The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1901-02-07
Lese Maieste.


Jeste, and under his successors fur
ther extensions were made. If the
relative of e subject was executed. the
subject must exhibit delight else he
would be held accountable under this
law. One suspected of sentiment not
In harmony with the throne must be
particular as to the expression of his
eye: even sigh might be the undoing
CT compassionate person.
Recently We have heard of sT.ese-
Ma1este" in the United States of Am
erica. Men who have dared criticise
republican administration have been
SUBJECTED to suspicion under thi8
Jaw" Men who have protested
against policy of imperialism, who
have objected to violation of the
constitution, who have insisted that
the Chief magistrate does not repre-
sent the legislative and the judicial as
we'll as the executive branch of the
government, men who have refused to
applaud every act of administration
agents, have been branded as traitors
by the administration press, and
pointed out as disloyal by the admin
istration orators.
Fortunately, however, the admins
tration press and the administration
orators have not framed the law of
treason in this republic. The consti-
tuition, framed by the men who found
ed the republic, provides that treason
snail consist only in levying war
against the United States or in ad-
herring to their enemies, giving tnem
aid and comfort
It is as much the duty of good citi-
zen to protest when his country is
about to engage upon policy of wrong
as it is for him to take up arms in de-
Tending his country from an army of
invasion.
Edmund Burke, Pitt, and other Eng
lishmen of their time, were regarded
in the light of traitors by some, and
yet today no names occupy higher
places in the worlds history than the
names of those Englishmen who dared
protest against wrong and speak in
behalf of truth when the American
colonists were struggling for the prin-
ciples of government by the consent OF
the governed.
No man protested more bitterly
against the war with Mexico than
Thomas Corwin, and even Abraham
Lincoln repeatedly added his protest
against that war, and yet the names of
Corwn and Lincoln are among the il
lustriouS of Americas dead.
The difference between a monarchy
and a republic is that in a monarchy
tie people must acquiese in the mon
arch's will, bnt in a republic the pub
lie officers are supposed to acquiese in
the people'sIwill. "The king can do
no wrong" 70 long as he does exactly
as he pIsa1s. The public officer in d
republic can do no wrong SO long az
he adleres to the constitution and
the Nv. When he violates that con-
stitu.on and when trangresses that
aaw,1e 1s-1n erEQr--and it's just as
much the peoples duty to criticise him
then as it is their duty to commend
him whel he sustains the constitution
and upholds the law.
Men who insist that this nation, in
its dealings with its new dependencies.
shall be governed by the same prin-
ciples which the founders Of this gov
eminent claimed for themselves; men
who insist that the Declaration of In
dependence was written for all time
and provides rule by which all men
should be guided; men who insist that
the prohibitions in the constitution
must prohibit, that the limitations in
the constitution must limit, and that
public officers and public bodies whose
existence depends upon that consti.
tuition cannot ignore it and assume au.
thority and power not given by it;
men who insist that this government
is too great and too strong to enter
upon an era of oppression to the weak
and the helpless; men who insist tina,
honesty is the best policy for nations
as we'll as individuals; men who in.
sist that liberty was designed for the
brown man as we'll as for the white
man and the black man-these men
are not made of the stuff of which
traitors are constructed.
No government has anything to fear
| from citizens who adhere to the priD-
ciples upon which the government was
founded and through which it has
prospered No nation has anything to
| fear from citizens who insist that the
nation must be true to it's own tradi-
lions and faithful to its own profess
sions. No nation has anything to fear
from citizens who are willing to go
down to political defeat in defense Of
what they believe to be the truth. No
nation has anything to fear from citt.
zens who can bring to the support OF
their cause the Declaration of Indepen-'
dence, the constitution Of the United
| States, and the declarations of every
great American in every great politi-
cal party from the period of Washing
| ton to the present day.
It is pleasant duty to correct mis-
take made in the first number. 1t was
stated that The Commoner entered tina
field with an issue Of thirty thousand.
After the plates were made the addi-
tional subscriptions and news stand
orders were sufficient to justify an is
sue of fifty thousand. Since then
twenty-five thousand more have been
printed, making total of seventy-f
thousand copies of number one, VOL
ume one.
The parcels post has been indefinite
| " delayed. Senator Platte is presi-
dent of an express company; with this
as basis it is not difficult to reason
from cause to effect.
If some genius will invent a green
back with an interest coupon attached
it is believed that Mr.. Secretary IA q
| will soon be able to look it il the face
without growing faint.
When the gas was turned na
Delaware senatorial contest, it Adj
dicks was discovered near the foot,