Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1857-12-10

end to years end. Surely there is great
peril to free government in this alarming
prevalence of lawlessness. 1t is almost
automatic that republics can only rest safe
ly on basis of public virtue, and when
this is gone, ruin cannot long be deferred.
In the impunity with which all sorts of of
fences are constantly perpetrated and in
the comparative indifference with which
the best men look upon the general de-
pravity, We are fast rushing onward to a
point where liberty must be sacrificed for
the peace of society and our most cherish
ed privileges be relinquished for the con-
servation of order. Indeed, have we not
already reached a condition, as far as the
protection of life and property are concern
ed, differing but little from state of na-
ture? Travellers in the east inform us
that pilgrimages to the shrines of antiquity
can only be performed by such persons as
go prepared for any emergency and are
willing to risk the doubtful issue of an en-
counter with local banditti In the absence
of ruling power adequate to the maiate-
nance of the public security, every nan
carries his rife wherewith to protect him.
self against his natural enemies And are
we puch removed from Syria in this re-
speet? We were all grievously offended
year ago by the famous extravaganza in the
London Times of the flying duels in
Georgia Railroad car, which represented to
the world that travelling in the United
States was attended by constant hazard of
rcvolvers, but leaving out of view the alb
surd machinery of the story, let us inquire
if the fact deducible from it is not so p
Does not every man who journeys through
our country expose himself to a certain
amount of danger from ruffanism that
would be appreciable in the calculations
of Life Assurance Society without re-
course to the higher mathematics?
That there is remedy for this fearful
disorganization without surrender of free
government, no rejecting man can doubt
for moment. We must never despair of
the Republic-the trouble and responsible
ity lie in the recognition and employment
of the remedial agencies. 1t is very GER
tain that man as man, is no worse than he
was in generations gone by If with the
increase of the human family, there has
been melancholy augmentation of the
folly and vice incident to the fallen race,
there has also been juster and more IA
miliar acquaintance with truth diffused
throughout the world; knowledge has mul-
tiplied, the light has broadened and deep
ened upon our sphere, mankind has un-
questionably on the whole advanced In
the United States the number of good men
interested in the moral and social improve
ment of the mass, desiring to establish our
institutions upon the solid foundations of
sound national morality, is largely in pre-
ponderance of the vicious and the lawless;
why then should we be respondent as to
the ultimate reform? Surely, if they would
but use the means that are in their power,
the country would return to healthful
condition. Two or three thoughts lie upon
the very surface of the question, which are
yet not sufficiently considered, and it may
not be wholly Improbable to look at here.
The choice of our magisterial and min
isterial officers has, of late years, been left
too much to the hands of trading politi-
clans. The substantial working and think
ing men of the community, disgusted with
the partizanship which enters so fercely
into every election, and with the undisguised
arrangements of bargain and sale applied
to the distribution of offices of trust and
emolument, have withdrawn themselves
from the polls at the very time, when, from
the extension of the right of suffrage, it is
most important that their voices should be
heard. IF the rabble are TO choose the
men who shall enact our laws, and not only
these, but the judges who administer them,
and the persons who are charged with the
arrest of offenders, we may of course hope
in vain for any. amelioration of the existing
disorders. The good citizen must interfere
at once, and with the fixed resolve to select
the fittest persons for the exercise of au-
thority.
There is too great disposition on the
part of the better class to shirk the duties
of the jury box, whereby the chief end of
civil government, which has been said to