.^^ mmi' in® •a»: 'iiiB LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. Chap Copyright No Shelf...Ll' ^ A.ra^ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Idols vs Idvls OR ThE Philnsaphy of SuccBssful Politics, ^>^s OF coa/; ■-. J AS. ARMSTRONG, JR. 1)1 the present controversy hefwcru the United Slates and Er^j land concern- ing Venezuela )nany valuable hintx may bejound. Patriotism is the talismanic tvordvMh which ail conjure. On the merits of the x)olitical question, scarcely a regiment could be raised. It is not the boundary line between British Ouiana and Venezuela, for thousands^ tvho ivoidd go to war, do not know the countries are contiguous; nor is it the Monroe doctrine that stirs their valor, for there are daily papers that do not understand its scope; and as to Americans fighting for freedom^ s sake, the idea isdoo keenly humorous for serious con- sideration. It is by representing England as a robber nation that the American people may be urged to play Ulysses to her Polyphcme. The shades of Wash, ington and Jackson, and those of the hosts tvho fell the martryed heroes of liberty at Lexington and New Orleans, are evoyked in the enslaving awe of the ivitch scenes in Macbeth. Flag, country, national honor arid inttgrily are the magic words by which America may be arrayed against British arms, or enslaved by British gold. A real war with England is not a probability of the present time, since she could as well afford to bombard Liverpool as New York, but the reformer may find in the diplomacy of the present administration the means of practical j:)rocedure in th< rehabilitation of republican institutions. PRICE, TEN CENTS, fitH>T,;5itl %iiiiffk(ttnfriwti^^ fthTHrt^<^w«rf^rf^^w^^^^rf h^lwrt^dW rt^^ dols vs. dvls OR ThE Philnsnphy of SucoESsful Pnlitics, JA8. ARMSTRONG, JR. HEMPSTEAD : HOUX & ARMSTRONG, PUBLISHERS. 1896. Copyri^rhted Hy Jas. Armatroug, Jr, All rights reserved. 1896. »s TO LOUIS A FREED, MY FRIEND, A MAN WITHOUT PREJUDICE AND WITHOUT pride; AND A F.RIEND IN THE MOST EXALTED SENSE OF THE WORD, THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS DEDICATED. TO THE READER: THERE are but two ways to be rid of the evils which threaten our exist(-nce as a republic — one of which is through the ballot, the other through civil war. Every one, except him who has gold for sale, is alarmedly aware of the necessity of immediate action if republican in- stitutions are to survive. And being a worshipper of Janus rather than of Mars I have undertaken, in the following pages, a logical considera- tion of the most available means of a peaceable solution of present national difficulties. Theoretically, nalion-building is an easy task. Truth finds ready ac- cess to every well-ordered mind. But truth is not always capable of practical results wben the means of its fulfillment consists wholly of an assumed constiincy of human effort. The tailor may cut a model gar- ment, sind yt^t. not, one man in a thousand could wear it. And those pl)ilo8i>pliers who offt^r mankind nn ideal social State, as a refuge from ihecalMtnities of existing ins'titutions, will fare even worse than the gar- ment-mnkt^r who would shape his wares according to the form of Apollo of Belvidere. The question that presents itself, therefore to the states- man, is of what may be, rather than of what cart be. And since the suc- cess of a cause cannot be predicted from the number of its professed adherents, he should be loth to engage in the promotion of Utopian schemes; hazarding as he does, thereby, in the event of failure, the deep- ening of ])opu.ar discontent, and h probable sequence of revolution. The hoj)e of plunder and tlie spirit of mercenary warfare would enlist those who sutler as ihey should fight, in common brotherhood, upon one side as often as justice and a sense of duty, upon the other. In the present crisis Force would be a most uncertain experiment. In its event, the Republic might become a second Rome, and a pri)longed era of civil darkness, wor^e than medieval night, follow an invasion of bar- barians. The safety of re|juolican institutions lies in peaceable procedure. And peaceable procedure means the ado[)tion of such issue, or issues, as will unite the anti- plutocracy element ms thoroughly as practicable. The writer, n»»twithstanding his ideas of civil government have been received from a scliool of socialism which liolds that money is a positive evil, re- eaidless of the quality quantity or kind, believes nevertheless \\\qX Fi- nance is the issue. No other issue, it seems to him, will enlist the sup- port oi the musses more efieciively, and he invites you to a careful jitrusal of ihe following pagatriotism aresim|)ly variations of the generic term, Egoism. Among the thfferent races of men it mani- fests itself according to their devel- opment. In the hands of the can- nibal it places a bludgeon; in the hands of the financier, a bond. The dusky daughter of the forest is won by the scalps that adorn her lover's belt; the pale-faced heiress of our eastern cities is enthralled by the titles with which her fortune hunter encumbers his name. 