St Johns College - Yearbook (Annapolis, MD)

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TH E PHILOMATH EAN SOCIETY

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jf - ' 'Sf V .g P H' 5 ' ' 3250 ' . gill. I N , in : I l fr, X . ' 3 , j E L'- ,I T J -- K. ' . . .25 1. 2 , , ,p-rm.,,.. 1 Ye. i N: - .5 6 Tj. ,L ij' 'Y n' v rv 2 N cg, 'ji ss' S N, . C- ST. JOHN'S COLLEGIAN. 210 Our federal government has been, sorry to say, resisted by states claim- ing state sovereignty. But is not the federal government able to cope with such events? Yet, it is a tried. and proved fact. What was our late civil war but a clamor for state sover- eignty ? What was the cause of their rebellion but some measure in the constitution, repugnant to their sense of state rights? c Again, what was the remedy but the final return of the states into the Union and their approval and adoption of the consti- tution in its integrity ? Yes, we may Ermly, unconscientiou sly and undeni- ably say that our federal government, with its written constitution, is all powerful, never to belaid aside with impunity so long, ass this great re- public exists. , I Our republic stands as an object of admiration to other nations of the globe. England, our former oppres- sor and persecutor, in the seclusion and isolation of her island home, looks with pride on her daughter of the west, France, our ally in time of distress, has experienced the whole- some intluences of a republican form of government, and has followed the precedent set by our favored com- mon weal th. The empires and monar- chies of the east, whose forms of government transmitted from genera- tion to generation and strengthened by the nonsensical superstition of ages, may well indeed bow their heads in humble adoration to the glourious republic of the west. Greece the land of poets and phil- osophers, by the daring and bravery of her loyal sons, rose to an eminent position in the history of nations. But Greece rose to fall. She, intoxi- cated by her own success and glorying in her own power, essayed impossible undertakings, until Home seizepl ?T.n-1 upon her vitals and ROlllG7S sive rule destroyed every vestige of her former greatness. Home the 'tqueen of cities and arbiter of her age, proud in her maj es- tic beauty and insolent in her trans- cendent power, ,rose to fall. Her le- gions planted her standards in the most distant climes and snatched victory after victory from the very jaws of her enemies, until the eastern hordes swept down on her like an avalanche and corruption sapped away the essence of life. Shall it be so with our grand stable and untaint- ed republic? May heaven forbid! Grave problems confront us at the present time, problems w.hose solution remains the duty of the present gen- eration-problems of finance, of taxes of conflicts between capital' and labor A--such are the questions demanding immediate solution, an almost super- human taslr for one generation to ef- fectuate, Yet, they must, be solved. Upon their right and just solution dependsthe destiny of our boasted nation. How shallthey be solved? How, indeed, was our republican form of government established and and made to be a bulwark against the attacks and ravages of Time? How have we attained Hnally to such a plane of development and progress?