Willmar tribune., 1900-08-01
A Letter from nodxsoa.

- 4 Letter from nedgsoa.
Mr.. Editor:-
Your leader of last week has the |
true ring. The time has come when
patriotism should take precedence of
party. This country is in q crisis
tenfold more serious than the great
panic OF 1893. No calamity to crops
or business interests could affect the
destinies of future generations "a will
the issues of the present political cam
paign. We are face to face with the
most momentous question that ever
agitated American polite. The great
principles which first made US free and
then made US great are assailed with
deadly purpose. Who would have
dreamed two short years ago that the
great republican party, notwithstand-
ing all it's accumulated sins of omis-
sion and commission, would dare to
strike down the two pillars upon which
the temple of liberty rests-the equal
rights of man and government by the
consent OF the governed. The great
party of Lincoln and Seward has al
ready reached q depth of political
degradation which it's worst enemy
could not have predicted.
No other great man of our history
ever so continuously, so perslstently,
exalted the heayen-born principles
announced in the Declaration as did
the great president who bound the
nation and unbound the slave"
Slavery was eating like a cancer into
the vitals OF liberty. The crisis came
and at a cost awful to contemplate
even yet the principles of the Declar-
alton triumphed. A generation Of
unexampled progress followed, and
behold the mighty transformation!
The party that then arose in defense
of civil liberty and free government
now armed to strike the deadly blow,
while the party which then scorned the
great charter now comes to it's rescue.
When Is years ago I visited your
county to work up interest in the Farm
ers Alliance made friends who
have remained to this day-I used to
remind your people that the long war
of humanity over religious and polit-
ical liberty had been fought and won;
that the new war of oppression now
upon US was of an industrial charac-
ter; that tyranny, defeated and routed
on former lines, was in fair way to
succeed in their new garb. During all
these years ! have watched the en-
croachments upon the markets and
commerce of the world. All this time
/ had regarded our political liberties
safe and unassailable. Within a
twelvemonth my eyes have been opened
to this new danger. There Ia no long
er any doubt that returning despotism
intends to force a new fight for our
old liberties.
| uO uAA4O0 "OIuCuVOu6s huluoU
liberty and free government are as.
sailed, and with the overthrow of the
principles of the Declaration we shall
witness the fall of Individual and po
litical liberty. Who will say tina
even our religious liberties are nov
safe?
The present administration has com
mitted this country to an imperial pol
icy. 1t has denied the Declaration
1t has in effect declared that Kinf
George WAS right while Washingto,
and his co-patriots were wrong. l
has denied the protection and restraints
of the constitution to all possession
OF the United States. 1t has assumed
to be greater than it's creator, for th'
very constitution which gives to th,
administration the right to exist /.
gnored in it's dealings with our So
called new possessions.
The people have not yet ratified this
momentous change. If they shall dt
so in November next then the mode
republic will have passed into histor,
and an inferior empire will have beer
set up in it's place. To me this ques
tion overwhelms all others, Tn,
trust question is great; the none,
question is perhaps greater; but th<
imperial question is greatest.
We can survive financial calamity
We can, perhaps, endure the AFRO
gance of concentrated wealth ani
hope some day to overcome. Blu
when we stamp out the Declaration O
Independence We have hlotted out thu
sun. King George had vastly more
reason and right to send his emissaries
oyer here to govern the colonies an:
to draw salaries and tax them withou,
their consent than Mckinley has to DE-
the same thing in the Philippine Is
lands.
We beg an a war two years ago te
set struggling people free. Itbecame
our privilege in prosecuting that wa,
to set another people, six times thei,
number, free. What an opportunit,
was that to have won the homage O
mankind. Abr aham Lincoln wrot<
four million black men free and ht
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