Monmouth College - Ravelings Yearbook (Monmouth, IL)

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6 UAVELINGS, had set them free! Destroy a time- The agitator has a province distinc- honored institution, the corner stone tively his own. Courage, purpose, en- of our material and commercial pros- durance, are the qualities which test perity! From legislative bodies and his power. His mission is to change the halls of congress came the answer, opinion. Change in opinion comes No! From north and south, from east slowly. Thus it has ever been. Ev- and west, from church and school, ery step in the onward march of civili- from village and hamlet came the an- zation has been impeded by opposing swer, No! Did he falter? Did he forces. Every author of reform has pause to count the cost? Not, though been denounced as a fanatic. No man a misguided public thrust him behind who has dax ' ed present a new idea has prison walls. Not, though the pulpit at first met with public approbation, denounced him as an enemy of Chris- Galileo giving his life to scientific re- tian truth. Not, thoug ' h ,n infuriate search; Savonarola reforming the cor- mob dragged him through the streets ruptions of the church: Daniel O ' Con- of Boston. He believed that opposi- nell pleading for his country ' s liberty; tion would only spread the truth. Phillips giving his life and talents to And the breath of hissing mobs but the freeing- of a down-trodden race; all fanned reform ' s bright flame, which have worked in opposition to public spread on every side, mounting higher opinion. Even in the closing days of and higher with ever-increasing bril- the nineteenth century, social and pol- liancy, until an enlightened public itical ostracism awaits the man who sentiment guided the pen of Lincoln, dares oppose the popular will, broke the fetters of four million slaves .The agitator must stand on principle and made them free. and shun expediency. Devotion to In a land of constitutional liberty, principle is the secret of his power. It public opinion finds expression in leg- has been the secret of power in every islative enactments. ' Tis thus the reform. It led John Huss and Jerome best interests of society are conserved, of Prag ' ue as martyrs to the stake; The sanction of law adds dignity and their noble example g-ave to the world power. But seldom are the qualities a Luther and a Melancthon. Devotion of agitator and of statesman found to principle! It led the Ironsides of combined. The statesman must feel Cromwell to a victory which saved the the pulse of public opinion, must liberties of England, and g ' ave an im- watch with eager eye the tendency of pulse to the g ' rowth of freedom on affairs: with calm deliberation he American soil. It led the Revolution- awaits the coming change. The agi- ary fathers to lay their lives a sacrifice tator must create public sentiment, upon the altar of their country. Devo- Regardless of consequences he de- tion to principle! It inspired the Cov- clares what people should believe; the enanters of Scotland with courage to statesman that alone which they are resist the unjiist decrees of a corrupt ready to believe. In the role of king and court: their heroic stand pre- statesman the agitator ' s action would served relig-ious freedom to the Anglo- be premature. While Phillips sows Saxon race. Devotion to principle! the seed and tills the soil, the fruits The songs of redeeming love from ev- must be conserved and garnered by a ery land and every clime, ascending Lincoln ' s master hand. daily to the throne above, attest its

