The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-30

Difficulty of Self-Government | It is we'll, my friends. to be optiin!s- tic. When our people lose faith in | themselves the death-knell of our liter- | ties is sounded. But let us not in this | era of national exultation and ex- | altation indulge in over-confidence | We must not forget the lessons cf cur own past and assuredly we cannot, if
 We are to be just to ourselves and our
 children. ignore the difficulties that lie in our future pathway.
 No government is so difficult as self government, and the trials incident to i every such government multiply m all | most geometrical proportion Us a coun- | try grows in wealth and population, as antagonisms arise between varied and | constantly varying interests, and as the | prizes of office become more and more tempting It is easy for few people
 to agree among and govern themselves. The oldest republic in the world is the little government of SanMarino, est- ling among the mountains of Northern
 Italy, protected from other govern ments by it's insigniicance and the | poverty of It's LOGO inhabitants who are entirely homogeneous. Switzer- | land is another republic of long stand | ing. It is likewise small country. Its inhabitants also are poor, relatively | few in number. and they too are homo geneous in their pursuits. But modern | Europe furnishes no example of g. at | people successfully governing fhem- selves during any long period of time The first essay of France in self-gov- | ernment ended disastrously. The pre- sent French Republic has laste1 for | only thirty years. and France Is not | now thoroughly Republican. Titles If | nobility and many other relics of Tnon- l archical dynasties still remain. Gam
 betta called 1t, when it was establish ed. an "opportunist Republic, and
 The worlds history Is full of futile ef. | forts to establish and to maintain self government. There is but one great government that Is thoroughly republi-
 can: an6 that is ours. If that govern | ment is to continue upon it's marvel lously successful career, it will be be- cause, and only because, its people are | and will continue to be alive and thoroughly alive to the increased. and still rapidly increasing righteousness of | the tasks that are before us.
 Early Perils.
 We extoI the administrations of Jef- ferson. Madison and Monroe. but how | few were the problems that presented | lhCIAiSCANCS HI thC IWShtS Otd~So | of this Union hundred years ago! No | one of those States then had as many
 as 600.000 inhabitants. a number for be- l low that found today in the single city | of Brooklyn. Everywhere voters were l mainly rural, by training and tradition | capable of self-government. And yet and do not let us forget it-even in the early days which we are now ac-
 customed to look back to as the age of patriotic people and of great states
 men this government had it's perils. Under Madison's administration tie Hartford Convention threatened the | disruption of the Union. A few years afterwards in 1882. South Carolina was | drilling her minute men to fight the Federal Government on nullifcatioa. If
 we had our dangers to encounter even | in those early days, how is it now? Now, immigrants, utterly ignorant of | our institutions, come to us in a single year in numbers equal to all the in- | habitants of our most populous State l in 1900. Now, great cities are multi ply | ing, vast masses of untrained voters
 are aggregated and municipal govern
 ment is everywhere becoming daily l more and more difficult. Now, the tele- graph and the press bring us in such | close contact with each other that lIir-
 
 | jected to somewhat the same exciting influences that often compel mobs Of
 civilized men to do deeds that befit only | the barbarian. Now. capitalists wLoEe
 wealth exceeds the fabled riches of | Midas, combine to dictate legislation | at Washington. Now. Labor Associa- tions, comprising more voters than
 were in the whole Union a hundred
 years ago. are demanding of States and of the Federal Government, the
 enactment of laws. some of which are
 no doubt beneficent, but others of
 which would be of dangerous signlfi-
 canoe.
 Now, too. we have not only our ever
 present negro question, but also com
 plexities arising out of Porto Rico and | Cuba and Hawaii and Alaska and the l Philippines. Shall we retain these in- | sular possessions or abandon them? If we retain them. shall we govern them,
 or shall we ask all the wild tribes they
 contain to help govern us? If We let | them go, how shall We do it, and when? | Will we abandon them to the ven-
 geance of each other, or will We estab-
 lish and maintain protectorates over
 them? These questions are world
 wide in reach and stretch and each of | you gentlemen of the Alabama Bar is | lO bG d AdSlOA HI LAlSA ocAuNAOAB AAiN'o
 you will to be a political drone. All these problems-the government of
 cities, the demands of capital, the de-
 mands of labor, and questions growing out of our foreign possessions-con-
 sidered in present phases, may well
 be called new.
 Thefe were, as I have said. two perils that assailed us prior to 1850, in | what may be called the days of our
 infancy. Now look and see how nearly
 wrecked our government was on four | distinct occasions during the last half
 of the century, as we grew older and | stronger.
 The Civil War.
 First, there was the CivIi War; next, there was reconstruction; next, the inn | peachment of Andrew Johnson; and next. the quarrel over the Hayss-Til-
 den election. The causes that brought on the Civil War eliminated in the Presidential election of 1860. There
 was great excitement, but our ship of State had before that weathered its storms, and the spirit of optimism thus begotten blinded the North. as it blind ed the South. One section of our coun- | try laughed at threats of secession- 1t had heard them before. The other, terribly in earnest hoped for the peace | ful tablishmsnt of a separate Con- | federacy; the absolute sovereignty of
 the State-how could 1t be denied? And