'Tis Hiawatha and her "brave," Consu- elo and her "duke." In decency the Savage takes precedence, but in principle they stand upon an equal footing. John the Baptist lost his head through the vanity of Herodias; the American people are suffering the evils of a second administration of her lord, urged into it as it is said of him by Mrs. Cleveland. Throughout the range of human action, crime and virtue own a common origin From Abel's murder to the latest bond sale, from Nero to Cleveland, Irom those who pray facewards Mecca to those whose eyes are turned to Buzzard's Bay, from those who bow to sticks and stones to those who worship the -'Cold Reserve;" trom the Ash- antee warrior to the modern demo- crat, from Judas and Ananias to Sherman and Carlisle— the inspira- tion of all human effort, whether ble>siiig the world with liberty and love, or filling it with tyranny and crime, was born of the instinctive self concern by which all men are directed regardless of the capacity in which they act. In obedience to the canons of self-interest all progress lias been made. This fact is particularly exemplied in the lives of success- ful politicians. No {)ublic enter- — 4 — pripe nor private scheme can be the unaided means of prayer and achieved on the vicarious plan, self-denial, it became at last a new The most notable instance of tlie paganism. "Patron saints assumed trialof such a plan is the moststrik- the offices of household gods. St. ing example of iis failure. For George took the place of Mars. vSt. notwithstanding Christ died to save Elmo consoled the mariner for the the world, no one need go to loss of Castor and Pollux The heaven early to avoid the rush, virgin mother and Cecilia succeed- There will be crowns and robes of ed Venus and the Muses. The just his size, and untouched harps lascination of sex and loveliness as numerous as the mistakes of was joined to that of celestial dig- the democratic party. Millions of nity; and the homageof chivalry was men have lived and died since the blended with that of religion.'' scene at Calvary who never heard Reformation is not a jtendulum of Christ, nor the divine mdecen- striking the hoursofgreatei- human cies of SamuelJones. And if Jesus happiness with unfailing regularity, had played Jones to the Roman It is rather an avalanciie, growing rabble, built an orphan asylum, gradually in ])onderou8 proportion donned the toga viriiis and gone until no longer capable of abiding about the country assailing the in its resting place it rushes pre- short comings of the multitude in cipitately downwards, crushing the language of the tavern and every thing which stands against its brothel int^tead of preaching to progress Mankind cannot suddenly them the unheeded doctrines of be brought wholly to rid itself of non-resistance and the utter disre- any evil by which it i-: even know- gard of worldly goods, be might ingly afflieted. Built therefore as have now and then bt en greeted they are upon the prejudices of with a shower of ovariiiii antiqui- (;ountless generation^* — -"ixty centu- ties, but he would have escajjed ries of law and custom interposing the bloody sweat in the gaidtn of pres« nt tyninny and future justi(te Gethsemane, the crown of thorns — the retormation of existing insti- and crucifixion. Civilization nn'ght tulions is to be accomplished by have been spared a thousand years strategy ratlier than by science, ot the cruelest su})erstilion, during Not strategy in the sense by which which time tlie inhuman spirit of is measit the game that cunning monastieisui filled the earth with tricksters play for stolen gain, i>ut darkness and death in the attempt- stratepy in the sense of generalship ed realization ol theological absurd- that has given to the romance of ities. And had Christianity not llie world, which we call history, departed Ironi the unintelligible its iiemes. 'J'he greatest victoiies sophistries which were so Iruitful ol war are not those wherein su})e- of heresy and crime during the early .lior numbers award a triunjph. centuries of its existence, 'he gales Commanded l>y genius and disci- ofhell would have long since jire- plined by valor — three hundred will vailed ngainst it. Arraying itself Jeave posterity the memery of a at first in the garb of the most ans- Thernio{)ylae. And the suhslan- tere sim|»licit3\ visiting an unnat- tial victories of peace are no more ural hatred",.U]»on every object ol the result of sheer force than are national and popular estetni, de- those of war. Whtnever Justice spising the material objects of jietitions Might it is well if she may veneration of the old paganism and .successfully appeal to arms; but seeking to establish itself through her greater glory is to do — 5 through peace, that which through force, must end in failure. And civil liberty is beholden more to peace than force for the progress it has made. The rise of existing institutions, like the beginning of geological eras cannot be traced to any particular period of time. Their origin is lost in the shadow of the ages gone. We are born under an established and ever-changing order of things. In youth the voice of enthusiasm in- spires us to undertake the realiza- tion of its exalted ideal. Enrapt- tured of the true a Rienzi strikes for freedom, and tyranny the object of his glorious but over-reaching zeal, laughs to see it find a victim in himself. A Bruno, whose soul is warmed by every impulse, pure and good, would quench inquisitorial fires with the tears of love and free tlom. In the end he finds that they are vain to stay the flame that feeds upon himself. Mankind neither demands nor appreciates the