The weekly Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1911-1922, 1912-02-22

| SOPAS3 "A OofoVniOoS
Land, A World Disarmed-Is this
but dream, never to be realized
Ex-Governor j. Frank Hanly, stand
ing on the platform at the Metho-
dist church Friday night, declared
that before his God, before the
world, before the nation, before the
state, he only asked the privilege of
a Man, with a mans strength, to
combat the evils that would hinder
the accomplishment of this dream
to give to our children who shall
follow, not nation the result of the
patriotism of war, but that higher
heritage, nation builded, cement.
ed and bound together In one, upon
the principle our fathers died for
a liberty regulated by law, and es-
tablished by the Patriotism OF
Peace.
The Methodist church was crowd.
ed gallery and all, with $50 people
anxious to hear the ex-governor and
noted orator. Mr.. Hanly's address
grew In warmth as he proceeded
and during the last third his audi
ence sat spell bound in interest of
the tensest kind.
The mems quartet, Messrs. WINS,
Mortland, Leonard and Kline, sang
"Lest We Forget after which
MIR. Hanly was introduced by Mr.
Ellis, county president of the Sun
day School Association, which had
brought him to Plymouth on this
occasion.
| Mr.. Hanly said that one hundred
and thirty-fve years ago our fathers
founded a new nation, under the
most trying and discouraging cir
eumstances and difficulties, at the
peril Of life, but they laid the foun-
dation, they builded, they conquer
ed. Few and poor, weak in re.
soirses, with no credit with the
world, no treasury and no treasurer
no army and no navy. With but q
narrow fringe on the broad Atlantic,
on one side the sea, and behind
them on the other side the unknown
and trackless wilderness, stretching
no man knew where or to what. On
land they were confronted with the
armies of a nation trained in war
with all its advantages Of money
and men. On tho sea were the
ships of the mistress of the oceans
Of the globe.
Amid such surroundings these
fathers Of ours declared their prinei-
pie. Some died by the sword, some
by pest1ence. Treaehery and deceit
were elements that they had to CON-
bat, along with all the other trying
conditions Of the times. But the
survivors fought on, and the prin-
ciple of Mans equality, of Liberty,
a liberty regulated by law, was
wrought out.
One hundred and thirty-fve years
have rolled into the past. Years
whose history has been marked by
wonder upon wonder, and today the
inventiveness Of man has caused the
whisper of man. to cross the seas,
and mighty things are done that
stagger the mind to grasp. But
what do we find? Men still call for
Liberty, but is it the same liberty
that our fathers saw, and for which
they Fought For which they suf-
fered and diede No. Men today
ask for liberty that can better be
named license. But liberty is not
license. License is the liberty of
the robber, Of the assassin. Our
fathers did not die to establish
license. A liberty regulated by
law, was what they aimed at, and
they established a government on
the principle Of justice and right,
equality and freedom from oppres-
sion, and that liberty shall endure
and endure.
/ Mr.. Hanly carried his audience
all down the line and through the
Civil war, when patriotism meant
war, and the bloody scenes on many
battlefelds was depicted in word
paintings that must be heard to be
appreciated. For four years the
fate Of this nation hung in the bal
ance. The whole land the battle
field of brothers, the scene of the
new regiments marching to the
war, the heaps of bodies, showing
the carnage and horrors of conflict.
The blue and the gray side by side.
The pity Of it all-the dead.