Morris tribune., 1905-06-03

of the world anywhere single GOV
eminent which could form the model
of liberty loving people. The Eng
lish constitution in 1889 was not the
English constitution of today.
| A few years before this constitution
was adopted, the whole power of the
English government was put in force
in endeavoring to discover the author
of the Letters of Junius,' that he
might be punished by pains and pen
alties as person who had been so rash
as to criticise the ducal favorities of a
royal court. Free speech was I'M
known in England, free speech was
forbidden; it was repressed, it was
punished. England was not Q free
country. 1t had ceased to be a mon
archy; it had become an olgarchy of
landed proprietors.
This was the condition of England,
but the condition of the people of the
rest of the world was one of such aw-
full oppression that the mind of man
recoils from the contemplation of the
lives they lived. Everywhere the alb
solutism which in 1892 had been young
and vigorous, responsive to the bower
which created it, had become ener-
waited by luxury, rotten with age, vile
with every character of strife and riot.
1t was at that moment, so dark to
the people of the world, that the franz
ers of this constitution launched this
government, and they should be
crowned in universal glory, in the
mind of every lover of his race who
reflects that in the midst of this gener-
al darkness, that in a period of uni
versal oppression, they established a
government based upon the equality
of mankind,
| But this government though buiIded
upon truth and justice was still beset
with the greatest perils. Almost i'm
mediately after the adoption of our
constitution the great revolutionary
movement in Europe began. Liberty
which had lain PROSTATE for ages sud-
denly started to her feet, but she was
mindful of the injuries she had re-
ceived and suffered and of the inter-
ests of the men in whose name she
had acted. The torch which she lifted
did not guide her footsteps as in
America, to a constructive policy, but
rather to the destruction of those who
had oppressed her.
The whole world recoiled in horror
from spectacle of a democracy that
had arisen by the guillotine, and it's
horrible rites Graded in the blood of
it's best citizens. The sanguinary ex-
cesses committed in the name of lib
| erty in Europe awakened a serious
| doubt as to the future of this republic,
and it is to the everlasting credit of
the American people, it is the vindi-
| cation of our constitutional system,
that although buffetted at the very
moment it began it's voyage with
| waves which would have engulfed a
| weaker craft, it rode triumphantly to
sea. And the noble ship of state, af
ter the lapse of hundred years, her
timbers are staunch, her yards stand
as squarely, her masts as firmly, as
when she began the voyage for the
benefit of the human race. The AM
erican republic has lasted now over
hundred years, and today it is the on
ly form of government which can be
said to have survived the changes of
the last century.
When we look over the history of
this country, one hundred years, we
are filled with gratitude and reverence
to God for the providence which has
always overhung us, always over
Swallowed us, always guided us, al
ways delivered us from difficulties.
Here is a government based upon
the theory that it requires no special
training to administer it. Here is
government founded in exact and
open and righteous defiance of a
theory that there must be an educat-
ed class before you can safely trust it
with suffrage, and here is a govern
ment which has displayed states
manship of the common people in ev-
cry crisis that has confronted it,
which has enabled it to surmount diff
ficulties, to triumph over obstacles, to
solve problems which had perplexed
the craftsmanship of the learned
world, of the schools, and of those
who claimed to be the Lords anoint-
ed rulers.
We have met every difficulty; we
have triumphed over every danger.
The God that sustained the dropping
spirits of the patriots at Valley Forge,
that tempered the wisdom of Wash
ington so that the sword that deliver
ed us from foreign invasion was the
instrument that aroused for us domes
tic liberty, and held high the courage
" CA1S AAhAASAASeHAA PSSRAS, WYNN O1AA ONSoh
the smoke from the capitol at Wash
ington, and the power and strength of
the leader who held high our courage
and our resolution until behind the
bales of cotton at New Orleans the in
dependence of this country was con-
firmed forever.
The question of slavery was handed
down to us as one too difficult for the,I
builders of the constitution to meet,
and the country which had grown un-
der the influence of the union met
that question and its kindred question
of secession. 1t had proved it's power
to withstand foreign aggression. It |
now proved its power to maintain it's
solidity and strength and existence
from domestic foes. 1t scorned to |
compromise with desertion or to daily |
with secession.
But when the last gun of that con-
f1ict had been fired, when the smoke
of battle had lifted from the fields of
the civil war, when the streams which
had run red with blood of brethren
had resumed their own course, clear
and placid as crystal, to the sea, and
no l