martyr. Self-sacrifice is a tribute to be paid to the gods alone. For heroes, such as Winkleried, the poor honors of martyrdom are theirs — a monument and pilgrim, now and then — the centuries come and g<\ and tyranny and priest- craft hold their own. Not so firmly as of old 'tis true. The fagot and the rack have been laid aside. Men are freer now to speak their thoughts; to pray to what they please. But we have re- ceived the progress that has been made from Luthers and king Hen- ries, men who made Truth the vas- sal of Ambition and enfeoffed Just- ice to policies tempered by the times, rather than to those exalted and more admirable zealots who would strike no league with error, nor temporize with ignoble aims that they might embody somewhat tKeir dreams of civil and religious liberty. The lamp within the visionary's cell is a star indeed, but it twinkles in a constellation of which the mul- titude knows nothing. The most of men, and the politician is inter- ested in majorities, have little time or understanding for social castle- builders. "The bookish theoric" soon exhausts their patience. They are not seeking deliverance from Egyptian bondage so much as en- trance into a land flowing with milk and honey. They grow im- patient of the Wilderness that lies between the domains of slavery and freedom. Present hungc makes them lament the fleshpots of their masters. The golden calf is set up again, and such is the pop- ular perversity at time's that the Moses of Freedom's chosen people is permitted only to contemplate her fruitful realm from the heights of some adjacent Nebo. Modern partizans are not unlike the ancient Jews, And when the reformer re- calls the lact that Jehovah himself could scarcely divorce the latter from their idols, it should some- what cool his ardor as an image- breaker among the former. The crowd still demands something which its pride and prejudice may catch and emulate; for heaven itself were unattractive to some, unless the melody of golden harps and choiring cherubim would now and then give way for a discourse on pensions or the "robber tariff." And the statesman who neglects such things as bon fires, parades and such poetic commonplace as "Your altars and your sires," "God and your native land" will scarcely "live, good easy man, to see his honors blushing thick upon him," II The Romans understood the crowd and tyrannized it thoroughly. Panem et circenses — bread and — 6 — games! Marc Antony knew its dis- did courts, graced by beauty and position; and he reminded it, not adorned with minstrefsy and music; 80 much of Ceasar's wounds as of gay processions led by clarion notes Ceasar's -willX and waving miles of silken gonfal- Wherein hath Ceasar thus deserved ons — the lists of war, the knightly your loves? tournament and everv badge and Alas! you knmc not. I must tell you gjgn .,1 chivalric display-diSmond To every Roman citizen hegiv^s; crowns, swinging gardens and lux- To every several nian^jeventy five urious retreats — and at last sar- drachinas. cophagi of gold and marble! 'Tis Brutus would have given free- thus Plutocracy may lead millions dom; and for his pains was chased of ragged starvelings fettered with from Rome to meet a self-inflicted the gilded chains of greed in tri- death at Phillippi. The "noblest umphs more imperial than those of Roman of them all" is a type of Rome hersell! The philosopher many modern reformers who get may contemn the things of royal the applause but not the vote of the pride and civic gh)ry, but as long as great American citizen. They mis- its wages are "uncut," the multi- lake the clamors of discontent for tude will not only excuse, but will the cries for reform. They look boast uf the vanity of its Ivrants, upon every labor organization a^j a and like beggars at a feast will wel- Jacobin club, seemingly forgetlul of come the crunibs of extravagant the fact that its chief business is t lie displav, feeling honored to be as- creation of a relief fund for the im- sembled at su(;h a brilliant scene pecunious, sick and dead of the The reformer should take his brotherhood; an annual parade, a cue from the plutocrat, studious avoidance of politics and Human nature can be led to di- the inauguration of a strike when rcctlv opposite ends without a starvation i** the only alternative, change of means. It is forgotten that a dog fight will The Cross and Crescent came in- blockade the street, and the mere to conflict from the same motives, announcement of a prize-fight ex- and in pursuit of the same objects; cliide every thing else from the the hope of paradise, and temporal daily press, divide a state into supremacy. Ilouris made the Mus. warring factions and at last cause sulman disaster-fearless; saints in_ the legislature to be convened in spired the Christian with the mar-' extra session! Fame and fortune tyr's fortitude. The Civil war was attend the pugilist while the poet fought by both parties upon consti- starves in obscurity. Brawn plays tutional grounds — by one to save to crowded houses while Brain the Union; by the other, to hold greets empty benches. The reform- the Slave. Tyrants have been re- er is too frequently unmindful of moved with daggers; Pisistratus the truth of such trite observations, used them on himself to become a He seems indifferent to the fact that tyrant. Thedifference between the men are most easily taught the demagogue and statesman is in right or wrong through object les- practice and not in precept. The sons. They want something to.bovv politicians ot the South have led to, some image to reverence, some her people repeatedly through di.