The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-02-05
POLITICAL PERILs
Await the Nation Not True to Prin.
cip1es of Justice,

Await the Nation Not True to Prin-
cip1es of Justice.
To the Editor of the Globe:
There Is another feature of the repub-
lie Of Rome, and SO of this republic, for
history is but repeating itself In all that
is now going on before the eyes of the
American people, that, with your per-
mission. the writer would like to place
before the readers Of your paper
That ancient people of that ancient re-
public. though pagans in religion, recog-
nlzed and espoused the principle of jus.
t1ce and equal rights. In the acceptance
of these principles, was their success in
seif-goyernment, beyond any people OF
, those days. These principles Justice be-
. tween man and man, equality before the
law, and self-government as their out
growth-are eternal truths; and were a
blessing to that people, And as long az
they adhered to those principles, they
were indeed and In truth. a free people.
Those same eternal principles, might
have become, through republican Rome.
b a blessing to the world. And Rome
might have expanded to the ends of the
earth, and been blessing, not q curse,
to all the world If only she had main
tanned her integrity to these principles.
Rome might have fought the battles Of
oppressed peoples, saving them from the
hand Of their oppressors, and might have
given them the blessings of liberty in
deed. She might have expended her own
wealth on behalf of those who were
grooming under the hand of despodsm,
and set them free, that they, too, could
have enjoyed the blessings that come to
a government of the people. This Is what
Rome could have done, and all the while
she would have been the blessed instru
ment Of expanding these eternal prin'
cipleS to the ends Of the earth.
But this is just what that ancient re-
public did rot do. Instead thereof the
Romans saw that the wealth and aggran-
dizement of Rome could be greatly en-
HANGED by commercial advantages, and
they determined, even at a sacrifice or
eternal principles, to make captives of
the nations to whom they should have
given the blessings Of liberty, absolute.
In thus doing, that once free people,
repudiated these sacred principles,
through which God could have used even
a pagan people to be blessing to tho
world. And in the reputation Of these
principles, selling them for sordid gain.
they sold their own liberties. For, as a.
result of the course they were now pur-
suing, discomfort abounded at home and
abroad. Discomfort ripened into sedi-
ton, and rebellion: and a constant in
crease of the army was necessity
Thus, soon, instead of government of, by
and for the people, it WAS government
by military rule-a military despotism
With this came the one man power. and
a civil despotion such the world had
never seen. This continued to the days
of Constantine, when. under the IL
fiuence of the political bishops, there
arose a religious despotion such as the
world had never seen, with all the his
tory of the Dark Ages, written In the
blood of millions of martyrs.
VIII the people Of this last great re-
public read the moral Of all this? And
will they retreat from the road over
which that ancient republic went, before
1t is too late? 1t is an utter impossi-
bility to travel over the same road, TO
pursue the same course in all things. as
this nation is now doing, and escape The
same direful result. IL +. Phelps.