Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-01-13
TRIUMPH OF LAwLEssNEss

The impression is said to be prevalent
one among less informed classes in the old
countries, that America is still kind of wild
barbarism, where every man holds his life IN
his hands, property is at the mercy OF agrari-
ans or robbers, and government is mere shell
in which number of disorderly and discord-
ant states keep up perpetual Jargon. 1t is
the business of the defenders Of the old pro-
scription and tyranny to make their subjects
believe that self-government is impossible, and
that the first really honest experiment in the
worlds history has resulted in monstrous
anarchy. They lie about us marvelously.
And the credulous persons who listen to them'
weary with their own burdens, lift their fetter-
ed hands as well as they can, and think they
commiserate us.
They are not wholly without apology.
With a constitution reasonably correct, both
in what it allows and in what it forbids, and
governments, central and local, ample to pro-
tect person and property against ordinary
contingencies, we still furnish discreditable
facts enough of inconsistency and lawlessness
to justify the rapid congratulations which have
been made against us. If an intelligent
foreigner, coming here to-day, and, after
reading our bill of rights, guaranteeing to cit-
zens of each of the states the rights and i'm
munities of citizens in all the states, should
be told that our citizens are being daily
driven out Of Georgia, Alabama, Virginia, and
other states, without law and without cause,
what would he say but that the government
was only pretence, without any effective
virtue to carry out its protested purpose, or
shadow of strength to realize the alleged in
tentions of its founders
A mob, dissatisfied with the opinions Of a
peaceable and quiet neighborhood, warns them
to abandon their homes, and cross the Ohio
whether the exile is convenient or not. They
appeal to the constituted authorities for pro-
lection; but the only answer they receive is
that the mob is king, and that their safety is in
flight. If the humblest of that banished com
pany had received such indignities at the
hands of any foreign power as lie received
from the vigilance committees of Kentucky
the armed force of the government would not
have rested till redress had been obtained
But their case was mild compared with the
treatment which others have suffered under
similar circumstances. Tar and feathers,
the customary argument of brutality, were
not applied to them. They were per
mitted to leave peaceably; allowed to take
away as much Of their goods as they could car
ry. They were the victims only of construc-
tive violence. Others have been imprisoned.
Some have been whipped. And some by the
misfortune of their locality, or by the malice of
the rufians into whose hands they have fallen,
have suffered indignities which the law does
not justify toward the vilest criminals. Our
foreigner, who is still skeptical, again asks the
difficult question-"If your theory of selfgov-
eminent is correct, why are not these injuries
redressed 2"
The time has not come. These are difficult
ties which were not contemplated in the begin
ming, and no provision was made for them
Ruffianism which is countenanced and sustained
by the public sentiments of the states in which it
is displayed cannot be suppressed by ex-
hibitions of violence and passion on the other
side. Our business politically is not so much
to get up crusades to redress individual injur-
les, as to acquire permanent and salutary
power over the lawless and barbarous system
which provokes them. 1t can be done peace
fully. 1t can be done consttutionally. There
is no other way SO sure and so effectual The
madness and desperation with which some OF
the states are afflicted is simply sign that the
supremacy is passing out of their hands. In.
diyiduals suffer, while the process is going on,
who least deserve it. But in the progress and
development of the conflict, the right ever
comes uppermost.