The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-08-18

sir. In all our history. both as colonies and l as states, in spite of the monstrous er- ror-this unhoiy rebellion.
 Period of Mysteries.
 Coming on down the current of time, we found another period of popular hys- terics, that is ineomprehensible to us or a wiser generation, in view of some eh- Tightening facts in our recent history. Some men in the troublesome httle town of Boston, masquerading as lholans' seized and threw into the sea- eerlalh cases of tea belonging to certain mer- chants of the East India company That this was a violation of the law no man In England or America had any doubt; that the violators of the law were amen able to punishment under the law, through its usual processes, amongst which were indictment by grand jury and trial by a grand jury none doubted. With a wisdom, however, equalled only by that of the present occupant of the chief executive chair in these United States, these usual remedies by law, against law-breakers, were ignored by that sapient statesman, King George, as being reeds too weak to depend upon in an extreme like that. The consequence was that the entire population of Boston, men, women and children, observers of the law as well as aw-breakers. were punished and the Boston port bill was passed, thus in q fashion royalty excom- municating the little town, commercial ly and industrially. Then came that strange and unaccountable outbreak of popular hysteria to which l have re- ferred Not only all New England rose in wrath, but distant Virginia and remote G.. q said in effect that foolish thing: If gov ernment can disregard the forms of law, whenever, in governments opinion, the forces of law are too weak and can pun ish the innocent without trial, because of the deeds of violators of the law, then are we none of us safe, even to the remote confines of Carolina or within the depths of the woods of Maine-safe neither in our person nor our properties, nor in the pur- suit of our happiness-the very difference between free government and des- potism being that free government op- crates without accordance with some in- dividuaTs discretionary notion of justice or necessity You will remember that all the wisdom of King Georges cabinet could not put an end to this wanton fury. even though the cabinet answered: This concerns nobody except the town of Boston. Our ancestors could not be quieted, but got worse and worse, until their misguided counsels led to the fool ish result of insurrection and a free and independent American government.
 strenuosity at lndianola.
 We have, however, made the amende honorable for this silly business, by our governmental strenuosity at Indianola, Miss. Not long since 1t was alleged, al though not proven, notwithstanding the fact that there was a United States mar shal to arrest, United states grand jury to indict and a United States petit jury to convict, that certain people in the town of Indanola, Miss. had con spired together for the purpose of pre- venting an incumbent of federal office from continuing to hold that office. True, there is a plain salute of the United States, writ large on the pages of the re- vised statutes. providing punishment for those guilty of that Iaentical crime. It was perhaps, however, thought that the alleged crime could not be proven in a court of justice under the ordinary forms of law; that the forces of law, as in the precedent cited in Boston, were too weak or not to be altogether reIied upon by those in authority. The necessary and righteous consequence was that recurring to the precedent established by that mi racIe of wisdom, George of Hanover and his cabinet, we promptly and strenuously deprived the little town of Indianola of all mail facilities, proceeded to punish for the law-breaking intent of few-if indeed such intent ever existed-which l frankly admit is questionec-all of the town, men and women doctors, lawyers, merchants, black and white, by cutting off their mail facilities, thus by a White House decree, accommodating them 4t t..4N ancestors, incomprehensibly, even after they had had the wisdom of the Boston port bill fully explained, persisted in their madness and folly, refusing 10 be enlight- ened and still hung on with miraculous fanaticism to the belief that only the guilty ought to be punished and even the guilty only after a fair trial. Not so with our wiser generation in the Indian ola case. Again I wonder how we man aged to prosper, as we have prospered so miracuously In all our history, in spite of folly like this unconfessed even until very recent date; but folly which we have now, thank God, nobly shaken off.
 Protection.
 ''The next great historical blunder, in spite of which, strange to say we have, as l cannot too often repeat, prospered right along In every step of our history, with now and then a temporary drop back, was the immoation by our ances- tors of the nations industrialsm upon the altar of free trade within the common domain, notwithstanding already exist ing state lines furnished convenient place. opportunity and temptation to es- tablish custom houses-those potent en- couragers of commerce. What we ought to have fought for during colonial days was high protective tariff to keep British products out of the American market and another high protective tariff to keep American products out of the British market thus enriching both Britain and America. Then, after we had accomplished our independence, and each state had become a separate sov- ereignty, South Carolina ought to have protected herself against Pennsylvania and New England. Pennsylvania ought to have seen to it that line of custom houses prevented the invasion of her sa- cred soil by the products of the Jersey man, the Marylander and the Delawarean. We ought to have encouraged interstate trade by stopping 1t as much as possible. thus pursuing in that regard the en- frightened policy which prevails in re- gard to our international trade Then, after forming the present union, the con to the states mutual protection, by mutu- prosperity
 Enormously Rich.
 "N hat an enormously rich country the little state of Rhode Island would have been now but for the influx of the cotton