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Show PiERVE YOUR LIHE.nliES. From Sun. lay's Daily. The political contest now going on and which will be partially decided today to-day L- one of principle. It is the saire under a nuihtii-ii a. pect that has aci-ialed aci-ialed the mind of man since the first organization of society. The Democratic Demo-cratic principle at all times and in all ages has been virtually the same. All it demands is "Equal rights, "just laws, no discrimination, no favoritism. It repels the idea of class or caste. It says that "all men are created equal," and that each member of society has "certain inalienable rights: that among these are life, lilerty and the pursui tof happiness, an 1 that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed." The word "equal" is the great corner stone in the foundation of our freedom, and is the pirot upon which the argument turns; the words "life, liberty and the pursuit of happ ness" follow from it; they are amplifications of the same general gen-eral ideal. "For," as Justice D. D. Field says. ''if two are equal in rights neither can justly interfere with the other by taking away his life or restraining re-straining him of his liberty, or obstructing ob-structing his pursuit of happiness, so long as such pursuit does not interfere with the equal rights of another. But "equality" is not an end, it is only a means. Equality of itself will not insure happiness, that is obtained only by 'pursuit." The government ca:i not, or rather ought not, to promise happiness to anyone, any-one, this he must pursue for himself. In the race of life the government protects every individual and allows him ample scope for the development of all his powers. That one individual is capable to make more iapid strides than another, counts for nothing in a political sense the government was not instituted to strengthen the strong at the expense of the weak. This is tyranny. 'Government is apolitical apo-litical machine, not a charitable insti tution." And when it is said that laws are to be enacted for the common good it is not meant that there is a common com-mon store of good, distinct from the separate share of each individual. "If a measure were certain," said an able American jurist, "to make half the individual in-dividual members of the state five times richer than they are, and the other half poorer by one fifth of their substance, the sum total would be "early six-fold what it now is, but thp measure after all would be rohherjt of half the people to enrich the other half." From the first struggle of the riva1 chieftains on the plains of Asia to the r:.iNnf Balmacedain the fastness of the Andes, Democracy learns its lessons; irom the dungeons that have resounded a ith the cries of imprisoned patriots, irom the groaning rack, the bloody gibbet and gory block come the command, com-mand, '-Take care of your liberties." Even in our own country cautionary signals are given. God allowed them to be placed on high as fearful warnings. warn-ings. There is Hamilton and Rutherford Ruth-erford and Lodge a trinity of tyrants, ty-rants, who, bad they the power, would have reduced the republic to a monarchy mon-archy by taking from the free born and adopted sons of this country their sovereign sov-ereign rights and consumate their ideal by establishing a central government absolute, supreme and accountable to none. Democracy believes in equal rights, because it is oppression, and oppression oppres-sion of the worst form. Privilege is the greatest enemy freedom has. It has manacled untold millions of Russian Rus-sian serfs, divided into castes the hosts of India, ransacked the coasts of Guinea for human slaves, and built aristociacies in every land. It lias created monstrous monopolies in our own land, fostered trusts and combinations com-binations for the purpose of grinding the poor, and has been one of the principal factors at last in the overthrow of the most powerful government the world ever saw. Democracy is the natural birthright of every man. It teaches peace and progress, love and union. It places man on an equality with his fellow It proclaims equality of right, absolut equality of right, absolute equality and exact justice to all men. Some of the Republican orators and papers have denounced the Democratic parly, and one of the chief arguments against it is that the poor class as a general gen-eral thing are. the members. And another an-other argument of theirs is that they are uneducated and hence ignorant. These orators (?) and papers have never learned this fact that from among the humble classes of poor have arisen t e loftiest geniuses, the greatest dis-coveters, dis-coveters, the mightiest inventors, the most invincible warriors, the best lights of literature, art, science and religion. Instance Cincixn'atus leaving his plow in the furrow to sway the sceptre of an empire and guide her through the storm ; Shakespeare, the son of a poor tradesman, rise to surpass every competitor in the matchless oroduc-tions oroduc-tions of his genius; Benjamin Franklin, Frank-lin, sending his kite into the crackling skies and compelling the lightnings of heaven to yield to his untutored phile osophv; a shoemaker from Natick 1 becoming be-coming a leading spirit in the American Ameri-can Senate; a rail-splitter laying suc-ces.iiully suc-ces.iiully his potent hands upon tbe doctrines of the Republic and hurling back the hosts' rebellion; John Erick-soV, Erick-soV, the Swedish inventor, arising out of obscurity and constructing the Mer-riinae, Mer-riinae, that cleared the sea- of the foe and helped to save the Union. What has birth, or place or party to do with tbe man? If he is possessed of native wers, and j o he develops them according accord-ing to the law of life and in the line of progress, he will till the measure of his creation, even if he is a Republican. J. A. R. |