The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1858-11-11

conc u5iori, Outd0es t1em all, ana pfoPuses 10
prescribe .creeds, establish fasts, feas.s, and
forms of worship, and even to name those who
shall receive divine honors. There is no trace
here Of that scrupnlons regard for personal in
dependence and that inviEcible distrnst of gov
erninental action which characterized Jeffer-
SON. 1t is true, he and the Gallo writers
agreed upon certain fundamental prop sitions;
but they were peculiar neither to him nor
them. Some OF the same principles were an
nounced by Locke and Beccaria, by Hobbs.
who maintained the omnipotence Of the state,
and by Grotius, who insistednpon the divine
right of kings. To agree with another upon
certain matters does not make one his disciple.
No one mistakes the doctrines OF Paul for those
Of Mohammed, because both taught the i'm
mortality of the soul. To contound Jefferson
with Rousseau or Condorcet is about as rea-
sonble as to confound Lnthur with Loyola,
Ricardo with Jeremy Ben'ha.m
Although we deny that Jefferson was in
deb,ed to France for his political system, it
cannot be laimed that he was tte author of
/. He himself used TO assert, that the scheme
Of limited and decentralized government was
produced by the events which caused the set
tlement of the country, and the subsequent
union of the colonies. The emi grafton to
America was stimulated by the gr eat Pro.es-
tant and Catholic dispute which occupied
Europe nearly two centuries, and during which
time the original thirteen colonies were found
ed. The sentiment of religious freedom was
The active principle Of all the alliances, wars,
intrigues. and adventures Of fthat stormy peri
cd. The right Of conscience were maintained
in defance of the rack and the.stake. They
were stubbornly assorted in regaIa to the
smallest matters. Lines of separation, so fine
| as hardly to be perceptbIe, were defended 10
the last The Catholic was not more itrecor.
cilabIy opposed to the Protestant, than the
Lntheransto the Quaker, or the Puritan to the
Baptist. Men who differed merely about the
| meaning of single passage of Scripture
| thought each other unfit to sit at the same la
ble The Immigrants were exiles.. By The
conditions under which they acted. as being
among those whom defeat did not subtlue, they
must have had the enthusiasm of their time in
its most earnest form. Each man came here
Upon his right to worship God in his own way
| That he could never forget II had been i'm
pressed upon him by everything which can af-
! feet the understanding or touch the heart of
| man,---hy the memory of success and defeat,-
by his own suferings and :he martyrdum of
his brethren,-by Bunyan's fable and by Mil
toms song. iHaH HG .4i. & 3Fg# Hs+H
Bu'they did not lack bigo'ry. TIrey were
as ready 10 persecute those who differed with
them here as they had been at home The
last aud greatest social truth. that the surest
way OF protecting our own Liberties is by re-
| spec'ing these OF others, was forced upon the
coiohiss SO general had been the stlmulan,s
to cmisrntion, that everv European sect an 4
i party was represented in America Hther
Game Caisiaists and Lnthers,,s, Cavaliers and
\ tRu&dheads, Canformists ard Nom Conform
lists, the precise Quaker and the elegant Hu-
snenot, those who fled from tyranny of Louis
tahd those v no fed FRI IN the tyranny of Charles,
\ worshippeis Of Tie Virgin and men who be-
i lie ed that to kneel before crucifx was as
idolatrous as TO kneel before tt e seven headed
/ idols Of Hindoostan. These sects and parties
were 80 equally balanced that liberation be-
4 esme a necessity. Seeing that they could rot
4 oppress, men were led 10 think oppression
wrong, and liberation was exalted to virtue.
| The theercraiic spf v hich prevailed at first
| passed away, and that the great principle was
\ established that governments have nothing to
n vx-if al II -
penetration to discover that government
which has unlImited power over the prrsoi, and
property of the citizen will not long respect
he scrnples of his conscience. Religious lib
er'y gave birth'to political freedom. The sep
aration Of the settlements from each other,
sions necessary for defence, and for :he trans
action of local business, and led 10 the division
of the government.
When the u ited action was necessary, the
colonies did not attempt to reconcile their DIFF
ference !; they made a union for those pnr-
poses which were common to all. The gen.
eral principles which were asserted during the
Revolution were. Logical necessities, of that
event. |; was a rebellion ae ainst an unjust
exercise Of power. Why unjns.? For ro
other reason than because the Americans had
an equal right with Englishmen to govern
themselves, Bat that right must be one which
was common to all mep. The rebels knew
this. They did not follow Burke through his
,aborpd argument to prove that the measures
of the British ministery were inexpe,isht.-
They could not, defend their conduct before
the world upon the narrow ground Of viola
tion of the relations between dependency aud
its mother country. Those relations were not
understood, and snch a defence would not
have be.nlistened to-. Fhey appealed at once
to the laws Of God, and for their justification
addressed those universal human instihets
which give us our ideas of national and indi-
'viinal freedom The dec laration that men are
created equal excited no surprise then. They
believed it without sIihought that it had en-
tered the mind Of a fantastic rscluse in the
retirement Of .rHermitage, and, in obedience
TO that belief, they severed the ties OF tradition
and Kindred, exposed their homes and the
lives of those whose lives were dearerto 10 them
than their own 10 the rage OF civil war, and
,,iacad all 4 hay honad for and pyerpf inn thev