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the battalion.
oersuits of happiness and equality and equal opportunities
under the law. The citizens who want the senate to accept
the arbitration treaty with England, forget the history of this
country and the teachings of early American statesmen, and
the horrible policy that is surrounding this republic with
British fortifications. In spite of the trap of the arbitration
treaty England is still our enemy, she is most to be feared by
us when presenting to us a contract binding us for five years
a plausible contract skillfully drawn by her ablest lawyers
and most skillful diplomats.
The treaty of arbitration as originally presented to the
senate for ratification was a document inimical to the integ-
rity, the interest and the honor of the U nited States. When
laxity and rigorism in civil government have reached their
uttermost extremes of abuse, they lead directly and certainly
to the great social evils called anarchy and tyrany. Anarchy
is a state of lawlessness in which the multitude is ruled by
no authority, the public welfare is not effectually defended
by any law and the worst social disorders are not repressed.
Failure to enforce laws necessary for governing the country
may sometimes arise from false conception and wrong appli
cation of clemency, by which justice is not only mitigated
but its essence is destroyed. It may proceed in other cases
from weakness of character in persons having either legisla
tive or executive power. But in commonwealths and free-
governments a more ordinary and far more dangerous course
for failure of the law is venality in the officers of government,
for when the ministers of public authority are seduced by
bribes and are thus made openly to circumvent the laws,
their example will gradually but surely destroy that truth and
justice among the people without which no form of govern
ment can long peacioly endure. Then public authority will
favor the rich as evinent today, the laws like spider webs
will hold the weak but the strong will break through them.
If the masses of the people be poor and wretched while the
wealth of the land has accumulated in the hands of a few.