abetted one of the most conspicious cases of
legislative bribery of recent years.
One of the most popular statesmen of the
country in a speech a few days since upon a
question of high public importance, was driven
by party stress, to falsify the deliberate and
well considered history which he had written
but a few years ago, and yet he suffers no
eclipse of party popularity. A Governor of
One of the largest States in the Union pays his
electioneering expenses out of a share of the
profits of a contractor of public works under
his control, and a convention of his party re
nominated him.
"A public meeting treated at his cost
Resolves him back the virtue he had lost,"
It was the custom
A hundred years ago
If men were knaves to call them so."
The Mugwumps believe it would be good
policy to revive the old custom, but they•find
it very difficult to bring other people to the
same way of thinking. The next generation
will agree with them.
They must upward still, and onward, who would keep
Abreast of truth;
Lo before us gleam her camp-fires ! We ourselves must
Pilgrims be,
Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through
The desperate winter sea,
Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's
blood-rusted key.
ARE WE A CHRISTIAN NATION.
(Prize Oration delivered by A. A. Patterson at the Junior
Oratorical Contest.)
We look at Russia, with her millions op
pressed and suffering, and call her a despotism,
and why? Because the vital forces in her ex
istence are tyranny and absolutism. We look
at Switzerland with her happy people secure
in their liberties and we call her a republic,
and why? Because she was rescued from op
pression and born anew into freedom.
THE FREE LANCE.
We look at the United States and call " her
a Christian nation, and why? Because she
was born a Christian nation, and the principles
of Christianity by which she was surrounded
at her birth, have been protected by Christian
institutions which have preserved them, and
make them vital and active to-day.
The Pilgrim Fathers fleeing from religious
persecution, founded the Puritan colony in the
North; Lord Baltimore and his Roman Catho
lic bretheren founded their refuge side by side
with the French Huguenots in the South.
Between them, the Quakers persecuted alike
by Puritans and Papists found their resting
place, and laid there the corner-stone of a
mighty commonwealth. Tho' differing in their
creeds, these colonies each founded by men
fleeing from the terrors of religious perse.,
cution, were bound in the principles of reli
gious toleration and freedom of conscience.
Separated from their oppressors by 3000 miles
of water, no mandate of Prince or Popc had
any terror for them, and their religious liberties
were secure. Freedom in religion however,
did not mean civil liberty. ' A century of op
pression and taxation without representation
served to sever the tic that bound them to
England. Political independence was secured,
but there was no nation. The necessity of a
closer union was felt, a stronger chain than the
articles of Confederation must be forged, a
chain to bind them inseparably together. The
mighty" minds of the colonies about to be
formed into a new nation were assembled to
frame the instrument that should place them
among the powers of the earth. They meet
face to face with the never-dying, all trouble
some question of Church and State. Full
well they know the evils of State religion,
they appreciate fully the terrors of religious
oppression, they know what freedom of con
science means, they recognize that to be
morally free is man's inalienable right. In
the face of these facts then, it is absolutely im
possible for them to incorporate into the Con-