Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1860-09-13
FREEDOM.

Once a proud and mighty monarch marched
with a r million men against a small peninsula
Graded upon the bosom of the southern SEAS
His only way of entrance into the country was
through o narrow pass between n mountain and
q morass; and thither the small State sent TWEEN
ty FIVE thousand men to oppose his million. The
brave general knew that his little army could
do nothing with the mighty host, and selected
three hundred men as an offering upon the altar
of his beloved country, and sent the rest away.
These three hundred fought till every one of
them but one fell. The naughty monarch hated
their free country but it was dearer to them
than life.
On another time a petty tyrant who knew that
MANY of his subjects hated him, had his cap e
rected on a pole and made them do homage to it.
One of them, holder than the rest, who had been
raised a hunter among the mountains, would not
bow to the cap. Alone he defed the tyrant's
power. and declared that he would not bow to
the tyrant himself. For this the tyrant made
him shoot a, an apple on the head of his own
little boy. He took two arrows and a bow,
knowing that he could hit the apple and not hurt
his child. When the tyrant asked him why he
had two arrows, he said: $50 that if one slew my
child, the other might pierce your cruel hedrt.'
Again, a great and good man, who loved his
country and the cause of human progress bet.
ter than himself. who had commanded his fellow,
soldiers in many hard-fought battles for indepen
dence, and whom they loved as an elder broth
er, hushed their mutinous cries for bread after
peace was made, and would not let them make
him q king. He might have worn a COLDER
crown, and the purple robes Of royalty; but like
Roman Cincinnatus, when he had served hi
country well for naught, he threw away tn
gilded pomp and vanity of place and power, and
went back to his farm.
Leonidas, Tell and Washington! In these three
we have the contamination of all that is excel
lent, desirable and lasting in Freedom. The
frs, sacrificed his life in attempting 70 driv
back his country's invaders. The second hate
the SuperClllOuS arroSauCe Vi lue WAN 'ylan1
and the heartless and s~enseless forms of hi
government with an intense and perfect hatre'
that amounted almost to scorn. The third i
the sublime purity of his heart and the gradeu
of his unselfsh motives, suffered no temptatio
for a single moment to imperil those liberties i
the achievement of which no danger or hardship
had ever dauntp.l his courage or resolution
COMPOSE a nation of spirits like these and ho'
strong would be its ligamcnts Of power, how
manly and energetic the virtues Of IT'S people =
Truth, Justice and generosity would be its fnnn
dation; peace and tranquility would rsiE
within its borders and n large intellectual m
moral manhood, prevailing from boundary t
honndary. would mercilessly blight and blast a
the nctty formalisms and corruptions which ar
constantly crawling like worms into the heart 9
society, and growing upon indulgence or patron
age into hydra headed monsters. Freedom con
sists in the widest, most manifold and fulles
DEVELOPMENT of mans moral and intellectual ma
~ture--a thing which cannot be attained Wher
sel6shness, a~varice, the love Of pleasure ana IN