The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1845-08-01
Just n Sentiments.

is the following very finely written pas.
sage. enforcing from the grea, lesson of
history the Indispensable necessity of
general education:
"Men waited until twelve centuries of
religious persecution had been inflicted
upon them by government, before they
took effective measures for The establish
menl Of religious freedom. Our ances-
tors bore political oppression for a cenlu-
ny and half, before they pledged fortune.
life and honor to resistance. For tens
Of centuries men endured all the caami-
ties and horrors Of unnecessary war, un-
I'll the historic aggregate of suffering and
crime became too mighty to be longer
borne and it was then that only por-
ton of mankind began 10 open their eyes
to its folly and wiekedness. Men sue
cumbed TO the evils Of intemperance, un-
I'll those evils threatened to brulify and
demonze the race. before they banded
themselves together for disen,hralmei.t
and ransom. Men looked quietly upon
the atrocities of the slave trade, until a
continent was empiied, and an ocean fill
ed with myriads Of lis victims. And so
Of those other crimes and calamities which
have made the history Of the world like
the roll of the prophet. record Of mourh-
ing, lamenta,ion and woe. The shreks,
not only of one, but of hundreds of car
goes OF slaves, fell in vain upon the dumb
ear of society. The ruin of thousands
and tens of thousands by inlemperance,
was sufficient to starlle humanity from
its guilty slumber. War had to pile the
heaps Of its slain mountain high. and to
pour out human blood with river.lke
width and depth, before men could be
made to acknowledge its iniqulies and
its agonies. The fires Of persecution
burned for ages, the rack labored, the
dungeon buried alive, before men vind-
Gated their right 10 freedom of conscience.
And so ii has been in regard To all human
evils. The first cause arouses no man
alarms no man. The first hundred or
perhaps thousand cases, are borne with
il not thoughllessness. They
fail to stimulate either government or so.
ciety TO devise or seek remedy. Mon
wait until the tide of evil rises and desc
|ates the land again, before they will erect
barriers against the deluge. Men will
no, hear the wind; they wait for The
whirlwind. Men will not take warning
from the cloud, they wait for the tempest.
And the caamilies which spring from ig-
norance and neglect of the social condi-
lion of the masses Of tie people, are no
exception to this rule. Republics, one
after anoiher,-a splendid yet mournful
Irain,-have emerged into being: they
have arisen TO greatness, and surrounding
nations have sought protection beneath
The shelter of their power; but they have
persisted through want of intelligence
and virtue in ile masses of the people
They have been delivered over to anar-
,hy and thence TO despotsm; and be-
cause they would not obey their own
avs they have been held in bondage by
he laws OF tyranls. One after another,
hey have been bloued from the page of
existence, and the descendants of re-
lowned and noble ancestry have been
made bOndmen and bondwomen. they
lavs been dishonored and lrampled upon,
IN ihesvery soil choral with the brave
leeds of their forefathers, Has sulli-
,lent number of these victim nations been
sacrificed, or must onrs he added to the
ragic list! If men had been wise, these
ragic sacrifices might have been mi,iga-
ed, or brought to an end centuries ago.
II men are wise. they may be brought to
end now. But if men will not be wise,
hcse mournlul scenes mus, be repeated
again and again, for centuries to come
Doubtless al some time they will come
10 an end. When the accumula,ions of
evils shall be so enormous and over
that humanity can no longer
endure them, then adequate efforts for
heir termination will be made. The
question for us is. has not the fullness of
The time now come! Are not the suffer-
Ings OF past ages, are not the cries of ex-
pirlng nations, whose echoes have not
died away, summons sufficiently loud TO
reach our ears, and to rouse us to apply
remedy for the present, an,idote for the
future We shall answer these ques-
lions by the way we educate the rising
generation. If we do no, prepare chill
dren to become good citzens.-i we do
not enrich their minds with knowledge,
Undue their hearts with the love of truth
and duty, and reverence for all things
sacred aud holy, then our republic mus,
60 down 10 destruction as others have
gone before i.-and mankind must sweep
through another vast circle Of sin and suf
fering, before the dawn Of better era can
arise upon the world. 1t is FOR our gov.
eminent and for IN At puhlic oniuion which