Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1900-09-12

I folly or attempting TO prepare people
fro self-government by denying them
the right to participate in their own
government.
| MANY politicians Of our time are in
the habit of laying it down as a self
| evident proposition that no people
| ought to be free until they are fit to
| use their freedom. The maxim is
| resolved not to go into the water until
/ he had learned to SWIM If men are
| to wait for liberty till they become
wise and good in slavery, they may
indeed wait forever"
| When I say that those who distrust
| ernment tend directly toward mon
archy, 1 am only repeating what Lin
coin deliberately declared in his first
annual message. He said:
WHAT LINCOLN SAID.
Monarchy itself is sometimes hinted
at as a possible refuge from the power
| of the people. In my present position
could scarcely be justified were 1 to
omit raising warning voice against
| this approach of returning despotism
1t is not needed nor fitting here that
a general argument should be made in
favor Of popular institutions; but there
| is one point, with its connections not
so hackneyed as most others, to which
| I ask brief attention. 1t is the effort
1
with, if not above. labor, in the struc-
| ture Of government No
men living are more worthy to be
trusted than those who toll up from
poverty; none less inclined TO take or
touch aught which they have no hon
estly earned. Let them beware Of sur
rendering a political power which they
already possess, and which, If surren-
| dered, will surely be used to close the
door of advancement against such as
they, and to fix new disabilities and
burdens upon them till all of liberty
shall be lost"
" ARNING MORE NEEDED NOW.
The warning is even more needed
now than 1t was forty years ago. The
Army and Navy Journal is already
justifying the colonial idea, and de-
claring that fate has decreed for us
| destiny in which an imperial executive,
free from the restraints Of a written
constitution, will govern subjects ac-
cordtng to his own pleasure. The Unit
ed States Investor, published at Bos-
ton, in its issue of July %, says:
"Only a blind person can fail to see
| that remarkable transformations of
one kind or another are in store for
the race; hence the folly Of asserting
| that the policy of this country, which
is destined to play such a leading. part
in human affairs of the future, shall
| be governed for the most part by polit-
| ical maximS uttered more than q hum
dred years ago. The greatest evil which
now confronts this republic is the clam
or raised by a certain faction for set
tlement of our problems OF state by
just such a method as we have been
deprecating. Considerably more than a
century ago a certain notable declara-
ton was made in this country to the
effect that all men ought to be free
and independent. This is merely a gen.
QraliZatiOn Of the French school 0f Vol.
taire and the encyclopedias. 1t is
dictum absolutely lacking foundation in
history and incapable Of syllogistic JUS
tifcation. 1t was, however, a handy
phrase for US to employ when asserting
our right to break away from the moth.
our situation in 1776 admirably, though
in itself but a bit of sublimated dema,
gogism-- The declaration was a SER
viceable means to the end that was at
that time desired. To bring forward
this declaration in this year, 1900, in
connection with our treatment of the
Filipinos and the Cubans, Is as gross
an absurdity as ever ,Eyas practiced.
To do so is to offer an insult to the
Intelligence Of the people who first sub
scribed to the declaration in question:
But why quote from newspapers as
to what may be done hereafter in the
presence Of a law already enacted
which makes subjects out of Porto
Ricans, withdraws from them the
guarantees of the constitution, and as
serts the power Of the president and
congress to govern them without their
consent and tax them without repre-
sentation-a power as unlimited and
tyrannical as was ever asserted or ex-
ercised by any ruler in all the history
of the human race. This doctrine has
not yet been approved by the people;
it furnishes the supreme question of
the present campaign. In the pres
ence of these perils the laboring man
has a responsibility commensurate
with his opportunity. Without a large
percentage of the laboring vote no par
ty can win an election in the United
States. The men who work for wages
can, by throwing their votes on the
one side or the other, determine the
policy of this country. They need not
march in parades; they need not
adorn themselves with the insignia of
any party, but on election day their
silent ballots can shape the destiny OF
this nation, and either bring the gov
ernment back to it's ancient land
marks or turn it into the pathway fol- |
lowed by the empires of the old world