The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1899-05-25
NO. FL

I believe that New York would be
better off if some of you gentlemen,
were in Heaven tonight. It migh'
be pretty hard On Heaven, but if you
died in the fight it would wake up tht.
rest OF the country to the fact that the
question now facing it is whether we
shall suppress this lniquity or be OF
peressed by It.
The potato crop may survive the dry
rot. This republic cannot live on in.
definitely and endure the wet rot.
In speech before club in London,
Lord Roseberry called attention to the
liquor traffic on the institutions of Eng
land and said it isa political ring which
threatens to throttle end control the
commonwealth itself.
IT that is true OF England, it j.
doubIy true of the United States, where
every man, without regard to what lie
has, what he is. or to what he knows,
has an equal voice in deciding hoe
and by whom we shall be governed.
And if Americas experiment of pop
ular government eyer fails-in the
words of Wendell Philips-slt will not
be incapable Civil Service, nor an am
bilious soldier, nor yenal legislation,
nor the greed of wealth that Will put
universal suffrage into eclipse: it will
be rum, entfenched in our great cities.
making popular suffrage a failure and
curse"
If the wages of sin is death for tie
individual, the wages of widespread
national sin will be death to democracy /;
for you cannot have a live democracy
out of dead individuals.
Whatsoever man soweth, and what
soever a nation soweth, that shall 1t al
SO reap.
In 1873, the Virginius, an American
ship manned by American sailors, sail
ed for the coast OF Cuba with Joseph
Fry, OF Tampa, Florida, as captain.
She was captured by the Spanish war
ship Tornado, towed into the harbor
of Santiago, and Captain Fry, OF Tampa,
and fifty-three of his men were led out
side of the walls and shot down like
dogs. Then the Spanish soldiers thrust
their bayonets IN the mouths of the
dying Americans then came division
of calvary and rode their horses oyer
the dead bodies, mangllng them be-
yond recognition.
Thus died brave Captain Fry and his
men, at Santiago in 1873.
twenty-five years have gone, and a
few months ago there sailed from the
home Of Captain Fry fleet of warships
and transports carrying the American
army, which in less than one hundred
days swept the Spanish navy from the
sea, and captured the Spanish army,
and the flag that the Spanish tore down
from the mast-h head of the Virginius
was raised over the governors palace
at Santiago.
Whatsoever a nation soweth, that
shall it also reap.
Nor Is that all. Hamilton Fish was
Secretary of State. To his shame,
Spain was never called to account for
that outrage, and the first American
boy to be killed by Spanish bullet In
the fall of Santiago was Hamilton Fish,
Jr., the grandson Of the Secretary Of
State. Whatsoever nation soweth
that shall it also reap.
To-day,-I appeal to you by all for
which the martyrs bore their agony
and shame by all the warning words
of truth which all the prophets have
spoken by the future that awaits us
by all the hopes that cast their faint
and trembling beams across the black
ness of the past; and by the blessed
thought Of Him who for earth's free
dom dled-strike quick strike hard
strike now-on God Almighty's side"