Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1900-03-05


when personal opinion passes into po.
lltical activity or apathy. aud crys-
talizcs into the forms of law aud
policy that which a generation ago we
should have counted national disgrace
and disaster. 1t IL the essential vice
Of aggregated wealth to oppose every
movement which makes for the bet
terment of humanity In tho mass. 1t
was so I'm the evil days Of slnve.driv-
ing In our country; 1t has been SO al
ways; 1t will be so ever.
In 1850, when Mr.. Seward was plead.
ing with his fellow Senators not to
vote for the slavery compromise OF
that year, he used these prophetic
words:
slavery has, moreover, more m.
tural alliance with the aristocracy OF
the North, and with the aristoclacy
of Europe. So long as slavery shall
possess the cotton-fields, the sugar.
fields aud the rlce.felds of the world,
go long will commerce and capital
yield 1t federation and sympathy.
Emancipation is Democratic revolu-
tion. 1t is capital that arrests all
Democratic revolutions. 1t was capi-
tal that, 50 recently, in single year.
rolled back the tide Of revolution
from the base of the Carpathian noun
tains, across the Danube and the
Rhine, into the streets of Paris. 1t Is
capital that is rapidly rolling back the
throne of Napoleon into the cham.
bers Of the Tuillerics."
And n no less grievous outcome of
this back-wave from the humanitarian
traditions of our past, towards the
barbarism which inheres in the exer-
else of irresponsible power. hedged in
by no constitutional checks and bound
ed by none Of freedoms ancient land.
marks, is found in the case with which
whole communities slide into a course
of national duplicity and dishonor, but
which each individual would, by him.
self. hotIy resent and disclaim. Hy-
pocrisy is said to be the tribute which
vice pays to virtue, and philosophi-
cal writer of our day observes that:
"The constitution OF man is such that
for long time after he has discovered
the iucorrectness of the ideas prevail
ing around him. he shrinlls from open
~ emancipatipg himself from their
dominion. and, constrained by the
force of circumstances, he lives q by.
pocrite, publicly applauding what his
private Judgment condemns. Where
nation is making this passage, 80
universal do these practices become
that it may be truly said that hypoc-
risy is organized" would not sit in
Judgment upou human conduct, bu'
he must be blind to passing events
who fails to see that, as represented
by the dominant political policy OF
today, this nation is making this pas.
sage.
1T was not to such future that the
Mayflowers PROV was turned;
Not to such faith the martyrs clung,
eyulting as they burned;
Not by such laws are men fashioned,
| earnest, simple, valiant, great,
In the household virtues whereon rests
the unconquerable state"
1t does not wholly nullify this charge
of crucIfying the enthusiasm of hui
manity," to say that the commercial
ism which l condemn rears splendid
charities, and opulent endowments
for the cultivation of letters, and builds
libraries and equips schools. Too Of
ten the process is but a disgorging of r
small part of that which has been ac.
uuired by some of our various rObber'
les under the forms of law. for ths
benefit of small portion Of those
from whom it was in the first instance
distracted, and too generally from tho
low and unworthy motive of quieting
the public pulse and sitting the pub
lie conscience while the legalized
spoliation is still going on. This con.
stitutes what in the estimation OF the
dopors the late Mr.. Fernando Wood
used to call "pandering to the moral
element"
And when the disciples Of selfish
and constituencies mercantilism, not
finding within our former boundaries
scope enough for their speculative en-
tcrprses, are eager TO exploit the re-
sources of our new conqests, and begin
their Tapacious schemes by commits
ting Il great and beneticent nation to
policy which admits no certain rights
to it's wards, and purposes to govern
them without constitutional guaran-
ties. and to tax them without allowing