The weekly Lancaster gazette. (Lancaster, Ohio) 1852-1855, 1853-11-03


so they afford incentives to universal actiyit
and emulation Why, then, should not th
American citizen and the American Repub
lie be consciously independent in all thing
they are safe and free!
Such independence should be attain ed
and preserved, not by few only, but, a.
far as possible, by all citizens.
II Is not less essential that the farmer
the mechanic, and the laborer shall EMO,
it, than that It should regulate the action Of
The merchant, the lawyer and the states.
man.
Every member the State may becom,
soldier and even Senator. He can new
be less than an elector.
What does not the Republic owe to Sher
mon and franklin! Yet they were me-
chanics. What would not have been it.
fate but for the independence OF the cap
tors of Andre! Yet Pauding, Williams
and Van Vert were mere laboring men.
Virtue is ccnfessedly the vital principle
of the Republic: but virtue cannot exist
without courage, which is only the con!
sciousness OF independence.
We are bound to recommend Republica
Institutions to the acceptance of other ma
tions Can we do SO if we are content to
be no wiser, no more virtuous, no more USE
fu to humanity, than those to whom scuh
institutions are deniedl Responsibility is
always in proportion to the talent enjoyed.
Neither man nor nation can be wise or repl.
4 ly virtuous, or useful, when dependent on
the caprice or even the favor of another
Is there one among the tens Of thousands ol
inventions in the Patent Office that was
linn hui oil h.,
blood had been recently attanted by slave
Try! Peter the Great, master of so many
millions of slaves, resorted to the shop Of a
free mechanic of Saardam to learn the mys-
terry OF ship building. His successor, Mich
olas, employs Whistler, Massachusetts
Engineer, to project, his railroads; Ross
WiDans, Baltimore mechanic, TO construct
his locomotives, and erasmus Eaton, car
riage maker of Troy, to construct his cars.
II we act hereafter as we have acted hith-
erto we shall be continually changing old
things, old laws, old customs, and even old
Constitutions for new ones. Does any one
coubt this? Have we not already a third
Constitution in this State! Has any one OF
The States a Constitution older than twenty
five yearsl But political progress, il not
regulated With moderation, may move too
fast; and if not wisely guided will lead to
ruin. 1t is the people themselves, and not
any power above or aside from them, that
alone must regulatd and direct that pro.
gress. Be they ever so honest, they can.
not discharge so great political trust wise.
ly, except they act on such generous impuls-
es, and with such lofty purposes, as only
bold and independent men can conceive
The people must be independent, or thia
Republic, like all Republics that have gone
before it, must be ruled and ruined by dem
agogues.
| am far from supposing that we are sig
nally deficient in independence-l know
that it is anational,a hereditary and popu.
lar sentiment, that we annually celebrate
and always glory in our independence. We
DO so justly, for no where else does even q
form or shadow OF popular independence
exist, while here it is the very rock on
which our institutions rest. Nevertheless,
occasions for the exercise of this virtue may
be neglected.
We hold in contempt, equally just and
profound, him who imposes, and him who
wears a menal livery; and yet, think, that
we are accustomed to regard wi no great
severity, the employer who exacts, or the
mechanic, clerk or laborer, who yields po-
litcal conformity in consideration of wages.
We insist, as we ought, that every citizen
in the State shall be qualified by education
for citizenship; but we are by no means
unanimous that one citizen, or class of citi-
zens, shall not prescribe its own creed, in
the instruction of the children of others
We construct and remodel partizan formu-
las and platforms with changing circum-
stances, with almost as much diligence and
versatility as the Mexicans, and we at
tempt to enforce conformity to them, with
scarcely less of zeal and intolerance, not
indeed by the sword, but by the greater ter
ror of political prescription. We resist ar
gument not always with argument, but Of
ten with personal denunciation, and some
times even with combined violence. We diff
fer, indeed, as to the particular errors of po-
litical faith, that shall be corrected by this
extreme remedy; but, nevertheless, the
number of those who altogether deny its
necessity and suitableness in some cases is
very small.
We Justly maintain that a Free Press
is the palladium of liberty, andyet mutually
prescribing all editorial independence that
is manifested by opposition to our opinions,
we have only attained press that's free in
the sense that every interest, party, faction,
or Sect can have its own independent or
gan. If it be still maintained, notwithstand-
ing these illustrations to the contrary, that
entire social independence prevails, then,
ask, why is it so necessary to preserve with
jealousy, as we Justly do, the ballot. in lieu
Of open suffrage; for II every citizen is real
ly free from all fear and danger, why should
he mask his vote more than his face!
Believe me, fellow citisensJ independence
always langushes in the very degree that
intolerance prevails. We smile at the van
ity Of the factory girl at Lowell, who, hav-
ing spent the secular part of the week in
making calicoes lor tho use Of her unsophis-
ticated countrywomen, disdainlully arrays
herself on Sundays exclusively in the tints
of European dyes, and yet we are indiffer-
ent to the fact that besides universal con-
sumption of foreign silks, excluding,the
siikworm from our country, we purchase in
| England alone one hundred and fifty mil
lions of yards of the same stained muslins
We sustain here and there rickety, Or a,
best contracted iron manufactory; while
we import iron to make raikoads over ouI
own endless ore fields, and we carry oul
prejudices against our struggling manufact-
urers and mechanics so far as to fastidiousy
avoid wearing on our persons, or using or
our tables, or displaying in our drawing
rooms, any fabric, OF whatsoever material
texture or color, in the course Of its manu-
facture, has to our knowledge and belief
| ou ar couae in cnntacf with the honaat ha nd