The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1900-06-07

and title to respect. 1t must main
tain the rights of its citizens abroad,
as well as compel their obedience at
home. And, in the nature of things,
as men and nations are, not 1.-THE
of the vast obligations of govern
ment can be discharged without the
power and the right to use force, if
it should be necessary. Peace is won
and preserved at the cost of sacrifice,
though in every conflict one party is
always wrong, and the other, per-
heps, not wholly in the right. A
government which is so weak that its
statutes are dead letter invites
insult and spoliation, and though we
Il00ifi ( fer fer that that day when "the spear
shall be beaten into the pruning
hook and the sword into the plough
share" it seems still far off, and the
strong Christian nations are. those
which are least able to pile arms and
beach their battlsships, under the
impression that that golden day is
dawning. We might cite the wars
recorded in the Old Testament in
illustration of our position, some of
which, at least, are said to have been
dfVinely ordained; but it might be
argued in answer that none of them
have any bearing on the question be-
cause new era began with the ad-
vent of Christ. War is destructive;
it is true-war is horrible and inhu-
man; this is also true. But vice de-
stroys more lives every year than
war, and storms and drought and fire
and flood more property. Armies
are cruel, so is the surgeons knife,
but it is merciful in comparison with
the cancer itremoves. Wendell Phil
lips spoke for northern men when he
said, in 1861, in Boston: 'tIn my
view, the bloodiest war ever waged
is infinitely better than the happiest
peace that ever .fattened men into
obedience. And yet I love peace.
But it is real peace; not peace such
as we had; not peace which meant
lynch-law in the Carolinas and
mob-law in New York; not peace
that meant chains around Boston
courthouse, a gag on the lips of
statesmen, and the slave sobbing
himself to sleep with curses"
Men whose consciences had been
educated by the Declaration of HUI
man Rights were willing to give due
respect to every man; to recognize
every mans rights, but to own no
mans over lordship. And when that
fatal shot was fred at Sumter, be-
cause 100000 of people were no
longer willing to submit to the die
tation of 100000 aristocrats, the ma
tional party was welded into mill
tant force. The Declaration of HUI
man Rights was the sword. The blow,
thirty years, had fallen.
Since the invention of the cotton gin
the slave appeared as necessary to
the prosperity of the south as her
cotton; he was vested interest of
fabulous value. The south not only
thought it necessary to make slavery
an institution in it's own peculiar do
main, but it saw that it was neces-
sary to leave room for it to enlarge
its borders; and, above all, to stop
all discussion of the slavery question
by bribery, by threats, by any means
which could accomplish the end of
making the whole nation approve, or
at all events, to cease all anti-slavery
agitation. The north, once aroused,
could not be coerced into silence;
nor could she submit to the mutila-
tion of the Union.
The conflict was irrepressible. At
bottom it was collision Of ideas,
which had to be; for they were mu-
tually exclusive and destructive. 1t
was the old conflict between cavalier
and rouDdhead, democrat and aristo-
crat, which had to be settled finally,
in the new world or the old.
There were but two courses open
to you. You must either have sub
mitted to the worst aristocratic tyr
amy OF modern times or assail and
conquer It,. You chose the latter;
hard and thorny path TO travel, but
it led to the promised land Of the
new and purified America, and to-
day the best men Of southern blood
are glad you chose it. You did 1t
for your own sake and your chill