The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-03-08

rates, whether of the railroads or the
tariff.
1t Is the Eternal Struggle.
THAT is the real issue" as Lincoln
great series prior to the election of
1860, that Will continue in this coun-
try and when these poor tongues of
Judge Douglas and myself shall be
silent. 1t is the eternal struggle be-
tween these two principles-right and
wrong-throughout the world. They
are the two principles that we have
stood face to face with from the be-
ginning of time; and will ever con-
tinue to struggle. The one is the COM
mon right of humanity, and the other
the divine right of kings. 1t is the
same principle in whatever shape it
develops itself. 1t is the same spirit
that says, You toll and work and earn
bread, and I'll eat it, No matter in
what shape it comes, whether from
the mouth of a king who seeks to be-
stride the people of his own nation and
live by the fruit of their labor. or from
one race of men as an apology for en-
shaving another race, it is the same
tyrannical principle
Is Still in the Party.
And if 1 rehearse the history of the
Republican party today, it is because
it is the party to which / belong, in
spite of the fact that / have been read
out of it and. wished out of it, and am
still in it with another legion that is
hope to draw from it's history a lesson
applicable to both great parties which
shall apply to the condition which con-
fronts US today they did to the two
dominant parties of the country prior
to the birth of the Republican party.
Remembering too as the Emanci-
pator wrote his friends in Springfield,
that the Jefferson party was formed
upon its supposed superior devotion to
the personal rights of men, holding the
rights of property to be secondary only,
and greatly inferior, and assuming that
the so-called Democracy of today are
the Jefferson and their opponents the
anti-Jefferson party, it will be equally
interesting to note how completely the
two have changed hands as to the
principle upon which they were orig
inally supposed to be divided. The
Democracy of today holds the liberty
of one man to be absolutely nothing,
when in conflict with another mans
right of property Republicans. on the
contrary, are for both the man and
the dollar, but in case of conflict the
man before the dollar
And this with due respect to the Dem
ocracy, the history of which. 1 have
been able to study with a real degree
OF personal interest as there has been
a Confederate flag cherished in one
branch of my family ever since I can
remember.
The Republican party was conceived
in idealism.
Its Leader a Plain Country Lawyer.
1t was born of a great moral issue
in the pangs which preceded the civil
conflict 1t found as its leader plain
country lawyer. not above practical
politics. who went to Washington in
that great crisis, who through sheer
sublimation of purpose and moral pow
er. carried even a war-sick people to
victory. to the freedom of the slave and
TO lay down a Christian policy of re-
construction.
The party he had led sprung into be-
ing because of the stirring of the con-
science of the people of the north and
drew to its bosom the great free-solIers
and Democrats alike. The states of the
Mississippi valley poured into that con-
fict thousands upon thousands who left
the pillow and the factory for rapine and
death and fever, because they knew
that freedom was at stake and the
Union in jeopardy. If it had not been
for the idealism of those thousands,
Lincoln could not have been the sublime
idealist, the epitome of peace, courage
and kindness that he was, and If it
had not been for Lincoln, patient, suf-
fering and acquainted with grief, the
Republican party and the people of the
north could not have denied themselves
the happiness of home and comfort of
prosperity in exchange for war, debt
and Oscillation.
The cause was won and Lincoln was
killed
stanton Weeping Tears of Grief.
Could anything more awful have be-
fallen Il people than the cutting off of
that leader at that time? The bitter
ness of strife was in the hearts of men. !
Stanton weeping tears of grief and rage
would have put the whole south in
bondage. Thaddeus Stevens roared
anathemaS at those who had taken of
the blood and the treasure of the Uni |
ted States.
Congress under the guidance of Lin |
coin and responsive to the will of the /
people, had fought the war. 1t now |
sought to impeach his successor. And |
in that time. the leaderless party with |
many leaders was turned about for adj |
vice. The Democracy proposed repudi- |
alton of the national debt. The Repub- |
licans refused it, and honestly. And |
then as inevitably as fate, the great /
bankers and f1nanciers of New York and |
who in the moment of the /
great sacrifice. financed that desperate I
war of the Republic. We're bound to the /
party which stood for redemption and /
the resumption of specie payment.
Guide Destinies of Dominant Party.
The leaders of the party and the
little captains of finance of those |
days found a common bond created |
by pledges and self interest. And so /
the leaders of finance in the east /
contributed to the support of the par
ty which refused to repudiate the fin
ancial obligations of the nation. The II
leaders of finance and the leaders of
the party on the eastern coast became