The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-03-14


1slios OF SCRAPS ana Mustnga--No ID.
SErrER LATE THAN HEvEa.
When soc 90 many Of our grey beard traders
In political corruption, Who have spent the prime
ofls In pursuit Of one single object, regardless Of
the means OF attaining 1t, turning pious in their
old age-that Is, 20 far ~ canting goes--I am re-
minded Of Cotton MAthsr, Who describes this
class of "latter day saints" ''giving their flour
70 the ID, their bran to the Lord.1
ABSOLUTE POWER
The best government in the world would be that
OF absolute power, directed alone by wise>m aud
virtue. There have been a few rare examples of
this kind, but the odds are 80 much against them
that experience has taught US that absolute pow
er is only to be trusted to infinite wisdom and
goodness. God alone should govern the world by
his will, because he 10 restansd by his own attri-
butes from doing wrong.
ruBLIc AND PRIVATE DUTIES
The virtues are often at loggerheads with each
other, and this IL most especially the case with
our public and domestic duties. Patriotism, or
the love Of your country, frequently calls upon us
to sacrifice our domestic feelings and interests to
the good Of the whole; and philanthropy, or the
love Of all mankind, loses sight of the obligations
Of patriotism in universal benevolence. Among
the Spartans, domestic ties and private interests
were all merged in devotion to the State, and the
most patriotic people the world ever saw, was of
all others the most destitute of private virtue. In
the early ages Of Rome, domestic virtues, in like
manner, gave place to patriotism, which, as be-
fore observed, la In many cases. at least apparent
ly, opposed to them. In the period Of Rome, de-
generacy, the feeling of patriotism was absorbed,
not in the mere amiable impulses Of domestic and
social life, but in mere sel6shness. Luxury, av-
arice, lust and ambition superseded them, and the
love Of country was sacrificed, not to the ties OF
kindred, or the obligations of friendship, but the
qualification Of exclusively selfsh indulgences.-
Thus, in the first instance, the excess Of patriotism
led to disregard of private duties; and in the
cond. the excess of selfshness destroyed all love
of country. II is very difficult to draw the line
between our domestic obligations and private du-
ties; between what we owe to our family and
friends, and what we owe to our country, and
still more difficult TO act the decision. Still,
it cannot be denied that the first duty Of citizen
is that which he owes to his country, since in her
destiny is involved the safety Of his family, his
property, and his rights. By defending her, he
best protects them all; by deserving her, he places
them in jeopardy. At present, philanthropy is
our greatest enemy, for it at one and the same
time makes war against private duties and patri-
otto feelings. 1t has substituted the world for our
country, and all mankind in place of our country
men. This is pretty enough in theory. but it
wont do in practice The world is too wide for
PUBLIC OPINION
He who is Indifferent to the opinion Of the
world, must be very much above, or very much
below his fellow creatures.
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION.
The primitive Christians, without doubt, pro-
voked the persecution Of the Roman emperors, by
their utter intolerance of every other faith. Not
only this, by consulting the history Of those times
it will be found, that the worst prosecutions they
suffered were those which they inflicted on each
other, in the reign of Constantine and his chris
tan successors, the grounds of which were GER
tain metaphysical distinctions which not one OF
either sect could explain or comprehend. Not
one, or all the prosecutions of the Pagan empe-
rors, even if taken with all their exaggerations,
equalled in atrocy or extent, the crusade against
the Mahometans, or that OF the Albiganses, the
massacre of ST. Bartholomew, or the thirty years
war in Germany, which was struggle of two
Christian sects, and is estimated to have cost the
lives of twenty millions Of men, women, and chill
dren. 1t is greatly to be lamented that the most
wild mercifu and forgiving system Of morals
er propounded to mankind, has been made pre-
text for the violation Of all its principles.
CORPORATIONS AND LEGISLATIVE BODIES.
Some men don't mind playing the rogue, when
there are enough together to keep them in counte-
nance.
DESTINY.
A Mussleman Tartar of the Crimea, being
asked what remedies they used in Turkey, re-
piled, "We lay the sick man down on his bed,
and if it please God, he RECEIVERS. Allah Karin 20
THE RUSSIANS.
Peter the Great excluded the Jews from the
street where old clothes are sold in ST. Peters.
burg, because, as he said, 'sThe Russians were
too cunning for them, and would cheat them Of all
they gained elsewhere"