The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1901-03-31
FAMOUS SPEECHES.
Ideas the Life of a PEOPLE.

THE leaders of our Revolution were men
of whom the simple truth is the highest
praise. OF every condition in life. they were
singularly sagacious. sober. and thoughtful.
Lord Chatham spoke only the truth when
he said to Franklin, of the men who COM
posed the first colonial Congress:
1.-THE Congress is the most honorable as
sembly of statesmen since those of the
ancient Greeks and Romans in the most
virtuous tines"
Given to rare reflection. they were neither
dreamers nor Missionaries. and they were
much too earnest to be rhetoricians. 1t Is
a curious fact that they were generally
men of so calm n temper that they lived
to extreme age. With the exception of Pat
rick Henry and Samuel Adams. they were
most of them profound scholars. and stud
led the history Of mankind that they might
know men. Thew were so familiar with the
lives and thoughts OF the wfsest and best
minds OF the past that n classic aroma
hangs about their writings and their
speech: and they were profoundly convinced
Of what statesmen always know, and the
adroitest mere politicians never perceive
that ideas are the life Of a people: that the
conscience. not the pocket. Is the real cita-
del of n nation. and that when you have
debauched and demoralized that conscience
by teaching that there are no natural rights.
and that therefore there Is no moral right
or wrong in political action. You have pois-
oned the wells and rotted the crops In the
ground.
The three greatest living statesmen of
England knew this also. Edmund Burke
knew It. and Charles James Fox. and VIII
liam Pitt. Earl of Chatham. But they cid
not speak for the King, or Parliament. or
the English nation. Lord Cove spoke for
them when he said in Parliament:
"T.ef fho Americans fo1k about their nat.
ural and divine rights: their rights as men
and citizens: their rights from God and ma
ture! am for enforcing these measures"
My lord was contemptuous. and the King
hired the Hessians, but the truth remained
true. The fathers saw the scarlet soldiers
swarming over the sea, but more steadily
they saw that national progress had been
secure only in the degree that the political
system had conformed to natural justice.
They knew the coming wreck Of property
and trade. but they knew more surely that
Rome was never so rich as when She was
dying. and. on the other hand. the Neither
lands never so powerful as when they were
poorest. Farther away. they read the names
of Assyria. Greece, Egypt. They had art.
opulence. splendor. o. enough grew in
the valley Of the Nile. The Syrian sword
was as sharp as any. They were merchant
princes, and the clouds in the sky were
riva!ed by their sails Upon the sea. They
were soldiers, and their frown frightened
the world.
Soul. take thine ease" those Empires
said. languid with excess of luxury and life.
Yes. but you remember the King who had
built his grandest palace. and was to occu-
Ply 1t upon the morrow. but when the NOR
row came the palace was a pile of ruins.
Woe is me" cried the King, who is guilty
of this crime?' There is no crime" replied
the sage at his side; but the mortar was
made of sand and water only, and the build
ers forgot to put in the lime"
So fell the old Empires. because the Gov
errors forgot to put justice into their Gov
ernments.-George William Curtis.