The Washington union., 1857-11-17

new-fangled scruples of conscience, which, without
doubt, owe their being and their birth much more to
politics than TO religion or morality. Not all these
combined can sanction a violation of those great
Of Justice that constitute the basis of the
code of morality No act ofinjustice, whatever may
be its motive its object, can claim the honors OF
virtue Even charity and benevoence cease to be
virtues when their exercise is accompanied by ag-
gressions ON the rights of others. To neglect pay
ing debt in order to relieve the distresses OF
another is only exercise of virtue at the expense
of our creditor. In Short if pursue the subject
through all its ramihcations it will be found that
Justice is an indispensable ingredient of all human
virtue.
This measure of emancipation was the parent or
the offspring of doctrine which may be so extend
ed to place the property of every man in the COM
munty at tho mercy OF rabid fanaticism OF political
expediency 1t is only to substitute scrupes of con-
science in place of established constitutional prnci
PIES and all laws and all constitutions become dead
letter. The rights Of person and property become
subservien not to laws and constitutions but to fa
natical dogmas and thus the end and object of all
good government is completely frustrated. There is
no longer any fulc Oh law lloT COHbututiohai
guide and the people left to the discretion, or
rather the madness, of school of instructors who
can neither comprehend their own dogmas nor make
them colnprehensbe to others
Every innocent indulgence that may, like all other
qualifications, be sometimes carried to excess, may
be classed as a crime and punished crime, and
we are prohibited from sitting down at the board
which bounteous Providence has spread out before
u.s. lest some one should indulge himself to excess.
We must not taste lest should over eat ourselves
Slavery denounced sin, and therefore tits sour du-
ty to rob all those who indulge in it of ther property,
and their good name into the bargain. Drunkenness
is beastly vice degrading to manhood, and because
portion of mankind indulge in it, all the rest are
to be prohibited from tasting spirituous liquors under
any circumstances, except they can afford to pur-
chase them by wholesale and stow them away in
their cellars Even lager beer, and honest old cider,
the farmers wholesome beverage arc mathematical,
and of the good people in the land OF steady
habits" in order to get at the root OF the evil not
many years ago, in paroxyism of teetotalsm, cut
down their apple trees for fear they should get fud
died with cider. In other places they are making
exterminating on whiskey and beer barrels, and
not only robbing of their property, but punish
ing them by fine and Imprisonment for possessing an
article the importation of which is sanctioned by the
laws of the United States, which supreme in all
matters relating to commerce,
Where is all this to end 4? and what security have
the free citizens Of the United States that their dear
est rights may not after another be offered up at
the shrine of the demon of fanaticism, the most dan
gerous of all the enemies of freedom? If the consti
tuition is no longer to be guide and protector,
where shall we find barriers to defend lis against
system of Legislation restrained by no laws and no
constitutions, which creates crimes at pleasure pun
ishes them at WILL and sacrifices the rights of person
and property to dogma, scruple of conscience?
All this is but the old laws of Purianism now fo-
menting and sorng in the exhausted beer barrel of
Massachusetts,. The descendants of this race Of &C.
cesastical tyrants, or rather ecclesiastical slaves
have spread over the western part of the State of
New York, and throughout all the NV States, where
they have to some extent disseminated their man.
ners, habits, and principles most especially their
blind subserviency TO old idols and their abec sub
lection to their priests. There is doubt that they
aspire to give tone and character to the whole con-
federacy and believe that their dream will be re-
allied We are pretty well convinced, however, that
the people of the United States will never become
nation of fanatical Purtans.
There is little to be apprehended from any open
and direct attempts on the liberties of the people
of the United States Against all the old modes
of oppression they their guard, and pre-
pared to defend themselves 1t is only when the
enemy approaches in disguise, and assumes the
mask of religion, morality, or the public good, as
pretext for violation of the rights of person and
property, that they require to be warned against
their most ipsidous and dangerous enemy. Under
pretence ofreforming manners, are in danger
of being robbed Of our rights, and long before be-
come saints we shall sink into slaves. The people
of the United States like those of France will per-
adventure be placed in great national nursery,
not under the special superintendent of imperial
head nurse but of William Lloyd Garrison, Neal
Dow, Gerrt Smith, Theodore Parker, Ward Beecher,
ABBY Foster. and Lncretia Mott Instead of heing
restrained by appeals to reason and common sense,
by the exhortatons of tho pulpit, the discipline of
the schools the moral agency of precept and ex-
ample, they are in great danger of becoming the foot
balls Of ffanaticsm operating through the medium of
legislation and substituting the penalties Of the law
in place of the restraints of conscience and the pre-
cepts Of the Dccalogue.