-- 7(/c7/ to worship. Costumes stiffen- aster and disgrace by keeping con- ed with embroideries of gold, the stantly before their minds the pen- flowing plume and glittering epaul- sioncd federal soldier! In the ette; the iewelled insignia of si)Jen- North the bugbear has been the — 7 demagogic fear of the Confederacy getting into the saddle again! Tex- as has politicians who have "cam- paigned" on a "Confederate rec- ord," and subsequently justified the invasion of a Sovereign State by federal troops to suppress a strike. It seemh indeed that the man who anathematized John Brown, would canonize John Alt- geld! But still he is not wholly in- consistent. Thirty five j'ears ago he was actuated by an idolatrous devotion lo a name; he defended an ancient institution — Slavery — sim- ply because it was ancient; his bat- tle cry was the sacred rights of piopertyl Time has not changed his motives. Another ancient in- stitution — Property — is being at- tacked today. He bows to the same idol that has a missing feat- ure, here and there, perhaps, broken from it by the iconoclasts of ihe past, but its votary is none the less devout. And man will continue to worship the great and old. His own life but a fleeting moment within the immensity of time, and dwelling upoii a globe with countless others sown interminably deep within the fields of space, every object that suggests the Infinite enthralls the imagination and makes the will a slave. On earth the mountain, cat- aract and ocean move him to rev- erent meditatian; in space, the unending flight ot planets, stars and suns. Every majestic object of the universe has been wor- shipped as a god. And "in the starry shade of dim an solitary love- liness" Art was born. Then came the dream of immortality, and every hope through which man has sought to soften down the desola- tion of the grave. In the contem- plation of Nature man realized his imperfection, and as soon as archi- tecture and sculpture taught him to embody his ideas, his creations found a prototype within the objects of his idolatry, and the ideal excellencies with which he clothed the beings who he supposed presi- ed over the universe. Many centuries have flown since men became the makers of temples and statuary; but posterity has not outgrown the superstitious predi- lections of the most primeval an- cestry. Cathedrals and palaces, imposing monuments and every extravagance of architecure awaken national pride, and become the means of national development or degradation according to the char- character of the statesmanship by which they are promoted.' The stately piles of Greece, the Acrop- olis and Pantheon charm the stranger to their classic clime. An- cient splendors covered by the shifting sands of a score of centu- ries make us forget the inhumani- ties with which they were contem- porary. The crumbling Coliseum wherein the fashion, wealth and tyranny of Rome amused itself with gladiatorial exhibitions is something more than the relic of civic butchery In the pres- ence of that colossal fragment of antiquity, we recall the poet's lines: The gladiator's bloody circus stands, A noble wreck in ruinous perfection, While Ceasar's chambers and the Augustan halls Grovel on earth iu indistinct decay: Aud t'lou didst shia^-, thou roiliug moon upon All this, and cast a wide and teuder lijrht Which softened down the hoar aus- terity Ofrujrged desolation, and filled up, As 'twere anew, theg'aps of centuries. Leaving that b autiful which still was so, Aud makinof that which was not till the plai-e Became Religion, and the heart ran o'er With silent wo7'.s/iip of the great and old! — 8 III The Ancient h&s a\ways received the especial sanction of mankind. Immemorial custom gives the Law its prestige; and Religion has been chiefly propagated by the fact, that a// men at a// times have wor- shipped something. The savage and the civilized tread religious- ly in the footsteps of their "dad- dies." Philosophy has often plucked the heart of savage super- stition from the body of our most cherished institutions. But, still, the village church bell, that has for so many generations pealed the golden chimes of joy, and tolled the solemn monotones of grief, calls its wonted multitudes to prayer. Think of a people that places it- self in the foremost rank of progress, and builds its civil and religious institutions out of the fragments of barbaric codes and customs which have escaped the ruin of time. Contemplate the navies of the world; put afloat for the most part by nations that profess to love their neighbors as themselves. Recall the fact that chattel slavery is scarcely cold within its grave — hear the march of soldiery to murder striking labor — think of the womanhood sacrificed to lu-rm and strength was to match the in- telligence of man with the instinct of the beast. Muscle losi its vota- ries, the savage passed; the necro- mancer rose, the knee was bent to power still, but clubs and arrows were fashioned into idols. The re- peaters of insane mummeries were the receptacles of power. Fetish- ism passed. Sii'ks and stones were substituted by the goldan calf. High priests wore the er- mine. Obedience