Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1901-02-12
NEAL BROWNS GRAFTON.

dependent and almost helpless con-
dition but little more than one hun
bred years ago. 1t lay broken and ex-
hausted by the Revolution, as some
spent swimmer who had battled long
with wind and tide, and at last drags
himself YEARLY upon the shore, victor
ious over death, but without strength
to protect himself from further danger.
Through the turbulent unrest of this
early time Marshall toiled, building
and strengthening the editice Of con-
stitutional law. He was son of Vir-
ginia, the slave holding home of States
Rights, yet his construction of the
constitution forged for us the migbtiest
weapons with which to free the slave
and to smite into cureless ruin, the
doctrine that state might dissolve the
Union He supported with all the
ardour of his great genius the doctrine
that the courts might declare a law
void because it violated the constitution.
1t has been the priceless adjunct of free
government, the mighty shield of the
rights and liberties of the citizen Nor
does it now sleep except as q sword
dedicated to a righteous cause sleeps in
its scabbard We had never more need
of it.
The shop-keeper of petty instinct who
desires to crush out business rivals or
m Lzoa,1 ooo-raoidapt oOn,no+itorS ont of
the state; the producer who seeks to
make market for his own wares. by
taxing rival commodity out of exist
ence; the sutton who tries his cause in
the legislature, in order that he may
secure there that which the courts can
not in justice give him and all unworthy
covetors of their neighbors lands or
goods, are now, as ever, shameless
constituents of our social structure,
calling for the constant vigilance of the
courts in the protection of constitu
tional rights. Nor have we yet reached
the perfection of constitutional rights.
We cannot attain it until we have cut
down the Upas Tree of Privilege to the
very roots and have torn the roots from
out the soil. 1t is an alien growth, our
legacy from the Dark Ages; hoary and
venerable with years, sanctioned by
custom and tradition, its worst excuses
elevated by its worshippers into
religious rites; and nurtured by the
perennial greed and selfshness of man;
outlasting all other change and all
other governmental tyranny, and es-
Gaping by unfortunate mischance to
this day the Ithuriel spear of freedom.
We need additional constitutional
guarantees that will give to every eiti-
zen the right to prevent by appropriate
remedy, legislative grants of gifts and
bonuses out of public monies to private
business enterprises, and to prevent the
gilt of public franchises that are the
property of the whole people. Until
we have thus perfected free institutions,
we may we'll feel the shame of the
prophet, of whom it is said. "And he
went days journey into the wilder
| ness, and sat himself down under a
juniper tree; and he said, Now o Lord,
take away my life, for am not better
than my fathers"
Freedom and equality have deeper
meaning than the frothy interpreta-
tions of our professional fag-wavers,
especially such of them as wave the old
flag with one hand and reach for the pub
| lie treasury with the other. Unjust laws
which unjustly and unequally distribute
the wealth, earned by the toll of our
people, are not part of the inheritance
received by us from the fathers of the
republic. They are of the bastard,
changeling brood of Oppression. Our
real greatness lies not in the vast bulk
of our swollen census reports, where
we keep the toll of our aggregate
wealth, for the debit side of the account
will show that through legislation born
of greed, few have gained more than
thrift and industry can rightfully give
them.
''Of what avail the pillow or sail,
If land or life, or freedom fail 81
Tyranny has ever a new face. 1t
now gains by guile and stealth what it
once seized brutally and with the strong
hand. Every score of years we need
new Runnymede, where we may beard
our Captains of Privilege, and wrest
from them new charter of rights. /
have no fear of the conventional anarch-
lists. Free speech is the best cure for
| their activities, as it, is the best safety
valve for the escapeand dissipation of
all the humors in the body polite. But
for the greater anarchists who sit en-
| throned in high places, and purchase
legislatures and municipal officers, and
who are insidiously subverting our
liberties, and filching from our pockets
what is not theirs, we need all our
vigilance.
Marshall watched beside constitu-
tional government on this continent in
its very cradle time. His was the
rounded and perfect life, of more than
Roman virtue and manhood; his, the
reward richer than that bestowed upon
great kings who sleep at Westminster.
Divine providence generously gave him
greater length of years than that
usually allotted to man that his work
might be we'll done. Upon his grave at
Richmond, we place as great tribute
as affectionate remembrance and honor
ever paid to man.
in toll he lived, in peace he died,
When lifes full cycle was complete,
Put off his robes of power and pride
And laid them at his Masters feet