New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1849-06-01
Familiar Ideas of Liberty.

more readily inclten u hShs Ut ''a" -'N'''
nothing that By them is less consistently 'pp'e
bended ssd upheld. Liberty is quite commonly
understood 70 be IMMUNITY in doing WHAT we
please and in preventing others from DOING "nS'
doe. no, please Us The discussions respecting
the recent fatal Riot 10 our City develop tbs con
founding II Right with Nigh, very stnMngy
Thu, the WHkesbsrre tPenna Farnsr and Jour
uai oooly asserts, in iustifying the rioters and
condemning the City Authorities:
ATT, the disturbance. Of the fret night and afiei
IL becaroe apparent That the acting Of Mr. hacrea1y
wa. obnoxious % very large portion Of the con,nl
uity be should not nave been permitted TO pay ia o-'
ance Of their vshes Here the vital error ana ih'
80 r,oug Uc had from no n4aiier what cause De-
come disturbcr Of tho public peace ana the slio
he. were bound % see that he DID no act o"eA''ns
against that peace
Can ANY fail 10 see whittier this doctrine tends
Put the word eating instead Of acting IN the
above extract, read it once more and ponder
Il. Mr. MAcready an Engshmsn and IN some
sort an aristocrst chooses TO eat. But consider
able number Of the American Democraoy--a'
least hundred TO his one-have resolved Tor res
sons by them held good and sufficient that he
shall eat no longer Here are a hundred against
his eating b. one in its favor the rest Of the COM
youpity being Indifferent counting neither way
OC course. the Ayes have it-Mscrcady must
,too eating and il the Authorities don't stop him.
they are responsible for the fatal consequences Of
the sovereigns attemptt TO enforce by violence ana
tumult their arbitrary decree Who need be toia
that the Farmer and Journal is an eminent ana
vehement champion Of what passes IN this coun
try for Democracy
Nav. the Farmers doctrine is even worse than
this. II does not require majority OF those H.
terested ia the decision to stop mans eating
or earning that hs may eat drery lafgc P0ft'0"
of the community is sufficient, though decided
.niDority. TO shut q mans mouth aud destroy his
means of living. On both nights that hscready
plaved there was an incontestible majority Of the
auditors DESTROYS Of hearing hm-anxious that
the play should 20 on, having paid their money
expressly TO enjoy it, A minority, however had
determined to break up the performance by noise
and disorder, and on the first night they accom-
plished it, This was esteemed a very laudable
feat by themselves aud their sympsthlzers yet
20 our mind it was in the first place gross and
inexcusable tyranny-an exhibition OF that mean
est Of arstocraces, tho arstocracy OF bisckguaros
and in the next place a cowsrdly THEFT. The
disrurbers were as plainly thieves as # they had
stolen tho price Of ticket and the value Of an
evening from each quiet auditors pocket as he
entered the door OF the opera house.
But the Farmers doctrine goes beyond
mere justification of the indoor ruHanism 1t was
the mob outside on the fatal evening ~ho formed
that very large portion OF the community whom
the Authorities should have obeyed by arbitrarily
shutting up the house. They had paid no dollar
and had no more right or interest in that house
than in any private mansion in the neighborhood'
They are not even assumed TO have been ma.
jority Of our citizens, by this journalist who So
eubly asserts that Macready should not have
been permitted to play in defiance of their c'shes'
There il no prctense observe. that he violated
any law, outraged any precept OF morality or IN
iringed on any mans rights, by playing 1t was
simply the will OF a casual and lsw-defying assem-
blage that he should not play, and the Farmer says
the authorities should have caused that Will to
ovsrbear his unquestionable legal rights That
came Farmer was a most envenomed champion
OF the Dorr Rebellion In Rhode Island on the us
sumption that the Old Constitution OF that state
conHcted with the inaliensble Rights OF Man =
In either case il was true to its instructive hatred
Of Law and its natural delight in Mobs, Violence
and Brute Force. And this, we apprehend, Ia
the sort OF devotion TO Liberty which theatres IN
culcate and portsrhouse Democracy too generally
rejoices in.
For own part we have seen public edifices
private dwellings, to say nothing presses rayaged
aud destroyed upon the pretext that their owners
had become obnoxious to very large portion 81
the community quite long enough. This is the If
teenth year since these ouirsges became systema.
tic ia tho treatment OF Aboitonis,s, Africans aud
other obnoxious classes No Turkish, NO Rus
sian DIES potism is so wanton and internal as that OF
a sslfcreated. law deiying Mob, assuming t. de-
prive peaceable citizens of their property and
dearest rights on the pretext of otienses against
public opinion. We have reverence beyond that
Of most men, for the sancnty of Human Lie; yet
the liberty Of Millions is more precious than the
lives Of tens That the Supremacy OF the Laws
and the Personal Rigots OF every man to earn his
livelihood by such pursuit as the laws not inter
diot may be maintained without bloodshed, is our
feryent aspiration but rstiona aud lawful Liberty
we cannot surrender. When the taking OF HE
has been required to uphold that Liberty, he Is a
blind or a base man who will insnusto that the
blood, whether of the guilty or OF the innocen;
has been shed in vain.
ths struggles Of The icaaa RsPueuss sveoias Mirror
You will look good while before vcu and H. Do