Arizona republican., 1899-04-16

J from FOufUN GdS6.t
opment of the English nation. and the
entire framework of government with
the king at its hsad was intended to Sc
cure the mutual rights Of the people.
1t had been settled once for all that the
authority of the king lay virtually in
the consent of the gOverneH Govern-
ment was an affair of mutual rights
whose highest exponent was the chief
ruler England had won her liberties.
Now there began to be heard in a
distant part of this kingdom murmur
and complaint that some of these sub
liects of the king were not having their
rights. The specific charge of taxa
ton without rep essential on disclosed
how dEep seated the principle had be-
come and how finely sensitive the peo-
PIE were This complaint went across
the sea from the colonies to the mother
country and then, by glazing incon-
sistency, the principle so dear to Eng
fish hearts was refused its proper rec
ignition The rightful will of the peo-
pie failed CT getting itself done under
! the king; and so the DecDl5i had re
course 10 God That happened which
always happens in any such crisis. The
other of these two coordinate forces
asserted itself. The psople began to
"prophesy." The right which the king
| ignored they now affirmed in the name
| OF God. A new motive was unmistak-
ably operative and the growing ssnti-
ment was for the peoples right because
it was the divine will.
No scene is a finer instance of the
dynamic5 of moral conviction Than that
enacted upon the village green in Lex
ingtOn 124 years ago. AS the sturdy
minute men ranged themselves in dOu-
! BILE row across the common, some sixty
or seventy Of them, early on that mem
orabls day, to challenge the advance OF
the kings troops, they stood as prOph-
cts eff a finer order. They were men of
vision, and their hearts took hold on
the counsels of God. They had thought
of these matters in the meeting house
with Pars0n Jonas Clark; they had
prayed over them; they had talked
abcut them in the Buchanan tavern.
and they knew why they we're there
So when Major Pitcairn, with his COM
panies of relocated regulars, gave the
taunting order, "Disperse, ye rebels,'
the farmer soldiers were all ready I'M
dauntedly to heed that command Of
Captain Parker, than which finer has
never been uttered On the field Of bat
tie: Stand your ground. Don't fire
until fired upon. But if they mean to
have a war let it begin here" The re-
luctant VOlley of the Ted-coats, killing
eight of thsse heroes, was confession
that the kings cause was already lost.
Back Of every farmers bullet was a
conscience, and every fiint-lock bore its
charge of moral Indignation. Multiply
sixty 1nuskets by sixty consciences, and
they are more than enough to meet
SEQ soldiers lacking the enthusiasm Of
a righteous cause. 1t was a moral re-
pulse the British felt that day, even as
their regiment went On, later to be
shattered and driven back from Con-
cord by the same spirit that had met
them first and stayed their course at
Lexington.
The same spirit found its personal
example in the uncrowned king of the
revolution Said Washington: "A rec
onciliatton with Great Britain is I'M
possible. When I took command Of
lha army l abhorred the idea OF indie
pendence, but l am now fully satisfied
that nothing else will save us" He,
whose aristOcratic nature inclined him
to stand by the established order, when |
once he felt the responsibility resting
upon him faithfully to further the villa
cf the people, saw that radical ques-
ton of human right had entered intu
the coniic'. and that the only worthy |
issue must be the human recognition !
of the human right as certified by the |
will Of God. Sau! was again among
dle prophets The representative of |
the people was devoutly seeking, also, |
to be a representative of God
ffI1ie 10 w Of
deducible. The established order is al |
WAYS reluctant to yield, whether it be /
in the hands of the priest or OF the /
king. There is one-sidedness in the |
religion that does not win the consent |
Of the people, and there is a one-sided-
ness in the national life that would
found itself on tins basis OF human conf
pact alone. Whenever either of these
two forces, through it's authorized rep
neglects to recognize the
either force, then change IS already
being brooded. The law of national |
progress requires concurrence between
the human will and the divine, and a
recognition of each on the part of the
other This is a simple and somewhat
statement, yet is it nOl
vital? It admits Of much further char
acterization but one other concrete il
lustTation must suffice in lieu of more
extended statement.
Our nation has bsen rich in types Of
pure and exalted patriotism. No more
signal instance is there, pertinent D
the truth before us, than that OF Lin
coin. At the base of the noble mont
ment in Lincoln park, Chicago, are
these words: My paramount object is
to save the Union, and not either to
save or destroy slavery. If l could
save the Union without freeing any
slave l would do it; if I could save il
by freeing all the slaves I would do ii;
and if could do It by freeing some ard
leaving others alone I would do that"
That was the sagaci0us statesman
view. But there came the rising tide
81 ri orhfpOI conviction that r1odo tbo