Brookings weekly register. (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1898-1903, 1902-06-26
PATRIOTIC ELOQUENCE.

teentn annual encampment u. A. X, BroOklngs,
s. d. The REGISTER was unable to publish this
speech with its other matter last week from lack
OF space.
In every human breast there is en-
planted certainty OF feeling, and a
longing desire; a feeling that there is
an infinite and unknown Power and
Wisdom that has created and rules all
finite things: and desire for personal
and mental liberty
In rock and tree, in fragrant bios
som, in rlpened grain and sugared
fruit, in the mighty tempest and the
gentle shower, in the awful majesty
OF the mountain or the terrible loneli-
ness Of the desert, in seed-time and
harvest. in summer and winter, in all
the eVer-changing moods Of nature, in
her grand cOnvulsion and her yet
grander silence and calm, every human
being in his thoughtful moments has
certainty OF feeling that behind all
these mysteries there is some Power
all-seeing, all-knowing, all-planning
that executes in his own time and in
his own way all that he has designed.
Together with this knowledge OF a
mighty Power, there lives in every
man desire for personal and political
liberty; the wish to be self-governed;
to rely upon himself and TO be ac-
countable only to his God, his con-
science and to those whom he himself
has helped to seat in the higher places
of society for the purpose of voicing
his wishes and regulating the move
ments of those who with himself make
up what is termed the community,
either socially, morally or politically;
and this We term being governed by
and with our own consent
In one way or another, since the be-
ginning of history, man has been Op-
pressed whenever he has been forced to
obey rulers who have ruled by the right
Of might, or by the right of inheritance;
when he himself had no voice in the
matter; when he was ruled by those
who claimed that right because they
could with cruel force and great armies
compel the weaker to submit, or be-
cause Of the more reprehensible rea-
son that they were the heirs Of some
former ruler good or bad.
So through all the ages these two
sentiments-theC certainty of Su-
preme Power and the love OF liberty
have gone hand in hand in the build
ing up Of the nations OF the earth
The children Of Israel fled from
Egypt at the command Of God, be-
cause they feared an earthly despot
and trusted only in Jehovah, to make
their home in strange and unknown
land. Again this was repeated by the
Pilgrims who came to this new world
and sought within the wild forests to
make for themselves a home where
they might worship God and enjoy
that freedom denied them by the
ruler OF their own land.
Sometimes this desire for personal
liberty has been exhibited through
rebellion or revolutions, as when the
English overturned the throne Of the
first Charles, or when the Nationalists
of France tore the crown from the
head of Louis and dropped that
severed head in the basket beneath
the guillotine.
In looking back through all the
centuries we see springing up from
under the heels Of despotism little re-
publics which grew and flourished and
became mighty powers upon the earth !;
we see Greece, Rome, and now our
own grand country, the greatest and
mightiest Of all.
We have seen those republics of
olden time, while they remem bered
the pure patriotism which caused their
birth, grow and prosper as they trav-
eled along the paths LAID out for their
guidance by their earnest founders;
we have seen them grow in wealth
and power until they forgot the rea-
son Of their being and the hand Of God,
which should have been their beacon
as was the pillar OF fire to the Israel.
ties in the wilderness; we have seen
them grow rotten with pride and
wealth; overbearing with power and
prosperity; and when the personal am
bition of some one and the intrigues
of the few who had been unduly
trusted, brought about the gradual
wasting away Of the once glorious re-
public and It's final downfall, until
each is now but a name, fact Of his
tory.
When simplicity grew into luxury,
when patriotism merged itself into
personal ambition; when pride of self
took the place oflove OF country; when
the worship OF God was supplanted by
the qualifications of the passions;
when the rights OF the many were
trampled upon by the few for their
own selfish enjoyment and aggrandize-
ment; when wealth sneered at honest
| t0il man taIHaI ~