to the annointed of the Lord was the "delegated — 12 — voice of God." Violence fell into further disrepute. But the weak were none the less ruthlessly plun- dered by a subtler force — rapine re- fined — the mastery of their hopes and fears. The peace and joys of ea'-th were bartered for elysian dreams. Levites and Incas en- joyed the fullness of the earth. Re- ligion became the subterfuge of greed. Civilization broadened. Theoc- racy was relegaied to the refuse of the race. Egypt and Judea passed away. Athens and Rome arose. Springing from a com- mon stock, and co-operating as brothers, the founders of the ancient democracies enjoyed prosperity and freedom. The body politic so grew in health and strength, that to be a Roman was greater than a king. The Tarquins were expelled ; and the avenues to individual ascend- ancy seemed forever closed. Men learned the lust of conquest. The martial and the honorable joined hands. The streets and house tops were thronged to see the conquering hero come! The champions ot their country received the plaudits of a nation. Adulation and luxury were promised to the votaries of war. The heroes of battle were banqueted and triumphed. Col- umns and arches were built to their glory. Deceased and even living, they were exalted to the dignity of godship. The control of a great and growing empir*' necessitated a standing army. It became the the tool of power. Pretorian guards cast their fortunes with lead- ers most generous of donatives. Re- publics contracted into monarchies, monarchies into despotisms. It was thus the deified Augustus changed the mild government of the ^cipios into the fearful tyranny of Tiberius and Caracalla, Occas- ionally there was an attempted re- turn to former simplicity; but the "greediness which riches intro- duced for gain'' was far too great for the philosophy of Aurelius, or the virtues of the Antonines, to stay the empire against disintegra- tion. Out of the ruins of Rome was reared the fabric of modern civili- zation. "The most civilized na- tions of modern Europe issued from the woods of Germany." The Ro- man character and nation had sunk to the greatest degradation. "Un- der the influence of governments at once dependent and tyrannical, which purchased, by cringing to their enemies, the power of tramp- ling on their subjects, the Romans sunk into the lowest state of effem- inacy and debasement. Falsehood, cowardice, sloth, conscious and un- repining degradation, formed the national character." That charac- ter was created by the power of tyranny — through centuries of sheer force — it was destroyed by a similar power. But besides the characteristics of relentless barbar- ity, the followers of such grim- visaged chieftains as Odoacer and Attila possessed frthers which "could not exist among the slug- gish and heartless slaves who cringed around the thrones of Ho- norius and Augustulu-^. The war- riors of the north, brought with them, from their forests and marsh- es, those qualities without wliich humanity is a weaknes-s and know- ledge a curse, — energy —indepen- dence — the dread of shame — the contempt of danger. It would be most inter-sting to examine the manner in which the admixture of the savage conqueror and the afl^m- inate slaves, alter man v generations of darkness and atritation, produced the modern European character; — to trace back from the fir.^^t conflict to the final amalgamatiim, the op- eration of that mysterious alchemy, — m which, from hostile aud worthless elements, has extracted the pure gold of human nature — to analyze the mass, and to determine the proportion in which the ingredients are mingled." In that mysterious alchemy there was nothing intellectual. The gen- ius of the Roman law and the re- naisance of belles-lettres were not the crucible in which the magical metamorphosis took place. The ancient classics have not done as much for liberty as is gen- erally said. For it is strange that • classic literature and art should have been able to restore the shat- tered structures of civil liberty to the beauty of their original propor- tions, while they were powerless to prevent them from falling to de- cay in the beginning. It is a peculiar drug that will revive the dead, but not prevent the sick from dying. The virtues of Aladdin's lamp were absurdly inconsistent, if it could construct a palace in a night, and yet could not repair a barn within the same amount of time. In the time of Livy, the literature and art of Greece had not suffered the ravages of time and barbarian armies. The Alexan- drian library was not burnt, and the Parthenon was not yet dese- crated. Roman students went to Athens to complete their education. Augustus himself was scarcely re- turned from the Athenian schools when he succeeded to the fortunes of his uncle, Julius CcBsar. Liter- ature was most assiduously culti- vated, and Roman genius reached its zenith under the worst of Rom- an emperors. Nero was contem- porary with Seneca and Epictetus. And if liberty owed so little to art and letters while they still swayed the human mind with the undi- vided power of their pristine glory, how much less was liberty their debtor at a time when the sceptre was long-relinquished, and their former domain an ever-widening solitude? On the contrary, they retarded rather than advanced civ- ilization; for if we may believe the author of the Commentaries, the little learning which then existed was monopolized by the monkish clergy. The law of the church was modeled upon the civil law; and the prelates embraced with the ut- most ardor a method of judicial proceedings which banished the in- tervention of a jury(that bulwark of Gothic liberty)and placed the arbitrary power of decision in the breast of a single man. (Black, bk. 3, par. 99.) Society was not regenerated by the genii of Wisdom. Learning to it was not as a Richelieu to France. It was through feudalism, born of piracy ; superstition born of fear; chivalry born of lust: and thro' all three, that were born of Egoism, that the prophecy which said- While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand; Wheu falls the Coliseurn, Rome shall fall; And when Rome (alls— the World.