The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-08-27

merit of the sacrifice. Is il not more consistent
with the fundamental principles Of natural Jus
tice TO temper, somewhat, the fury of our phi
lanthrOpy, and initiate the wisdom, and the
meekness and forbearance Of Moses? The re-
medy for all this evil is not to be sought
through violence and carnage, but by the
else of all the wisdom that God has given us,
and in a christian spirit. In his own good time
this remedy may become apparent. Its nom
existence or impossibilty cannot be inferred
from the fact that it has been undiscovered for
ages. We may as wisely deny the existence
or possibility of those developments in ply
sizes, which have made the presentag emphat-
ically an age of wonders.
When, for moment, we contemplate the
terrific consequences of the principle which
accords TO every individual the right Of DISC
beying law Of the land on the ground of his
conscience, or what he terms his higher lac,
we are amazed that man can be found SO
very stupid as to admit the assump tion for
one instant. This pleasant theory necessarily
presupposes state of perfection. Every man.
conscience is, of course, an infallible, moral
yardstick. His conscience, applied to facts
and circumstances, settles the question Of right
and wrong as surely as the application of the
aqua regia determines the presence of gold.
scared consciences, which are the majority
nothing of the utter impossibility of any gene
raj government on this amusing hypothesis
what broad portal would be opened for fraud
For there is nothing in one law, any more than
in another law, to prohibit or restrict the ope-
ration OF this delightful theory. When re-
qulred TO pay particular debt, contracted by
himself or his father before him, and for the
payment of which the estate may be legally
responsible, one may discover something in the
original contract which does not suit him pre-
cisely; in which case he has nothing to do but
to look particularly vrluous, and eXcam-.My
conscience, oh, nly conscience and thus ehec-
tually repudiate the obligation.
His friends, his counselors his very teacher
of piety may gainsay him, and assure him In
such case that his conscience certainly errs;
and he may reply, "God has given us our con-
sciences for our guidance respectively, and can
not be guided by yours, nor suffer you to be
the keeper of mine.,' A very sensible and all
sufficient answer, it seems TO me, upon the new
hypothesis.
The highly febrile condition of the public
mind which has 0ccasoned the recent uproar,
especially in this city, is to be ascribed direct
ly to the abolitionists, and that nora prOgenieS,
the Free soilers. 1t would almost seem that
lheoS SCiollStS ulettu upon DpdillSH HleSj Iol
their very breath, blown upon the community
has bistered the public sentiment; and to such
a degree that some of their devotees, especial
ly the female auXiliaries, are nearly thrown
into commissions by puff of air when the
wind is from the South. 1t would not be SUR
prsing if hereafter tenements Were built
with no windows opening in that direction.
They look upon slave-owner as the beau ideal
of the devil incarnate. Those idiosyncracies,
which drive certain persons nearly mad upon
the smell Of cheese or the presence of cat,
are likely to be extended to the products of
slave labor. II is surmised that our abolition
ladies will ere long sweeten their tea. with
anti-slavery maple from Vermont, and that
woolen will take the place of cotton chemses.
1t may be well to contemplate the abolition
mania as it was in its days of small things, and
as it is at the present day, when every public
exhibition is a paroxysm; and to consider how
much there may have been of wisdom and fore
cast in the strenuous foretellings of such men as
Walworth, Ogden, and Frelinghuysen, some
twenty years ago. SIGMA.