Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 July 1892 — Slanderers of Their Country. [ARTICLE]

Slanderers of Their Country.

“It isafoule bird,” saysan ancient proverb, “that fyleth his ®wn nest.” By the same token it is a poor patriot that abuses his own ffountry, government and; people. There have been some severe criticisms of .American society and some savage attacks upon our form of government Charles Dickens, when- he was quite a> young nan, made seme caustic strictures on American society, morals and msn- ■ nets, which it tooK our people *a ilong time to forget Macaulay <made many enemies among Ame.i icans by predicting the downfall! of our government Otfaerforeigners moie or less distinguished have incurred tile hostility of patriotic Americans By their severe-and unjust attacks on our morals, our methods andfour form of government But among all these attacks there teas never been anything half as abusive, half as vituperative, liaif as malignant or half as untruthlftil as the preamble to the platforrm adopted by the socalled People’s .party in their r convention at Omaha. These men, calling themselnes Americans;, enjoying theblessingsof the freestand best government on earth, celebrate ed the anniversary of the Nation’s birthday, by issuing: the most rile, the most vicious* and the most untruthful attack non. free inststu-

tions and popular/government that has ever appeared’in any quarter. 1 Let us examine a. little closely this i libelous diatribe.. ; Appealing to Almighty God %>r the truth of their assertions these calumniators of their country dte- ; dared the-Nation ie*“on the verge of moral, and material i ruin,” that “corruption dominate the ballot-box, the legislatures, : Congress, and touches even the i ermine of the benohj.” that “the ■ people are -demoralized C that inItimidation and bribery in elections ■ are universal; thaL tihe press is “largely subsidized or muzzled;” that “public opinion, is silenced and business prostrated;” that “labor is that workmen in the cities “aae- denied theright of organization for, self-pro-tection;” that “a hireling standing army is established to* shoot them down;” that the population of the country is mainly divided between “two great classes,, tramps and.

millionaires-;” and so on. These are only a few of the monstrous ; statements- oentained'iin this whole- - Baleattack mAmt'rrieam institutions’ and society. It represents the eitI tire social fabric as honeycombed with corruption and immorality, and the experiment:©! self-govern-ment as a- hopeless failure. No foreigner ever printed anything a; tenth part as bad about this country and people. An Englishman who should send home such an account of .us for publication would be tarred and feathered if it got back here before he left The American.who would assist in giving publicity to such an attack, upon the country and people deserves no better fate than to, be kicked acress th© continent and, intothesea.-. This malicious manifesto is- not « merely an attack on the Am erift an people,, but on free government and popular suffrage. It is,, in effect, an assertion that popular government is a failure. These vilhfiers of their country who mat on the Fourth of July to advertise to the world, as far as they could, that the condition of the American people is worse than that of any other people on earth, forgot that this is a government of majorities, and when they attack the government they attack the people, and when they attack the people they attack themselves. If their wholesale charges of corruption and demoralization were all true instead of all false, it would only prove that government, by majority is the worst form of government in the world and that the people, dC whom they form a part, are utterly and hopelessly incapable W self-government Or course, intelligent Amemaqs know that' these attacks o® th© government and on the masses of the people are not true, but It ia none the less exasperating to see an assemblage of American citizens engaged in the dirty budneM of defaming their own country spa people.—lndianapolis Journal. r