Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1821-06-26


the numerous causes of dissention be-
longing to the country, i'll feelings will
arise; he associates with the sect the
character of the individual, and transfers
to the faith the blame which should lie
in more general causes. The spirit OF
intolerance lies dormant in elder settle
ments from want of exciting causes, but
here it has ample opportunity of evolving
itself. The creed having suffered by the
individual, the individual suffers on ac-
count of his creed; prejudices against
whole sects spread with the rapldity OF
lightning among the members of an OPP
posite belief, and constant intercourse
with fellow sectarians accumulates tho
fuel to keep up the flame; for each has
his grievances to add to the mass.
The conflicts of interest or ambition
are often hidden under the protection of
religious parties, and prostituted leaders
are advanced to triumph under the SOL
diers of religion. So magical the influ-
ence of the countersign (name OF the
sect that even sectional jealousies are
suspended during the time that such III
valry among such parties prevail; and
dlscordant manners, customs, and modes
of thinking on general subjects are en-
tirely forgotten in the intense anxiety ex-
cited for sectarian welfare. Bat as soon
as religious partyism has subsidized and
questions of internal regulation or go
vernment for themselves are brou ght,
then sectional distinctions exert their
powerful, repulsive, and disseverig force
in the resulting measures; and if the
congregation be not yet supplied with
minister, they remain for years unheaded
by pastor, because they cannot agree
upon the direction, or the state, or the
county from which he must come. How
ever uncertain any party with regard to
obtaining its iavorite, and however rea-
sonable the supposition that if obtained
he would be as unlikely to suit the whole
as any other, yet reason and justice are
SO overcome by party feeling, that the
members underrate the value of present
substance when contrasted with distant
shadows; and therefore even missiona~
RIGS who from rising popularity seem to
threaten the hopes OF Observation-Disclosures
are Immediately driven away by the
shafts of SANDER arising from sectional
prejudice.
lfsectional and sectarian names, mere
ly, create so much confusion, and con-
fusion worse coniounded,' by internal
sources of disquietude, what must be
expected from the connections of pecu-
mary interest? Every emigrant removes
with the view of increasing his property.
1t is almost the only consideration that
could induce him TO sustain the privations
incident to new settlement--lt is GER
tainly the principal pleasure he anenioy.
In the older settlements the boundaries
OF enterprise are defined; the lines Of
direction are established; the old advcn-
turers are fixed, and the new ones must
regulate their measures accordingly.---
Here all is unsettled; hundreds have
started with similar limited means, and
similar unbounded speculative idcas.-->
Each, therefore, jostles against the other;
and the means and the wishes and the
expectations clashing in horrible uproar,
the demon of SANDER mingles busiest
among the busy to destroy. Land sps-
cnators in general; town spectators in
particular; merchants and shopkeepers;
lawyers and doctors; laborers and NEE
chanics manufacturers and farmers all
expect to find place where no compc-
titlon is to be feared, nor failure dreaded:
where riches can be obtained at CON-
mand, without adequate means or fs-
uguing eXertion. But the world is SO
plenituIly supplied with idle bodies and
restless minds; with sanguinc specula.
tors, II not avarlclous retainers with so
many broken in fame, as well as in for
tune; and with such vast numbers who
dared not aspire to either in more popr-
lous places that each meets with hume
rous individuals who stand in his way, or
will be shortly met by them. The con-
sequences that invariably ensue could
have been reasonably anticipated. Throw
ing aside the various contests of profess
sional men, or pretenders, in which all
The meanness of artiiice is practised with
all the cunning of ingenuity, before pub
lie opinion has become sufficiently en-
hghened to assign the competitors their
proper seats i'll the light and in the shade:
leaving out the numerous conflicts for
political Offices from the highest to tho
lowest, where the salary or the perqui~
sites are the principal objects of this
seekers we still have in the anxious de.
sire OF almost every settler to increase
the relative value of his land, an abun-
dant source OF contention. The influence
OF to70n Speculation has in some degrees
been noticed by Young Rustic in his re-