal power is vested in and derived from
the people; all government of right ORR
ginates from the people, is founded upon
their will only and is instituted solely
for the good of the whole" if it is not a
living potential, actual truth? If, as a
m Mt for, Of fao ions IN rQuUh