— was not fulfilled. The oath the warrior took, upon doing homage to his liege lord ; the prayer he breathed to the god of battle; the vow he made to his lady love — such were the things that made At- tila the scourge of God, Richard the Lion-hearted and Godfrey in- vincible. "In their baronial feuds and single fields What deeds of prowress unrecorded died! And love, which lent a blazon to their shiehls, With emblems well devised by amor- ous pride. Thro' all the mail of iron hearts would •rlide '' — 14 — It was the songs of the Trouba- dors, rather than the stately hex- ameters of Homer and Virgil; the glories of the Tournament, rather than the sophisms ofthe Stoic; the fanaticism of the Crusader, rather than the learning ofthe Civilian, that made it possible for humanity to emerge anew from ten centuries of crime and blood. The saviors ot society are loyal, rather than learned; and are gov- erned by prejudice, rather than guided by philosophy. Henry in the house of Burgesses, the mob at Boston Harbor and Lincoln at the field of Gettysburg are the dram- atic scenes that stir our natures to most perilous enterprises, or move them to a flood of tears. The mul- titudes which such scenes and men command are perfectly akin to the Royalists of a few centuries ago, of whom a great historian has said: "Our royalist countrymen were not heartless, dangling courtiers, bow ing at every step, and simpering at every word. They were not mere machines for destruction, dressed up in uniforms, caned into skill, intoxicated into valor, defend- ing with out love, destroying with- out hatred. There was freedom in their subserviency, a nobleness in their very degradation. The sen tiinent of individual independence was strong within them. Com- passion and ri)mantic honor, the prejudices of childhood, and th»^ venerable names of history threw over them a spell potent as that of Duessa; and, like the Red Cro-!s Knight, they thought they were do- ing battle for an injured beauty, while they defended a false and loathsome sorceress. In truth they scarcely entered into the mer- its of the political question It was not for a treacherous king or an m- tolerant church that they fought, but for the old banner which had waved in so many battles over the heads of their fathers^ and the al- tars at which they had received the hands of their brides." Would the North have thronged the lists of war as eap.erly a^ she did throng them; would the South have changed her fertile valleys into burial places; would the con- flict which begun at Harper's Ferry and ended at Appomatox have ever disgraced the chronicles of men, had those who bore the brunt of war, to be torn by shot and shell, and afterwards to expose their scars as mendicants for bread, known the motives by which that gigantic spectacle of civil butchery was staged? Old Glory was the emblem of de- votion on the one side, the Stars and Bars were objects of reverence on the other. The multitu'le on either side who had nothing to gain and their lives to lose, marched to battle to the martial strains of Dixie and Rally R )und the Flag, Boys! Those who were wiser, and n<>t to be humbugged by bomba-«t and music, passed twenty-nigger ex- emption laws, hired substitutes and remained at home. Then as now men went to war out of preju- dice and pride, and as the result of an appeal to force human liberty remained stationary. For war has done nothing for freedom. It did nothing for it in 1()B6, nothing in 1776, nothing in 1815, nothing in 1863. William fought for a crown, W'^ashington for represtntation, Wellington for England and Grant to save the Union. Had Harold won Hasting-!, the c>)ndition .if the masses could have been no worse than that of the followers of Jack Cade and "the mad preacher of Kent." Had Washintg >n lost, an English vice-roy could have donn no worse than send an army to put down a strike, and commit its lead- ers for contem[)t. Had Lee suc- ceed, the Negro would know today 15 — where he would dine tomorrow, and while through his success chattel slavery might have at last embraced the poor -white trash, it could not have entailed more mis- ery and degradation upon the races than has industrial servitude, its successor. In the triumph of tyranny justice may find the means of its own pro- motion. In the present controversy between the United States and Eng- land concerning Venezuela many valuable hints may be found. Pa- triotism is the talismanic word with which all conjure. On the merits of the political question, scarcely a regiment could lie raised. It is not the boundary line between