The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1900-07-05
<:::::::: The Keystone Of American SupeStucure
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1t is characteristic of American men,
and affairs, that never has there arisen
crisis so complicated but the emer-
gency called from common ranks of
her united people a man or body of
men who proved themselves equal to
the occasion. Without them our civ
ilization would not have reached so
complete state of development, and
our obituary as a nation would have
been written long ere this.
In every trying crisis, however
threatening the outlook, however vio-
lent the storm, and despite the ominous
lightning flash, there has followed in
good time the soothing influence of
righteous action modified by the rain
bow of universal appreciation.
To accord second thought all the
praise for safe conduction from tenn
pestuous conditions is a mistake in
fact. Conservative first thought is in
reality the element to which we have
been indebted innumerable times for
safe delivery from destruction. The
initial thought of the conservative few
who are truly educated, who cultivate
and practice the happy faculty of delv-
ing beneath the surface and divining
the Pernicious cause that proceeds any
harmful effect.
They consider with the rich logic of
the apt student of affairs, all the hid
den and obscure elements with which
any situation abounds, and possessing
high ideals, having detected the right
from the wrong, they stand immovable
for the right.
Characters such as these in national
affairs, are as "Pearls without price,"
and to the remarkable educational sys-
tenn of our land belongs all the praise
for having produced such men, whose
sterling worth and conservative princi-
Piles must ever be our refuge in time of
strife and dissention, if we would pre-
serve through the annals of coming
time our unity as nation.
Men sufficiently strong in united
numbers and rightful influence to con-
troll each difficult and dangerous situ-
alton that may perchance threaten us.
And if, for a brief period the better
nd of hoc
powered, and their counsel ignored
during the vastly important events of
the past two years, if the word "trai-
tor" voiced by a certain element has
been their reward for a lifetime of
usefulness in the councils of our ma
ton, it may indicate that we have
reached dangerous condition where
simple duty demands halt and the
careful diagnosis of our case, together
with the rigid application of remedy,
but it does not presage utter abandon
ment of all the principles of justice
and right with which our history has
been so closely interviewer.
MEN WHO HELD DIFFERENCE OF
OPINION.
Such conditions are but sandhills in
the hour-glass Of national development,
and they crumble spontaneously by the
process of their own formation. Be-
cause Washington had grand con-
ception of the Constitution he helped
to bring intoa useful existence. it did
not prevent the legislature of Virginia
from disowning national authority ere
he had been called from a deserved
and honored retirement at Mt. Vernon,
and yet today Virginia is model of
loyalty to the Union.
Daniel Webster, that peerless orator
and master logician, supreme among
the giants of those days vindicated the
national institutions in speeches that
have become classic in the litera-
ture of our tongue, yet they cannot be
perused without certain sense of
humiliation from the fact that his able