The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1917-04-13
JOHN SHARP WILLIAMS ON HIS
COUNTRY AND HIS RACE


and his kindred and his
friends and his country. 1t may be
narrow. but | love my plantation bet
ter than any other plantation. my
better than any other county,
my state better than any other state
in the union, and my country better
than any other country in the world,
and my race-the English speaking
race-better than any other race.
That reminds me that coming back
to twisting the British lions tail it is
a performance very seldom INDUCED
in by those whose forefathers fought
for American freedom and independ-
ence. 1t is generally INDUCED in by
somebody else.
Whence do we get our laws?
Whence do we get our general ideas
of religion? From the people who
sired our fathers before they came
here.
am tired Of men telling me. Welsh
man, Scotchman, Englishman in
blood, as ! am. that the hereditary
enemy Of the United States is Eng
land or Wales or Scotland-that it is
Great Britain Magma Charta, the dec
laratiOn OF rights. the bill of rights in
Guided in the constitution in its first
10 amendments -the very principles
embodied in the constitution derived
from colonial experience under Eng
lish rule-all come from England. a
country whose high priest is John Mil
ton, whose sweet singer was Burns.
whose great intellect was Shakes
peare, whose great warrior for liberty
were Hampden and Sidney and Simon
de Montford
would rather have heard the sen
ator from Wisconsin eulogize the best
offshoots of that branch and those
offshoots right here in Canada and
Australia and in South Africa. They
are the branches Of the old stock that
had the courage to leave the neigh
borhOOd and environment and seek
out new habitat and adapt them
selves to it, and who won the fight.
Men who, like our ancestors, plowed
the field with the rife on their
shoulders while they held the pillow
with the other hand. They were Eng
lish and Scotch and Welsh and Irish.
1t was an Englishman of the Ems
lishmen, as far as his blood is con-
Washington, of Mount
Vernon-who preferred to have the
people speak OF him as George Wash
ingtOn, of Mount VernOn-his planta-
ton name-rather than by some other
name. who led the American forces
that fought against the dictates of a
German-hlooded king backed up by
Hessian hirelings. George Washing
ton warned against entangling ALI
ances and warned against another
hatred of some particular people. be-
cause a man with that in his blood
is incapable of being a real good
American citizen in a country where
the melting pot will finally operate.
do not like the arraignment which
the senator from Wisconsin made of
the English people or the English
government, even more democratic
than our own. / do not like it be
cause it was not correct historically
because it was not true in sentiment.
and because it was an insult to the
gentlemen from whose loins | sprang
when they themselves fought against
people of like blood who wanted to
Cypress them. What did they fight
for? They fought for this Thomas
Jefferson and old Samuel Adams were
pretty nearly the only ones of them
who hen took a larger vision. George
and Lincoln and Greene
and the balance of them fought for
the inherited rights of Englishmen
belonging" as they contended "te
in America as we'll as 10
in England" Those in
herited rights of Englishmen were eX-
pressed in the constitution OF the
nited States Thomas Jefferson and
Samuel Adams had bit broader
vision and view; they went a bit fur
Their: and Thomas Jefferson's vision
went to the declaration of independ-
ance which includes not only the
rights of Englishmen but the rights
Of man" which were later embodied
in the declaration of the French re-
public
l repeat. is that the man who can
not distinguish between the character
of the violations OF our neutral rights
committed by Great Britain and by
France and the character OF violations
by Germany has not sense