British Guiana and Venezuela, for thous- ands, who would go to war, do not know the countries are contiguous; nor is it the Monroe doctrine that stirs their valor, for there are daily [)a|iers that do not understand its scope; and as to Americans fighting for freedom's sake, the idea is too keenly humorous for serious con- sideration. It is by representing England as a robber nation that the American people may be uiged to play Ulysses to her Polypheme. The shades of Washington and Jackson, and thoseof the hosts who fell the martrycd heroes of liberty at Lexington and New Orleans, are evoked in the enslaving awe of the witch scenes in Macbeth. Flag, country , national fionor and integ- rity are the magic words by which America may be arrayed against British arms, or enslaved by Brit- ish gold. A real war with England is not a probability of the present time, since she could as well afford to bombard Liverpool as New York, but the reformer may find in the diplomacy of the present adminis- tration the means of practical pro- cedure in the rehabilitation of re- Dublican institutions. VI Political doctors, who have vol- unteered their services to our sick Republic, our ultra-reformers, are prescribing for a patient that throws away their physic. The least among them that sees that the diathesis of the sufferer is usurious — the more than Job-like sores of monopoly in all of its phases un- mistakably indicate that the life- current is poisoned with greed. Diagnosing thus correctly, the elec- tion of remedial agencies follows easily. It requires no lengthy con- sultation to agree upon a course of medicine more powerful even than that prescribed in the Omaha plat- form. Land, transportion and finance! Use and occupancy, the only title of possession; nationalization of the railways and manufacturies; and the demonetization of the precious metals, which are to be substituted by a system of fiat currency, "safe, sound and flexible!" Well may the assembled medico-political doctors exclaim ^z/r^-^a/ Yes, well they might, were not the adminis- tration of their proposed remedies contra -indicated by such minor national distempers as individual pride, arrogance and folly. There are thousands of petty landlords in the populist party who would abandon it at the first in- timation of the insecurity of their paltry acres. Admirably they stand against alien and syndicate owner- ship of "our native soil," for they may be swallowed up by them. Again there are thousands of popu- lists existing upon the "unearned increment" of either /iro/rV, interest or rent, (the trinity of evils that have at first afflicted and at last destroyed the social structures of every age) who would join the op- position instantaneously upon the earliest ?n?frpption that fithfr of 16 them should be condemntd. They favor fiatism, according to the the- ory that 10 increase the volume of money is to increase prices, and consequently to swell their reve- nue. As to the government ownership of railways, the institution of property is yet too much of a Holy of holies in the estimation of the masses for its accomplishment by the ballot. The fundamental right of property is adverse possessic/U at will against the world. It is a veritable rock of ages — the founda- tion of our laws and customs; re- move it, and the superstructure falls. The right of eminent do- main, alone, is superior to the right of property; and eminent domain is nothing more or less than confis- cation with indemnity. It is co- existent with properly itself. When the State undertakes to convey the property of A to B and others for the public good, it is policy for A to submit. Otherwise, he may make himself odious to the com- munity as opposed to its welfare. But when the State subsequently undertakes to reconvey the same property trom B to itself and for the same purpose — the public good — the process involves a con- tradiction, not in truth, bnt in the minds of both A and B, that pre- vents its immediate peaceable ac- complishment. A is no longer silenced by policy, and he joins B iu a demagogic uproar of centraliza- tion and paternalism. The dema- gogue has a most favorable vantage ground in the damnable abuses^ of federal patronage during recent administrations; and the effect upon the crowd of the specious ar- guments, afforded him by such national frauds as the ('redit Mo- bilier, Sugar trust investigations, Van Alen ambassadorships and income tax decisions, would l»e much like that of the stnge produc- tion of one of Haggard's weird ro- mances. The abuses which he would predict as attendant upon the nationalization of railways and kindred industries might be as wildly improbable as the fortunes of Ayesha, but still the dramatic effect of his presentation of them, to a people that has had cause for fre- quent real alarm at federal usurpa- tion, will make the delusion perfect; and the reformer would be as likely to dissipate the opposition thus aroused, dS he would to quiet the emotions of an audience by remind- ing it that Macbeth was fiction. The tears of misery must fall yet awhile upon the rock of property, which ha(? wrecked so many ships of state sailing upon the sea of civ- ilization. For notwithstanding it is regarded as a legal fiction by the greatestjurists, still Property would add nothing to the exclu.