BURDEN OF GOVERNMENT

The unprecedented came to pass, and men, fired with love of their country, with the ardent wish of averting still greater calamities which they foresaw, took matters into their own hands. Heaven knows their aims were of the loftiest, purest, to save their country from manifold dangers; but, alas, alack, they had never dealt before with the stern realities of life and death, of government and sedition. This was the moment for the wicked hydra to lift her head, to put out her slimy fangs, end to stifle in her embrace the children of freedom, who were longing for a new God. The evil grew from day to day; law and order disappeared; crimes too horrible to relate were perpetrated in the name of freedom, which meant licentiousness in every shape and form. International Jews and foreign adventurers sprang up from nowhere, haranguing poor wretches who seemed demented, inciting them with words and a shower of gold to acts of puerile folly. What were the wise men doing who had meant to save their country and instead had let loose the evil powers of hell? They tried persuasion and they tried kindness, for to use force was against the creed of freedom which they had preached. But where was force to come from? Everything had collapsed in a whirlwind of wild eloquence, loot, and murder. For many weeks the would-be redeemers of this delirious populace tried to hold the reins of government in their hands, but then one by one they resigned, proclaiming that frankly the burden of government was too hard to tear. If in the chaos that prevailed somebody had found time for reflection or quiet retrospection, he might have remembered that the deposed ruler of this mighty land had reigned over 20 years without a murmur, and without a complaint. No bitter drop in the full cup of life was spared him, and still he had persisted and borne the burden of government.