The Elko Independent

Eloquent Appeal.

The Hon. S. S. Cox concluded his speech on the Ku-Klux bill, in the following eloquent appeal to the Radical majority to desist from their bloody work:

By all the lessons I have culled from history; by the graces which have pacified nations heretofore; by the perils of smothered revenge and secret circles which I denounce; by our bones and institutions; by all that is ennobling in thought and ignoble in mere force; I ask you not to tempt the coming party by such excesses of power. Do not teach us bloody instructions! Lead us not into temptation! You need but perceive your shroud and grave are making. You need not put your ear to the earth to hear the tramp of the coming Democracy, for you must have felt that the constant neglect of urgent duties here, as to taxation, commerce and amnesty, are demoralizing and destructive. I pray you to pause on the brink. This legislation will rebound. Save us the horrors which follow such inconsiderate tampering with our traditional and written liberties. Save yourselves, if not your country. You have men in your ranks of splendid reputation and ability. Many have left and are leaving you whom you were once proud to claim. In their honor do not cut your blossoms of the past off from the parent stem. Save the country as a band of States, not as a banditti of roving mercenaries of Paris Reds. I make my prayer to God for that mercy which we shall need in that hour when the execution of such a vindictive law as this is executed by the will of an absolute dictator, at the behest of a party. I make my appeal to you for that Constitution we are all sworn to support. It may be that our Constitution is like what some one says of the sword of the Black Prince, too heavy to be wielded by the pigmies of our time; but if it is only a relic in the sanctuary, let it be an object of reverence for what it was if not a term for what it is—honorable in its rust, if not in its edge.