Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 10.djvu/191

 HARRISON

��may well stop and inquire what is to be the end of this.

An unlawful expedient can not become a per- manent condition of government. If the edu- cated and influential classes in a community either practise or connive at the systematic vio- lation of laws that seem to them to cross their convenience, what can they expect when the les- son that convenience or a supposed class interest is a sufificient cause for lawlessness has been well learned by the ignorant classes? A community where law is the rule of conduct and where courts, not mobs, execute its penalties, is the only attractive field for business investments and honest labor.

If in any of the States the public security is thought to be threatened by ignorance among the electors, the obvious remedy is education. The sympathy and help of our people will not be withheld from any community struggling with special embarrassments or difficulties connected with the suffrage, if the remedies proposed pro- ceed upon lawful lines and are promoted by just and honorable methods. How shall those who practise election frauds recover that respect for the sanctity of the ballot which is the first con- dition and obligation of good citizenship? The man who has come to regard the ballot-box as a juggler's hat has renounced his allegiance.

Let us exalt patriotism and moderate our party contentions. Let those who would die for the flag on the field of battle give a better proof

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