The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1854-11-22

continent butt was not our American freedom
| It was freedom of cities instead of territories
an acknowledgment of the citizen, instead q
the individual. Inits practical operation It was
unlike the machinery of American republican
ISM It embraced no idea Of representation; i
admitted no local independence.
"That all men are born free and equal and
are endowed with certain inalienable rights" is
the enunciation Of the great American idea GU
Of this have grown all that has blessed and
prospered US as nation. 1t involves the adj
mission Of personal freedom, personal culture
and personal power" The mechanism Of state
is not for the advantage of classes. or corpora.
tons, Or simply property; but to promote the
prosperity and happiness Of the whole, and t.
develop the perfection of the individual Il
creates no power transmissibe through the
channels Of descent; it forbids wealth or station
from concentrating any political authority in the
hands of its temporary though fortunate pos
SCISSOR, but, placing all upon perfect level, gives
to each that emblem Of citizenship-the ballot!
which carries equal weight, whether in the
hands Of the millionaire OF the homeless beggar.
The right to the means Of mental improve
ment has found its development in the estab-
lishmento of popular education, in the acknowl-
edgement on the part Of the state, Of its duty
to provide knowledge for ALTO scatter broad
cast the seeds of thought as solicitously as it
strives to crush the fruits of crime No less
| !egitimately flows from the great American idea
the doctrine of universal federation of opinion
and unlimited freedom of conscience. The
state prescribes no tests to the individual and
recognizes no right of interference with him in
the private enjoyment and PRONUNCIATION of his
political creed, and establishes his right to wor.
ship God without heed to or regard for the Or
dinances of men. Out of the grand American
idea, springs this trinity Of individual freedom.
In this consists the nationality of the American
people. Equality in personal political power,
and in the right Of mental culture, and perfect
freedom of thought, freedom Of speech and
freedom of conscience, are ideas taught our chill
dren at their mothers knee, inculcated in our,
best schools, enforced in every canvass by the
voice of eloquence on the stump, and illustra-
ted in the practical working of our entire polti
cal machinery.
Those trained in otherschools fpolitics, and
who have received their religious faith under
spiritual despoism cannot understand this
grand American idea. They deny the deduc-
tons which we have wrought out into practical
institutions.
In Europe, even amongst enlightened states
men, the American theory of government is
scarcely understood, still less easily can it be
comprehended by those uncultivated, and
trained in allegiance to an opposite system.
They have seen order maintained by physi
cal force, we establishit by the sentoperation
of law respected by the people. In the absence
of the outward presence Of authority, freedom
comes to be regarded as unbridled license. In
individual loses his personality. He becomes
q cog in machine instead Of an arterial force,
securing health and yigor.
If men constitute a state,' then, obviously,
true individualismis favorable to true ma
tionality. In developing the springs of per-
sonal worth and dignity in the eloquent words
of another, we develop the springs of all public
greatness. Therefore, the doctrine involved in
the American idea is not a doctrine of disinte-
grafton, but of unity. For, in the first place,
every man is two-fold in his nature He is
both individual and social. The necessity of
a state is EMBODIED in and grows out Of the very
conditions Of his being On the other hand the
fullness and richness Of his individual nature
cannot be developed except through the organ
ism of society. He never can be perfected in
isolation-in solitary self existence. This is
the abstract truth. It's practically demonstra-
ted by the fact that the greatest nations always
have been those in which there has existed the
greatest amount of personal freedom and con-
sideration: That is the grandest history which
contains the most biographies, whichis crowded
with the specialities of individual men. While
on the other hand, despotism is but dull study.
1t is lazy succession Of dynasties. Out of its
monotonous waste rise only the crowns Of bloody
and voluptuous kings. But pass into the area
of a free land, and what variety and interest,in
senate, and port, and citadel, to fill the pages
of the annalist! A little limb pushed out from
the trunk of Europe, but O! how thronged with
achievements whose symphony rolls through |
the march Of ages! What monumental palaces
what immortal names! Leuctra, and Their
mopyle, and observation-disclosures, Phidias, De-
mosthenes, Pericles Plato. What inspiration
from the spring Of freedom, making the history
Of nation finer than poem, and Transforming
even the forms Of its idolatry into a pantheon
Of intellectual worship.
There's gigantic Russia-huge and mysteri-
Gus, muff1ed destiny, creeping down the map
of Europe Butts not nation-it's a Nicho-
,.t A,d r,f ,rI,at avail will ha ;te 49,, \ $685..