Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1901-06-26
lKlY1lsk1(I@zz2}{zBg7n77

=
IL requires heroism which few possess.
Yet no great reformatory or eieyatlng
movement has ever been accomplished
until some one was willing 10 defy what
the world should think or say or do. But
there have been men and women of that
kind. They stand all up and down the
corridors of history. examples for use to
follow. Charles Sumner in the United
States Senate. Alexander II. Stephens in
Georgia convention. Savonarola stalking
his life in time OF prosecutions. Martin Luz
ther fighting the battle for religious free
dom against the mightiest anathemas
that were ever hurled William Carey
leading the miss. mary movement 70 save
heather world while churches denonne-
ed him as fanatic and with attempting
an impossibility; Jenner, the herr of
medicine, caricatured for mis- attempt by
vaccination to beat back the worst dis
ease that smote the nations. They who
watch the wind of public opinion will not
SOW. 1t As an uncertain indication and is
apt TO blow the wrong way.
Communities and churches and nations
sometimes are thrown into hysteria, and
it requires a man of great equipoise TO
maintain a right position. Thirty-three
years ago there came time of bitterness
in American politics, and the impeaeh-
ment of a President of the United States
was demanded. Two or three patriotic
men, at the r:sa of losing their senatorial
position, stood out against the demand
of thei. political associates and saved the
conLtry from that which all people of all
PARTIES now see would have been ca
lamity and would have put every subse-
quent President at the mercy of his OPP
ponents. 1t only required the waiting of
Il few months, when time itself removed
all controversy.
'I.et us have war with England if
needs be-" said the most of the people of
our Northern States in 1861, when Mason
and Slidell, the distinguished Southern
ers, had been taken by our navy from
the British steamer Trent and the Eng
lish government resented the act of orr
government in stopping one of their ships.
.tGive up those prisoners" said Great
Britain. NO." said the almost unani-
nous opinion of the North do not give
them up. Let us have war with England
rather than surrender them" Then VIII
liam H. Seward, Secretary OF State, faced
one of the fiercest storms of public opn-
ion ever seen in this or any other country.
Seeing that the retention of those two
men was no Importance to our country
and that their retention would put Great
Britain and the United States into inn
mediate conflict, he said, I'VE give them
up" They were given up. and through
the resi- stance of popular clamor by that
one man a worldwide calamity was avert
ed.
Some of us remember as boys huzzang
when Kossuth the great Hungarian. rode
up Broadway, New York. Most Ameri-
cans were in favor of taking some deeid
ed steps for Hungary. The only result
of such interference would have been the
sacrifice of all good precedent and war
with European nations. Then Daniel
Webster. in his immortal "Hulsemann
letter." braved a whirlwind of popular
opinion and saved this nation from use
less foreign enlargement. Webster did
not observe the wind when he wrote that
letter. So in state and church there
have always been men at the right time
ready to face a nation full-yea, a world
full--of opposition.
Beware of Overpru fence.
How many there are who give too
much time to watching the weather vane
anu Sbuue liz Int DaIbAlielSls MINE uD
your mind what you are going to do and
then go ahead and do it. There always
will be hindrances. 1t is a moral disas-
ter If you allow prudence to oyermaster
all the other graees. The Bible makes
more Of courage and faith and perseyer-
ance than it does of caution. 1t is not
once year that the great ocean steamers
fail to sail at the appointed time because
~ 81. I h., -
bureau prophesy what hurricane or cy-
clone it may. next "Wednesday. next
Thursday, next Saturday, the steamers
will put out from New York and Phla-
delphia and Boston harbors and will
reach Liverpool and Southampton and
Glasgow and Bremen, their arrivals as
certain as their embarkation. They can
not afford to consult the wind, nor can
you in your life voyage.
The grandest and best things ever ac-
complished have been in the teeth of
hostility. Consider the graneest enter
prise Of the eternities-the salvation of
world. Did the Roman empire send up
invitation to the heavens inviting the
Lord to descend amid yociferations of
welcome to come and take possession of
the most capacious and ornate of the pal
aces ana sail IdtnHe NltH IltHPSI H1-
pcrial flotilla and walk over flowers Of
Solomon's gardens, which We're still in
t',e outskirts of Jerusalem? No. 1t
K him with insult as soon as it could
him.
The winds of stormiest opposition blew
on his cradle, blew on his mountain pull
pit, blew upon the homesteads that dared
to give him shelter. blew upon his grave,
but he went right on and sowad the earth
with sympathetic tears and redeeming
blood and consolation aad helpfulness
and redemption and t.etory. 1t was an
awful time to sow. But behold the har
vest of churches, asylums, worldwide
charities, civilizations, millenniums.
just call over the names of the men
and women who have done most for our
poor old wo,id, and you will call the
names Of those who had mobs after them.
They were Stunned by the elite, they
were cartooned by the satirists, they lived
on food which YOU and | would not
throw to n kennel. Some of them died
in prison. some of them We're burned at
the stake. some of them were buried at
public expense because of the laws of
sanitation They were bounded through
the world aud bounded out of it. Now
we cross the ocean to see the room in
which they were born or died and look
IN at the monuments which the church
~, ..-arf1 has PparpB h, THAR m atfsh.