The Arkansas advocate., 1835-11-27

the less justify serious thoughts. How
 may man be taught, and how persuaded 10
 ilmlt hls freedom, so that it may always be
 a source of good 2 is a question which rises
 into importance, and deserves attention. as
 we perceive his liability to faii victim to
 lis his ende#fsiefhi..ss.
 This disposition of man to overleap the
 restraints which bis own wisdom should
 erect around the exercise of his own power.
 seems at times to pervade whole people.
 It spreads from one to another with an eIec- trfc rapidity,-breaks out into volenee,- and sweeps away the comforts along with the proprieiies of life. At such times, it behooYes every one to watch himself, lest
 he be drawn into the current of lawless- ness ]; for men more often err through sym pathy with the state of feeling about them,
 than through deliberate choice of evil.
 The wisest and tho best are not safe against eithor the fury or the contagion of popular disorder. The counsel which an
 Apostle of Christianity has left in one of his letters to the early believers, points out a danger against which no man in modern times should think himself secure: As free, and not using your liberty as cloak of maliciousness,' etc.
 Many facts of recent occurrence are suited to give q peculiar pertinoncy to this counsel, at the present time. II is impos- sible to read or hear the intelligence which comes by almost every mail from different parts cf the country, and not feel some ap- prehension respecting the issue of that ex- uberant liberty by which this land is distn- guished. That its worst outrages are per- petrated at distance from us, should not prevent our taking an immediate interest in the questions of duty and safety which they raise; for the same spirit which is now as- samng the most disastrous forms of ex- presson elsewhere, has manifested itself Tn frantic passion under our own eyes, and may be still heard muttering indistinet plr- poses of mischief from one and another province of social life. Let it be that the anxeties which many feel respecting the fu- ture are groundless: even if :" the signs of the limcso De not pregnant with warning, stl no one will deny that 1t is the part of eommendable prudence 10 strengthen the securities of peace ard order. Does it not become accountable men, to whom God has committed the care, not only of their own, but in some degree of one anolller's welfare, 10 be attentive to the condition of things about them, by which, unless they exercise the control which they ought to take into lheir own hands, they must lhem- selves be subduedl
 The origin of the excesses by which the past year has been signalized, is not of diff hcult discovery. But 1t Is common mis- take 10 attribute such violations of order to some immediate influence, which only ex- plains the fact of their appearance at the time, but does not reveal their source. Su- perhclal observation can discern the cir eumstances which precede an outbreak of popular feeling, and hasty judgment pro- nounces them it's cause. Its occasion they are,-the cause of that particular exhibi- ton of spirit which must have previously existed in the minds of the people. But that spirit whence comes ii? What gave 1t being2 What nursed it into strength, and prepared it for the mad disclosure of its energies The spirit iiself,-do we un- dersfand it's character? Do we know that 1t is fierce and reckless spirit, destructive Q! honor, aiid fatal to liberty? Do we coii- sider that it's smnthered violence Is lesser evil only than it's open rage, and that country whose citizens allow it an abiding place Tn their bosoms IS in continual dan- ger oi the worst calamities which can visit a land This spirit will find opportunities of clamour and mischief in different condi- tons of society. In a season of mcrcan- tile embarrassment, it will take advantage of the troubles which are actually felt, and endeayor 10 remedy them by some intem- perate movement, that will only increase the distress which it alleges as the reason of it's interference with the regular process es of the social state. But in d time of great prosperity, we see that it Is as ready to lay hold on imaginary grounds of com plaint, and to undertake some wild scheme of distribuiive or executive justice. What IS this spirit that can deyaslate that which is fair, and render desolation ten fold more gloomy In learning what 1t is, we shall learn its origin and its cure.
 It is C spirit of laaelessaess, will not bear necessary and proper restraints, but chooses to be supreme,--aboye order, above authority above reason,--above every influence, human or divine. that could curb it's important purposes. Hence we must look for it's origin 10 the want of those principles which intelligence and morality tend to fix in the mind,-and we must not hope to remedy it, til, by the diffusion of these powerful agents, we have made the people capable of understanding their own passions.
 As free but what is freedorn9 In our