The Lancaster ledger. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1852-1905, 1854-06-21

fed with any amount Of present good, but
are constantly seeking and striving after the
unreal and the unattainable. 1t would be
impossible to invent state Of society 50
perfect but that desire would still exist
for something additional. 1t Is the con.
stant struggle between the actual and the
ideal. As the actual necessarily partakes of
the imperfections of human nature, the ideal
always has more .harms, because it is not of
the earth. There is nothing more disas-
trous to the Individual or the nation than too
ardent pursuit Of the ideal ut the expense
of the actual. The pursuit of military glo-
ry, the acme Of the ideal, has opened perpet-
ual fountains of human blood. The blind
pursuit of the ideal in morals or politics, has
inflicted incalculable injury on the human
race. 1t is at least doubtful, whether men,
with the best intentions, in a reckless attain
ment of the ideal, have not done more inju-
ry to the world than men of the worst inten-
tions seeking merely the actual! What
have occasioned more desolation and des-
pair than religious wars? What infinite
tons, in search of revolutionary ideal, in
fict upon France! Nothing is more dan
gerous than philanthropy let loose.
This pursuit of the ideal in this country
has taken the form of Abolition. A large
portion of the Northern, people passing by
the numerous objects forphilanthropy at their
own doors, exhaust their abstract benev-
olence on the black race Of the South.
Founding themselves on the captivating
abstraction that all men are born free and
equal, they hurry to the conclusion that a
general emancipation is desirable, and that
they should seek it. They do not stop to
consider whether emancipation, if fatttinable,
would not be n curse rather than bles-
sing to the slaves. They overlook the
sanguinary struggle which emancipation at
the South would bring on between the ra-
ces; they forget that, in this struggle,
the blacks would necessarily be overwhel-
med and exterminated; they overlook the
disasters emancipation would bring upon
the whites of the South, who should be enti-
tied to at least as much ofhuman sympathy as
the blacks; they overlook the disasters such
convusions at the South would necessarily
superinduce on their own section; they for
get that the African race Of the South are
better of, in many respects, than the labor
ing population of any portion of Europe
and far better off than the same number Of
Africans are, or ever have been in any pc
riod of history. They do not look at this
question as a practical one. 1t is only the
ideal that has any charms for them, They
pursue this ideal at the expenses of the best
interests of the very objects Of their sympa-
thy, at the expense of their country, the
Constitution, republicanism, and the cause
ofhumanity ITSELF In all the prolific history
of human follies, none was ever more alb
surd, more unreasonable, more pregnant
with disaster than this. 1t is emphatically
the evil genius of the Republic.
In reviewing the history of the human
race, we find how seldom, and for what
short period, any portion Of mankind have
enjoyed tho blessings of good govern ent
The folly ani wickedness Of our race have
almost invariably incapacitated Them for
good government. An avenging Divinity
seems to have inccssantly pursued them,
and punished them through their Govern
ments. Oppression, insecurity, injustice,
perpetual wars, wholesale murders, have
been the constant and sad lot Of the human
race. lfnow and then temporary gleam
Of liberty, and peace, and justice, light up
the dark pages of the past, it has almost al
ways Immediately disappeared, and left the
world in more profound darkness and despair.
It once seemed that different and better
fate was reserved for our own country, bu
It appears now that we are eventually tc
run the same career of folly and disaster
that all nations have invariably run before
US. Enjoying higher degree of prospect
ty, and all the advantages good govern
ment to greater extent that has ever beer
granted to the human race before, we hav,
appeared to be the especial favorites of {
benignant Providence but our blessing.
were too great, and the spirit Of discord, mad
ness, and evil rose in our midst to bias
our glorious inheritance. Henceforth.
fear we are to play the same common place
folIies, and undergo the same disasters, thai
all other nations have acted and endured.
This anti-slavery agitation has already
exercised most injurious effect upon the
North. refer not so much to n meteria
rs moral injury. 1t has inaugurated n fiI
tai principle, at war with the peace of socie
ty, the highcr-law principe--a principle by
which individual conviction is elevated a
bove the law. According to this principle
DO laws, no constitution has any efficacy
when they come in collision with individ.
ual opinions. This principle is destructive
of the social fabric; for the theory upon
which society rests, is, that the will Of So
eiety, expressed in its legal form, through
the action Of government, is the supreme
law; but if no law is supreme but such as
meets the approval of each citizen, then the
forms Of government are but a mockery,
and society is resolved into its original ele-
ments. This principle having hitherto ta-
ken the form of nntaQonism to slavery, may