The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-03-26
For the Southern Pyess.
Relies sf Scraps and Mas1ngs.
"a NORTH-E EASTER.

II would seem that nothing can be done in
this country except by raising an excitement
which 1t will generally be found, like our great
snow. storms, commences at the North east
and spreads over the whole Union, with the ex
cePtion Of the South. Mason and Dixon's line
appears the great barrier 10 these whirlwinds
and tornadoes. Another popularity attending
these "excitements," is, that let them originate
In what cause they may, they always in the
end become political, and subservient to the
statesman mounts an excitement, and every
small one, like the little devil whose vocation
was confined to raising whrlwind in pars-
ley bed, Is hard at work, day and night, in get
ting up an excitement in his town or county
which may be turned to political purposes.
Whether a religious excitement, an abolition ex
a superstitious excitement, or tenn
peranee excitement, It matters not. They are
all amaigamated in the great political menstru-
mn, and brought to bear on Presidential cleo
ton. Some ndroit, trading politician jumps on
the back Of one or other of them, and manages
to guide the fiery steed into the great race
course, TO run for the royal cup. Who but one
Of these accomplished riders, could have con-
esived the happy idea of entering the lists on
the back Of the "Maine liquor law" as it is
called II certainly has no natural connexion
with politics, nor the least peculiar affinity with
any party II rs true that one drinks more wine,
the other more whiskey, perhaps, than the other.
But in point oftemperance in the general indul-
genee Of their appettes, there is probably no
difference. Yet somehow or other, this tre-
mendous gale from the Northeast, has blown
down the fences between all parties in various
quarters, and the highest recommendation for a
Presidential candidate is "total abstinence"
One might laugh at all this, were not its con-
sequences 30 mschievous Setting aside the
gigantic strides these fanatical exctements are
making on the freedom Of action and opinion,
and the great principle of equal rights asserted
in all our constitutions, they are gradually SUI.
perseding the sober dictates of reason and Judge
ment and substituting sudden, incorporate i'm
pulses in their place. Neither religion, morals,
or liberty, can be permanently sustained by
tanatical excitements, however honest and pure
may be their origin and their objects. Excite
ments are evanescent in their very nature, and
the more violent they are, the sooner they sub
side, except when madness, as is often the case,
cnsues.
The human mind cannot long sustain these
overwrought impulses; and when they are over
relapses into lassitude and indi1er
ence, or what is worse, coldbloodcd, confirmed
hypocrisy The whole history of mankind do.
that all salutary and lasting refor-
nations in religion, morals, and politics are
brought about, not by fanatical excitements, but
by temperate appeals to the law of God, and
the reason of mankind That law was exclusive.
ly propounded to rational beings, not TO brute
beasts, and after ALL it is by appeals to their rea-
son, you must expect to reform them. BY as
sailing them with the frebrand of fanaticism
you may make them Mormons, or Sewardites
but never devout, rational Christians, according
10 the example of the great author of Christian
ty. The advocates Of temperance had better
be little more temperate in their war against
whiskey, for it is not in drinking alone that in
temperance may be INDUCED. Excess in every
thing is species Of intoxcaton, and it is not
the drunkard exclusively that requires restraint
THE SHEPHERDS AND THEIR FLocKs.
see that the Rev. Mr. Harris and the Rev.
Mr. Scott, of Virginia, have become missionaries
in the propagation of the new faith of spiritual
knockings." Would it not be much better to
instruct their hocks in the principles of Christi
anty, and persuade them to follow their dictates
Have spiritual knockings, or spiritual agency,
anything to do with our duties to God or our
fellow creatures! Have they any connexion
with the great fundamental principles of the
Christian faith! On the contrary, has not this
belief in direct spiritual agency direct tendency
to begct and foster a dangerous superstition,
which has already, in many instances, produced
arrangement madness, and selfmurder! Do
they confound the demon of superstition with
the bright ethereal angel Of Christianity or do
they believe they are making men, women, and
children pious, by filling their minds with spec
tres, overwhelming them with ncomprehcnsible
terrors, and SCATTERING weak nerves and weaker
heads into atoms Do they, in short, think they
can lead their ccks into the regions of light by
setting them cropping in the dark den of supcr-
sltion!
Il is sad spectacle to see the pulpit prosti-
tuted, as II now is in so many cases, to such mis-.
chievous purposes. There is no theory danger
GUS to the peace of society--no doctrine of dis
organization, however wild and extravagant-
no self-crea,ed, selfsupported dogma of mis-.
chievous or fanatic brain--that does not now
find brawling advocates in the pulpit Ignorant,
Indifferent TO all at war with the principles of
civil and religious liber.y-nay with the very or.
ganiza,ion Of society-they are not only pre-
pairing the way for the entire overthrow Of tina,
great fabric which has for ts basis the divine
authority, but, by bringing the law Of God and
he laura Of man In diyocf npnosif,an with 10 al