-^iveness with which it possesses the human mind, were it the most absolute of facts. "There is nothing." says Blackstone, bk.2, chap. 1. "which so generally strikes the imagina- tion^ and engages the affections ot mankind, as the right of property ; or that sole and despotic dominion which one man claims and exer- cises over the external things of the world, in total exclusion of any other individual in the universe And yet there are very few that will give themselves the trouble to consider the original and founda- tion of this right. Pleased as we are with the possession, we seem afraid to look back to the means by which it was acquired, as if tearful of some defect in our title; or at best we rest satisfied with the de- cision of the Jaws in our favor, with- out examining the reason or au- thority upon which those laws have been built. We think it enough if our title is derived by the grant of the former proprietor, by de- scent from our ancestors, or by the — 17 — last will and testament of the dy- ing owner;not caring to reflect that, accurately and strictly speakings there is no foundation in nature^ or in natziral laiv,rvhy a set of ivords upon parchment should convey the dominion of land; or why the occu- pier of a particular field or (the possessor) of a jewels when lying on his death bed, and no longer able to maintain possession, should be entitled to tell the rest of the world which of /'/^ew should enjoy it after /^ /;;//" (These are not the words of a Hay market rioter, but of Chief Justice Blackstone.) And men love dominion still too well to divest themselves even {mar- tially of the power through which they may oppress their fellows. In the ultimate analysis, there- fore, of existing social conditions, / there is no opportunity for general and organic reform. It is a step, and not a leap that should be made. And if any reform is achieved at all, it will be through the adoption of such is-^ue or issues which, al- though wilhin themselves incapa- - ble of any thing more than an im- j)erfect restorationof our dilapidated institutions, will serve to mobilize the scattered hosts of poverty into an aggressive solidarity. Such an issue is presented in the Free Coin- age of Silver, at the titne-honorcd ratio of Sixteen to One. By this I do not mean to say that financial legisation will prove a second son of York and "make glorious sum- mer of this the winter of our discon- tent! With silver dollars as thick as summer leaves, and Penury within a million homes might pe- tition Plenty unavailingly. To use 1 metaphor, I may illustrate my meaning by saying that the free coinage of silver is a sun glass by which the rays of disconterit, dissi- pated, as they are, throughout the political atmosphere, may be con- centrated upon a given object — Plutocracy. If the Omaha plat- form be likened to a wedge, silver is certainly its point of contact with the object to be rent asunder. VII ^ It is foolish to expect a party tri- umph through the unaided force^of correct principles and sound ^reas- oning. The votaries of truth are much like those of Christianity. The ; churches are thronged with worshippers, and their daily lives are constantly giving the lie to their pretended piety. They wor- ship Christ Sunday, but are as loth to turn the other cheek on Monday as the most ungodly of their neigh- bors; and if we are to judge from the gold-grabbing t'Mdencies of christian nations, the eye of the scriptural needle must be as large as the entrance _to the^Mammoth Cave.: ■; .- t: ^'li-n::.. _., - i All men are the professed lovers of justice, yet behold'the^universal corruption of courts and legislatures. The most consummate scoundrel wears the livery of the honest man. The plutocrat has equality on his lips and slavery in his heart; and as the villian calls him brother, whom he would stab, the plutocrat addresses those as freemen, whom he would enslave.'" Dishonesty Js ever an aspiring Gloster to the throne of goodness. Alas XV hy should you heap these ^ cares on me? I am unfit for state and majesty ; I do beseech you take it 7iot a?niss ; I cannot nor I tvill not yield to you . To be right, therefore, is but one of the preliminary steps to success. It is not the all-important step; for, were it so, the Hunchback would have gone uucrowned, and the Chi- cago platform would not have been written. If truth were the lode star of human effort no slave-ship would have landed at Plymouth, nor would 18 — Shylock rule the world. Millun would not have died in poverty, the memory of Paine wtiuld not have been aspersed and the gospel of Christ would have long since em- braced the world. Through the force of truth, Nero, Maxiniin and Caracalla; Charles V., the Borgias and Catherine de Medici, and Sherman, Carlisle and Cleveland would not have been elevated from the sphere of private life. The history of civilization is filled with the failure of polities of the purest beneficence for the advance- ment of mankind. And as in the life of every individual, there is a grave} ard called the past, in which are buried ennobling hopes and generous endeavors -children be- loved and mourned oftlie heart and brain — so is there in the career of of every civil system a burial ground wherein liberty, anotfier Niobe, doth mhic, but perfectly im- practicable as a political issue; as 'iiuch so as the demonetization of silver would have l)een in 1872, or liie gold standard in 1892. Yet sil- ver was demonetize