Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1907-03-28

bIt now lamenteds and departed race Of
ancestors. Theirs was the task, and
nobly they performed it, to possess
themselves and through, themselves us
Of this goodly land and to uprear upon
It's hills and valleys political edifce
Of liberty and equal rights. IT'S ours
only to transmit these-the former I'M
profaned by the foot of an invader, the
latter undecayed by the lapse Of time
and uniform by usurpation-to the latest
generation that fate shall permit the
world to know. This task gratitude
to our fathers, justice to ourselves,
duty to posterity-all imperatively re-
quire us faithfully to perform.
How, then, shall we perform it? At
what, point shall we expect the ap-
proach Of danger? Shall we expect
some transatlantic military giant to
step the ocean and crush US at blow?
Never! All the armies Of Europe Asia
and Africa combined, with all the
treasure Of the earth (our own except
eO in their military chest, with b.
naparte for commander, could not by
force take a drink from the Ohio OF
make track on the Blue Ridge in 6.
trial Of thousand yearsI
AT what point. then, is the approach
of danger to be expected? I answer
IT 1T ever reach us 1t must spring up
amongst US. 1t cannot come from
abroad. If destruction be our lot, we
must ourselves be it's author and fin
Usher. AS a nation of freemen we must
live through all time or die by suicide
am not there Is even now something
OF Ill omen amongst US. I mean the
increasing disregard for law which
pervades the country, the growing dis
position to substitute the wild and fu-
rious passions in lieu of the sober judg-
ment Of courts and the worse than saw
age mobs for the executive ministers
Of justice. This disposition is awfully
fearful In any community, and that it
now exists In ours, though grating to
our feelings to admit it. it would be
violation of truth and an insult to our
intelligence to deny. Accounts Of out
RACES committed by mobs form the
everyday news Of the times. They
have pervaded the country from New
England to Louisiana. They are nei-
Their peculiar to the eternal SHOWS Of
the former nor the burning sun Of the
latter. They are not the creature Of
climate. Neither are they confined to
the slaveholding or nonslaveholding
states Alike they spring up among
the pleasure hunting masters of south
ern slaves and the order loving citizens
of the land of steady habits. What
ever, then, their cause may be, it is
common to the whole country"
The orator then adverts to the doings
Of recent mobs in various parts Of the
country and insists that If the spirit
that produced them continues to in
crease the laws and the government it.
self must fall before it. Bad citizens
will be encouraged, and good ones, hay
ing no protection against the lawless,
will be glad to receive an Individual
master who will be able to give them
the peace and order they desire. That
will be the time when the usurper will
put down his heel on the neck Of the
people and batter down the "fair fab
ric' Of free institutions. "Many great
and good men," he says, Sufficiently
qualified for any task they should I'M
dertake, may ever be found whose am
bition would aspire to nothing beyond
a seat in congress, gubernatorial or a
presidential chair but such belong not
to the family Of the lion or the tribe Of
:he eagle. What! Think you these
places would satisfy an Alexander,
Caesar or Napoleon? Never! Tower
ing genius disdains a beaten path. It
seeks regions hitherto unexplored. It
sees no distinction in adding story to
story upon the monuments Of fame
erected to the memory Of others. It
denies that it Is glory enough to serve
the footsteps Of any predecessor, how
ever illustrious. 1t thirsts and burns
for distinction, and If possible it will
have it, whether at the expense Of
emancipating slaves or enslaving free
men. Another reason which
once was, but which to the same ex-
tent Is now no more, has done much in
maintaining our institutions thus far.
I mean the powerful influence which
the interesting scenes Of the Revolu-
ton had upon the passions Of the peo-
pie as distinguished from their judg-
ment." This influence the lecturer
maintains was kept alive by the pres
ence Of the surviving soldiers of the
Revolution, who were in some sort
"living HISTORIES" and concludes with
this striking peroration:
But those histories are gone. They
can be read no more forever. They
were fortress of strength. But what
invading foemen could never do the
silent artillery Of time has done-the
leveling of it's walls. They are gone.
They were forest Of giant oaks, but
the all resistless hurricane has swept
over them and left only here and there
lonely trunk, despoiled of it's verdure,
shorn Of it's foliage, MISLEADING and un-