Speeches of William Jennings Bryan Author:William Jennings Bryan Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: II NABOTH'S VINEYARD Delivered at Denver, Cola, in the winter of 1898-9, and one of the earliest protests made against colonialism. THE Bible tells us t... more »hat Ahab, the king, wanted the vineyard of Naboth and was sorely grieved because the owner thereof refused to part; with the inheritance of his fathers. Then followed a plot, and false charges were preferred against jSTuboth to jfiunsusb an excuse for getting rid of him. '' Thou shalt not covet!" " Thou sia.lt not bear false witness!" " Thou shalt not kill''—th ee commandments broken, and still a fourth, shalt not steal," to be broken in order to get a piece of ground! And what was the result? the king went forth to take possession, Elijah that brave old prophet of the early days, met hira and pronounced against him the sentence of he Almighty. "In the place where the dogs"licked the blood of Naboth shall the dogs lick ty blood, even thine." Neither his own exalted position nor the lowly station of his victim could Save him from the avenging hand of outraged justice. His case was tried in a court where either wealth, nor rank, nor power, could sb the transgressor. Wars of %nqUest have their origin in covetousness, and the history of the human race has been written in characters of blood because rulers have looked with longing eyes upon the lands of others. Covetousness is prone to seek the aid of false pretense to carry out its plans, but what it cannot secure by persuasion it takes by the sword. Senator Teller's amendment to the intervention resolution saved the Cubans from the covetousness of those who are so anxious to secure possession of the island, that they are willing to deny the truth of the declaration of our own Congress, that "the people of Cuba are, and of right ought to be, free." Imperialis...« less