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generation, from century to century, although the
application of the principles varies from timo to
timo as now questions arise.
To-day, Lincoln's memory is glorified, and
yet it is significant that tho party that claims him
, as its own, is now antagonizing every vital princi
, plo taught by tho martyred president.
That government "should express the highest
spirit of justice and liborty," was Mr. Lincoln's
idea; government for tho advantage of the few at
'the oxponsc of tho many, is tho republican notion
of today.
Lincoln believed that tho Declaration of In
dependence was writton for all men and for all
time, and provided tho only yafe rule for human
government. To-day tho republican politician
has nothing but sneors when tho Declaration of
Independence is invoked as a safe guide for tho
solution of present day problems.
Lincoln boliovcd that a people should never
"entrust to hands other than thoir own, the pres
ervation and porpotuity of their own liberties and
institutions." Tho republican notion of to-day is,
that one sot of men has tho right to give to an
other sot of men only that degree of self-government
whioh in tho estimation of tho former, tho
latter is capable of enjoying.
Lincoln had faith that right makes might.
Tho republican notion of to-day is, that might
makes right.
What a vast difference botweon tho preaching
of Lincoln and tho practice of the party that
olaims Lincoln as its patron saint.
At this time, when tho republican party is
engaged in policies involving tho doctrine that
this nation may trample with impunity upon tho
rights of men, and that our reliance is in becom
ing a world, power it is interesting to recall Lin
coln's roforonco to "tho sure logic of history."
It was in 1858 that Mr. Lincoln said:
Our I'elianco is in tho lovo of liberty which God
has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the
preservation of tho spirit which prizes liberty as the
heritage of all men, in all lands everywhere. Destroy
una spirit ana you nave piantea tno seeds of despot
ism around your doors. Familiarize yourselves with
tho chains of bondage and you are preparing your
own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on
tho rights of those around you, you have lost tho
genius of your own independence and become tho fit
subjects of tho first cunning tyrant who rises among
you. Aud, let me toll you, all these things are pre
pared for you, with tho sure logic of history.
There is not a lesson taught by Lincoln, there
is not a prinoiplo defended by Lincoln, there is
not a rule of government, proclaimed by Lincoln
to bo the truth that tho republican party is not
-'-now arrayed against.
Evory policy of tho administration violates in
practice tho lessons which Liucoln taught; and as
tho wealth of trusts and syndicates increases, as
tho power of mercenary politicians becomes
groater protonso is more and more being cast
aside. Some of tho foremost leaders of tho
republican party do not now hesitate to drop the
mask entirely and boldly antagonize tho truths
, that Lincoln proclaimed.
Kf.
W
A Striking Coincidence.
The Congressional Direotory shows that Bor-
:: tram T. Clayton was eleoted to tho fifty-sixth
Uongres8 as a democrat from the Fourth New
TJio Congressional Record shows that Ber-
tram T. Clayton was one of the four democrats
The Commoner.
in tho House who voted for the Hull Army Bill.
It is strange enough that a man elected to Con
gress as a democrat should give his support to a
bill so undemocratic and so directly opposed to
tho platform unamiously adopted at Kansas City,
but tho strangest part of the statement is yet to
bo made.
Tho Washington Star reports that a number
of Congressmen from Now York, mostly repub
licans, recently called upon the President and
urged tho appointment of Congressman Bertram
T. Clayton to a position in the army with tho
rank of major. Tho paper also reports the Pres
ident as npeaking very highly of Mr. Bertram T.
Clayton. Now this striking coincidence his
vote on tho army bill and his application for a
position in tho army suggests several inquiries.
Did ho vote for tho army bill because ho intended
to apply for an appointment, or did he apply for
the appointment because he voted for tho army
bill, or wore the two acts entirely disconnected?
Did tho republican members recommend him be
cause of his personal qualities or because of polit
ical peculiarities? Did the President speak highly
of him because he calls himself a democrat or
because ho voted like a republican?
w
Gambling.
