The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1863-05-01

are incapable OF Selt-government. II neve
has occurred to you, in any dispute with
neighbor, or in any difficulty which arrayet
the public against you. that YOU could posi-
bly, be in the wrong and it always has of
Tended you to think that any other Jones, Of
any other man, should dare to controver
your opinion, or question your DECISIONS
And you were SO stupid that, when all your
neighbors-after much long-suffering anc
patient waiting upon your whims-rebelled
against you, and went to extremes to show
their independence OF, and contempt for you
you attributed the work of your own hands
to the devil
| Deacon Jones, the Lord gave you brains
and Yankee enterprise got your money p
Had there been proper management on your
part, Jonesville would be in Your hands to-
day; but you are aware that by far the lars-
er proportion of your fellow citizens either
do not love you, or positively hate you. How
has this state of things been arrived at? Do
you Hatter yourself that you have been as
wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove ??
Do you honestly believe that the loss of your
| influence is attributable rather to the popu-
lar than your own personal perverSeneSs
do not expect to make YOU see it, but You
really did Your best to make slaves Of YOUR
fellows, and your fellows recognizing you as
a tyrant, kicked over your throne. and tum-
bled you into your chimney corner, where
alone you had the power to put yoar pecu-
Mar theories into practice.
A man does not usually have one sci of
notions concerning neishborhool govern
ment and another concerning family govern
ment. You managed Your own family very
much as You undertook to manage your vii
lage. | can, indeed, bear witness that you
gave Your family line upon line aud precept
upon precept, but am not SO ready 10 con-
ctde that You trained them up in the right
way. Your family was an orderly one, ad-
NIT, but have seen jails and houses of or
rectlon that were more orderly STILL An or
derly house is quite as liable TO he governed
too much, as disorderly house is TO be gov
erned too little
| always noticed this fact, with relation to
your mode of family training. You enforced
a blind obedience 10 your commands. and
never deemed it necessary or desirable to
give reason FIR them. Nay. Won told Your
children, distinctly, that it was enough for
them that you commanded a thing to be
done. You refused to give them a reason
beyond your own wish and viii. You placed
yourself between them and their Own con-
sciences; You placed Yourself between them
and their own sense of that which is just and
proper and good nay, you placed yourself
between them and God, and demanded that
they should obey you because Won wilei it
because you commanded them - obey vou
1t is comparatively an easy thing to get up
an orderly family, on such plan of opera
tions as this. \ man needs only to have a
strong arm and broad palm and heart
that never opens to parental tenderness, TO
secure the most orderly family in the world.
1t is not hard thing for a man who weighs
two hundred pounds, more OF less. to make
boy who weighs only fifty pounds. so much
afraid Of him as to obey his minutest COM
mands. lndeed,it is not a hard thing 20 break
down his will entirely, and make craven
of him. declare to You, Deacon Jones
that the most orderly families have ever
known were the worst governed; and one of
these same families was Your own. You are
not the first man who has brought up "an
orderly family" and fitted them for the devils
hand by his system of government.
Now will you just think for a moment
what you did for Your children | know
their history, and in many respects it has
been bad one and sad one. You govern
ed them. You laid Your law upon them.-.
You forced upon them your will as their 81
preme rule of action. They did not fear
God half as much as they did you, though,
if l remember correctly. You represented
Him to be sort of infinite Deacon Solomon
Jones. They did not fear to lie kalf as much
as they feared to be tlogSed. TLey became hv-
pocrites through their fear of you, and they
learned to hate you because you persisted in
treating them as servile dependents. You
put yourself before them and thrust Your
self into their life in the place of God. You
bent them to your will with those strong
hands of yours, and you had an orderly
family"
My friend when | think of the families
that have been trained and ruined in this
way. shudder. Your children were never
permitted to have any viii, ana when they
went forth from your threshold, they went
forth emancipated slaves, and untried chill
dren in the use of liberty. Wien they found
the hand of parental restraint removed, there
was no restraint upon them. They had new
er been taught that most essential of all cov-
ernment, self-government and a man who
has not been taught to govern himself IS as
helpless in the world as child. A family
may be orderly to a degree of nicely that is
really admirable, and still be as incapable of
self-sovernment as family os idiots. Fam
lilies that might be reckoned by thousands
have left orderly homes, all prepared for the