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BAVELINGS. 5 will choose aright. This fact is the truth and point it out to others. Up- keystone of republican institutions, on his shoulders rests the mantle of Tis thus responsibility will educate the ancient prophet. Pew may come the lowest into self-control, and self- to his exact position, but his influence control is the basis of popular govern- is felt on every hand. He lives in ad- ment. vance of his age. He stands as on a Since existing conditions are not al- mountain top beckoning men upward ways the best, what will produce the to his position. While few may gain change? Shall we look to political the lofty summit, the mountain sides parties alone? They do not create and will finally be covered, form, they represent public opinion The pages of modern history are ready for action. Shall we look to the bright with the names of successful partisan press? It can only drift upon agitators. A century ago the Irish the crested wave of public opinion, people lay prostrate beneath the iron Shall it be produced by quiet waiting heel of English lords. Every attempt or compromising with existing- evils? to rise was met with laws more rigor- As well expect the gentle evening ous and severe. O ' Connell came upon zephyrs to uproot the mighty oak as the scene. He moulded together the that mild words and compromising elements of power. Out of chaotic measures will effect reform. Conces- conditions he brought united action, sion and compromise never produce a He made the pulse of Irish patriotism change in opinion. Their sphere is thrill with new life and hope. By found in matters of expediency alone, moral agitation he created a public Moral agitation is the fundamental sentiment which changed his country ' s power which forms and moulds public destiny: and as the years pass by, the opinion. It will lead to a knowledge agitator ' s power is felt on every hand of the truth: a knowledge of the truth until a Gladstone pleads the cause of produces a change; this change in Ireland in the English Parliament, opinion means reform. The effect, Draw aside the veil which conceals though gradual, is like the stream, the history of the abolition movement springing from the mountain side, de- in our own land. Just before its scending from rock to rock, re-en- dawn, men viewed slavery as a part of forced by other streams, growing, picturesque Virginia life. With few broadening. deepening into the exceptions the pulpit was silent. The mighty river, until at length it sweeps press was quiet. No whisper of the onward with irresistible power, bear- wrongs of slavery stirred the deep ing the ocean fleets upon its bosom, tranquility of the political sea. There is, too, the ever-increasing ten- Lulled to lethargic repose by the hum dency to bury the finer sensibilities of cotton gin and factory, public senti- beneath material interests. Agitation ment lay dormant. But a change was is the preserving power of the Repub- at hand. The voice of Garrison, in- lic. It is the pulse-beat of liberty. It stinct with a living principle, awoke is life and health. Stagnation is de- the sleeping land. He proclaimed in cay. Agitation produces thought tones of thunder the duty of immedi- along new lines. It concentrates the ate emancipation. What! Emanci- public mind upon great themes. The pate the slaves! Turn them loose to mission of the agitator is to see the ravage and destroy the masters who

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RAVELINGS. 7 power. Its ultimate fruition will be character of the Compromiser should the crowning of the lowly Nazarene as seem uninteresting and uninspiring, king in the hearts of men throughout We have come to associate with the the world. word Compromise the idea of insta- The greater the advancement in civ- bility and weakness. It immediately ilization. the more true liberty is ac- suggests political trickery and in- corded the individual man. the greater trigue; men without foundation who is the need of agitation, the stronger are striving to achieve success by i s the agitator ' s power. He has been cringing to both parties in contest, an important factor in modern prog- Is this conception of the Compro- ress. At his touch, unjust penal codes miser altogether right and just? Corn- have been blotted from the statute promise is defined as an agreement book, and slaves have breathed the air based upon the mutual concessions of of freedom. By his efforts the demon persons or parties holding irreconcila- of intemperance flees before the scien- ble opinions, or having conflicting tific temperance instruction of a thou- rights. There is nothing unnatural in sand schools. What he conceived on such a principle. It is exhibited not yesterday, is today the sober judg- only in social but also in physical ment of an enlightened people, and laws. The starry hosts of the firma- tomorrow the charter of a nation. As ment, each attracting and being at- long as there is a wrong inflicted, as tracted by each of the myriad suns, long as a single right is granted to the stars, and worlds; all their individual strong and denied the weak, his mis- forces and motions combined to pro- sion will continue. It will continue duce one grand, sublime x - esultant — until the lower classes have been ele- what is the eternal swing, the stately vated to a plane of decency and self- march of the universe, but a divine respect. It will continue until capital expression of the principle of Compro- and. labor shall clasp hands in unity mise! Compromise is the foundation and friendship. Moral agitation will of all society. It was born when man lead to that power, which, emanating ceased to live alone. No one is absol- from Calvary ' s holy cross, permeating utely free and independent. Every the masses, elevating- and ennobling, man. however solitary may seem his will one day lift them into the sun- occupation, is a member of a vast in- light of truth divine. dustrial partnership as large as the nation, as large as humanity. In the THE HERO OF COMPROMISE. language of Burke: ••All government. C. A. iiauehkach. knox college, indeed every human benefit and enjoy- First Prize Oration, Illinois Inter-Collegiate ment - ever - v virtue and ever y P radent Contest, Held at Jacksonville. act is founded on Compromise. With- October. 5, 1894. out it might becomes right, and we Our ideas of heroism are naturally have the tyrant and the slave! associated with bravery and fortitude. But it is objected that concession He who has most often won the plau- wherein moral principles are involved dits of the world has been the man of will lead to deplorable results — the iron will and unyielding courage. It promoting of wrong and the retarding is not strange, then, that in contrast of right. Thus bitter criticism has to such a conception of the heroic, the been heaped upon our Compromisers