The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1929-06-06

eminent, and their immediate ances-
tors had lived under a government
which oppressed them, which did not
protect them and which did not give
them the rights to which they were
entitled by nature and natures God.
Therefore they recognized the ines
Unable value of good government
and perhaps our ancestors were more
careful to live within the law. So
many generations have passed since
then and we have lived our lives I'M
der good government so long that we
have begun to look upon good govern
ment as matter of course and think
therefore that we don't need to worry
about it, forgetting that government
and law is the most sensitive and del
icate thing in the world; that we do
not live under law and under the prin-
ciples of freedom arising from the law
as a matter of course. Eternal vigil
lance is the price of liberty, and eter-
nal vigilance is the price of the main
tenance of law and the maintenance
of the rights of the people.
Human passions and hopes, and
fears and griefs, all these things en-
ter into organized society and many
of the worst and some of the better
elements are trying to take advan-
tage the one of the other, and the
thing, and the only thing that can
preserve your rights and your free
dom, is the maintenance of law.
81 mention this so that we may all
understand that as officers of this
Court and as officers of the law we
have sacred duty to discharge, and
when you are sworn as Grand Jurors
you have become a part of the mach
merry of the law, and you must look
upon it and understand it to be the
most sacred thing in life.
81 said a while ago that l do not
think that crime is upon the increase
in this country and | am sure | am
correct in that statement, and yet
there are certain aspects of society
that would cause US to fear somewhat
for the future.
"In the beginning the father was
head of the family and the family
was the first state. Later there de-
veloped an association of families I'M
der the same grandfather or great
grandfather, and then we had what is
known as a patriarchal government,
the great-grandfather being at the
head of the little state; and gradually
from that emerged socitey in which
the inheritance of the right of king
ship descended from father to son,
which was nothing more than sur
vival of the old patriarchal state, and
from that we drifted into republics
and into democracies, but you will see
that the very foundation and basis of
all these societies and forms of gov
eminent was the family. So that our
society today depends upon the main
tenance of the sacred relationship be-
tween the husband, the wife and the
children. If there is any breaking
down anywhere, that breaking DOWNS
in the family-the forgetting upon
the part of fathers and mothers that
the end of marriage is the rearing of
children and not the indulgence of
themselves, and so we have divorces
multiplying rapidly in number, and
we have brood growing in this coun-
ty and throughout the State and else
where of fatherless and motherless
children.
at was Rousseau, a great French
man, who wept bitter tears at the end
of his life for the sins of his youth,
and perhaps on that account he under
stood this better than anybody else
when he said: When a father has
brought children into the world he has
only done one-third of his duty. To
the race he owes men; to society men
fit for society, and to the state citi-
zens. Any man who can discharge
this triple duty and does not do it is
guilty man, and he that discharges
it by halves is perhaps more guilty
STILL
"And so one of the offenses that
you will have to investigate will be
that of husbands and fathers abandon
ing their wives and their children and
failing to support them. l cannot say
that know that problem is as serious
in Garrett county as it is in other por-
tons of the State, but I mention it
now because I hope it may never be-
come as serious here as it is in some
communities.
at may be, and 1 am inclined to
think that one of the causes of this
problem of the maintenance of the
law arises from the feeling that seems
to be developing that there isn't any
thing very noble about mankind any
more and that he does not have any
special obligations to anybody but
himself. Our civilization has resulted
from one thing more than anything
else, and that is the urge in mankind
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