The Philadelphia papers aro discussing with
astonishment and indignation the gambling which
has recently been discovered among the pohool
children. The evidence shows that a large ma
jority of tho children of some of the schools
habitually buy chances at what is known as
"policy," tho amount invested sometimes being
as low as two cents. A teacher of one of the
schools has been largely instrumental in securing
aii investigation and the North American charges
some of tho police officers with protecting the
gambling places and ignoring the complaints
made. About tho same time word comes from
Chicago that President Harper, of the Chicago
University, made a raid upon some students who
were engaged in gaming.
While gambling is probably less common here
than in other countries, it is still entirely too
common. It is not long since a great lottery
establishment required suppression, and even
now a great many lottery tickets are sold in tho
United States, while slot machines, cigar-counter
wheels and similar devices give constant testi
mony to tho fact that tho mania for games of
chance has not been entirely cured. It is difficult
to conceive of anything more demoralizing than
tho gambling habit when it once becomes fixed.
In condemning it one need not consider so much
those who are driven to despair by losses as those
who are encouraged by occasional success. Case?
are not infrequent where gambling has led to tho
use of trust money and to the sacrifice of a life's
accumulation, but more pernicious still, if possi
ble, is the adoption of the doctrine that one
should try to get something for nothing.
The only sound economic theory upon which
society can be built is that each person shall make
to society a contribution equal in value to the
benefits which he receives; that is the basis of
tho compaot between tho individual and society.
The same principle applies in all exchange; each
party to an honest transaction furnishes an equiv
alent for that which he receives. People will
not willingly make exchanges unless they think
they are receiving equal value, and if one party
deceives the other he is guilty of fraud.
Gambling destroys this economic principle
and substitutes a system wherein to secure the
possibility of large gain one accepts tho proba
bility of a small loss. It is difficult, however,
to make much headway against 'small gambling
by children while it is considered respectable for
grown people to gamble on a largo scale.
Tho same paper which describes tho investiga
tion of policy dealing in Philadelphia reported a
"cotton corner" in New York. So long as
society bows before tho successful market specu
lator, who wins his gamo with loaded dice, it is
going to be hard to impress college students with
tho immorality of poker or to teach kindergarten
school children the wickedness of a two-cent
investment in a policy slip.
John Marshall Day.
There seems to have been a disposition on the
part of republican orators to make ' ' John Mar
shall Day" the occasion for doing reverence to
his memory as if the republican party could claim
a monopoly on him. It was noticeable all over
the country that these partisan speakers, after
praising Marshall and seeking to make it appear
that his history would justify republican policies
of to-day, m.tdc it a point to assail the memory of
Thomas Jeiferson.
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, in a speech de
livered at Chicago, referred contemptuously to
Jeiferson and pointed out that Marshall "despised
and distrusted" the author of the Declaration of
Independence. Senator Lodge sought to extol
the virtues of the great chief justice at the ex
pense of the great statesman. There is enough
that is creditable in Marshall's history to sustain
the good reputation which an orator usually seeks
to bestow upon the subject of his oration. So
far as these two great Americans aro concerned,
for the purpose of placing a proper estimate upon
their worth, it is not important what the one
said or thought of the other.
If comparison between these two men were
essential, it would be. sufficient .for present pur
poses to say that the lawyers and the students aro
familiar with John Marshall, while every one is
familiar with Thomas Jefferson; that Marslyill. is
admired, while Jefferson is loved. In view of
the fact that these republican orators have laid
elusive claim on John Marshall's memory it is
significant that they were silent on the one con
trolling principle that characterized Marshall, the
jurist.
A writer who was familiar with the record of
the chief justice said:
John Marshall immortalized himself and con
ferred an incalculable benefit on humanity by making
it clear for the first time that tho law is higher than
the government, and that any. mere enactment of
government repugnant to fundamental law is void.
The principal is not new. For without its operation
all power is arbitrary; but in England the struggle
has been so long between the arbitrary power of the
king on the one hand and the parliament on the other
that the supreraccy of fundamental law was gener
ally lost sight of except by a few great menthe
Chathams and Burkes; who reverenced law, not
merely as the sovereign will of all the people, but as
the moral purpose through which the world was
created q.nd the omnipotent method by vrMah all good
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