weapons and challenges to combat were bandied between 

 rival candidates. Among such a people the one who ap' 

 peals to force, no matter under what guise, or who even 

 suggests any remedies for real or fancied wrongs which are 

 not to be brought about under the forms of law and es- 

 tablished government, is no less a malefactor than the 

 burglar or the foot-pad. Tliese popular characteristics of 

 the men who early peopled Essex County, which char- 

 acteristics in turn owed their existence to the fact that it 

 was sought to establish here a varied industry, and to lay 

 the foundations of prosperity in agriculture and commerce; 

 these traditions of government which were here wrought 

 out, and which have grown with time and permeated a 

 whole history, and are more manifest to-day than ever be- 

 fore, make part of the firm bed-rock upon which is erected 

 the temple of our liberties. 



Often in the history of the world has liberty and a free 

 government been lost through some sudden uprising, some 

 disregard of lawful method of proceeding, some passionate 

 appeal to citizens to take into their own hands, laws which 

 seem slow in operation or unjust in their results. The 

 mob is often the creation of an instant, but in tliat instant 

 it is likely to destroy what has cost years of the sacrifice 

 and devotion of a people to build up, and this result i& 

 often independent of its own fate. If it is successful, if it 

 tears down and uproots, if it gains control o^ power, it be- 

 comes itself the most hateful tyranny, and after a brief 

 career yields up its power to the unscrupulous and design- 

 ing few. If it fails, if it is put down and trampled under^ 

 the dangers which its existence has threatened, the possi- 

 bility that it could have been called into existence, the fear 

 of like occasion in the future, suggest and often result in 

 the enactment of stringent laws before unthought of. 

 Rights which are dear, and of the essence of liberty are 

 taken away or abridged, the right of free speech is curtailed, 

 the right of men to peacefully assemble for discussion and 

 council is denied and a hateful system of espionage weak- 



