Semi-weekly herald., 1915-02-15

law. Law Is Inc lIdUlcWOTh Oh CIV
ilization. War tumbles this frame
work to the earth.
This condition is an anachronism.
The scientific ideals of these peoples
are of the twentieth, the political
ideals are of the sixteenth century.
Nations not controlled by their peo-
pie are nations without government.
They are rudderless boats on interna-
tional seas. They endanger them
selves and all others. Terrible is the
failure of government maintained by
might-of government ruled by sol
diers and holding hosts of men who
profit in blood-of governments whom
fear and the soldier rule-but not the
citizen-of governments who oppress
their subjects, war on neighbors-
and which practice secret pacts and
treaties which foredoom wars that the
people who suffer cannot avert or
stay.
Hence, significant, indeed, is the
birth and growth of our own union
of states, when the thirteen colonies
through their representatives pledged
themselves to the support of the i'm
mortal declaration that men are Gre
ated equal, that they are endowed by
their Creator with the inalienable
rights of life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness, and that governments
are instituted to secure these rights.
We passed then, let US hope forever,
from the menace of fortressed borders
and martial aristocracy, to the
peaceable development of our great
country.
From that moment when these col
onies were formed into a union under
a constitution forever guaranteeing
our citizens the blessings of liberty,
there began the singularly rapid rise
of this country to its present position
as a world power.
Anomalous as it may seem, despite
the high ideals and altruistic motives
actuation the founders of this ma
tion, when the constitution was adopt
ed one-sixth OF our population, con-
sisting of negro slaves, were permit
ted to remain in bondage; for, al
though the constitution contained no
special provision giving the right to
shsld slaves, yet4-by- Clear iu9plica ton,
the right was admitted and protect
ed. The bondage OF men and women,
in slavery, was the price paid by COM
promise for the union of our states.
The need for strong union was
apparent and pressing, but slavery
had already become entrenched in the
southern colonies beyond the hope of
immediate removal These colonies
refused to come into the union if any
provisions were embodied in the con-
stitution taking away their asserted
right to hold slaves. Expediency die
tated that a union with slaves was
better than no union. Southern de-
mands were conceded AND the system
received legal protection. Some of
the foremost men Of the time who
were opposed to slave labor, noting
it's failure in the north, thought it
would exterminate Itself in the future,
but the 6S7,000 slaves Of 1890 became
100000 in 1860 The growth of the
system awakened the northern con-
science, permeated the social, bust
ness and religious life of the people,
drew the lines of sectionalism and
become the paramount political is
sue.
The ordinance Of 1887 prohibiting
slavery in the northwest territory, the
law of congress forbidding the i'm
portation of slaves after 1907, the
Missouri compromise excluding slav-
cry from territory north of latitude
36 degrees 30 minutes, the Wilmot
proviso of 1916, which provided that
all territory acquired as a result Of
the Mexican war was TO be free soil,
the fugitive slave law which, in eff
feet, made every citizen a policeman
to restore fugitive slaves to their
owners, the Dred Scott decision, which
gave the STAKEHOLDER the right to take
and hold his slaves in any state of
the union, the enactment of the Kan
sas-Nebraska law, which virtually re-
pealed the Missouri compromise and
left the question for decision to the
people of each territory, the quixotic
raid of John Brown and its tragic
finish, inflammatory public speeches,
unnumbered pamphlets on the subject
all added fuel to the fire of bitter
ness between the slave interests and
the restrictionists and abolitionists
and marked thep rogress of the con-
flict to its final violent elimination.
The sentiment in favor of restriction