The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1917-06-28
INDEPENDENCE DAY.

lNDEPEN DENCE DA1.
!
Next Wednesday will be the 141st
anniversary of American Indepen-
dence, and it is fraught with more
meaning and a deeper significance
than any previous one since the Con-
script Fathers, sitting in the chamber
of the old state house in Philadelphia,
on a hot July afternoon, Shaping their
silk-stockinged legs together to drive
away the tormenting flies, proclaim
ed to the world, for the first time, the
divine right of the people to rule in
these inspired sentences:
eve hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are Gre
ated free and equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with
certain unalien rights; that
among these are life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness. That to
secure these rights governments
are instituted among men deriv-
ing their JUST powers from the
CONSENT OF THE GOVERN
Ed"
This is Freedoms creed universal.
The clearest, the most scintillating,
the most comprehensive, the most sub
lime resume of human rights to be
found in all the writings of the ages.
These men were human, but this ut
terance was inspired and is as true as
though it was penned by the finger OF
God.
The cost in life, blood and treasure
of establishing this principle here in
our own land, staggers the magma.
ton. The autocratic power of Great
Britain challenged it at the time Of its
inception and it took eight years OF
sanguinary warfare to establish it on
its feeble foundation.
In 1912, not satisfied with the first
result, Britain again put this principle
to the test of the sword, and the con-
flict lasted two years, seven months
and 20 days, before kingcraft realized
it was hopeless struggle in which it
was engaged.
Later, in our land, the Slave Power
grown naughty by long tolerance, af-
ter Transforming human liberty into q
CHASTITY farce in it's own territory, i'm
periously attempted to eliminate the
consent of the governed" from the
political Jurisprudence of the Repub'
lie. Four years, four months and -four
days of bloody, intercine civil war was
the result; the rivers ran red, the
country covered itself with sack cloth
and ashes in mourning for its dead
the north and south in common passed
through the valley and shadow Of
death, finally emerging nation pur
flied, nation united and nation re-
deemed, with the principles enunciatet
by the nations founders established
upon a firm and everlasting founda
ton.
From the first enunciation of thu
doctrine of responsibility of rulers tt
the ruled, by American statesmen, thu
consent of the governed as an essen
tial feature of the government it be
gan to permeate all the nations o.
the earth and every war that has beer
fought since that time, in it's ultimate
analysis, was simply an effort on thu
part of the Princelings and Kingling:
to destroy the consent of the govern
ed" as an integral part of government
Napoleon the First, the worlds su
premest military genius, dreaming O.
world dominion, proclaimed that the
true theory of government was gov
eminent by the sword, and to main
tain this theory he plunged al Europe
into an extended war and by his daz
Zling genius placed the French tri'
color over every capital in continental
Europe, made and unmade kings ano
emperors, changing the boundaries OF
nations to suit his whim, with as little
conjunction and as much personal
pleasure as woman changes the out
line of her garments when style de-
crees a change, and he came nearer
of establishing the postulate of gov
eminent by the sword than was ever
done before or since, but since the
world began, man theory never and
never will triumph over God-theory
Napoleon met his Waterloo and his
dream of a sword-ruled world vanish
ed into thin air.
More than hundred years later an
other advocate of sword government
and mailed fist administration has ap-
peared upon the worlds theatre of ac-
ton. Possessing all the unholy ambi-
ton and lust-power of the great Cor
sican, but lacking his scintillating gen.
ius, he has summoned to his aid all the
powers of darkness, including the
scimiter Of Mohammed, stained as it is