The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1864-07-29

sympatbize with the Union cause should
be banished from their homes, the Cant
nercidt Advertiser comments on the blind
and passionate spirit betrayed by such sug-
gestions in the following just terms:
"That man who has once conceived
such proposition should not be ashamed
to utter it is perhaps not surprising, for
we are all given to caressing a chimera
when it has once made its way into the
mind. But it is surprising that such
proposition could be possibly entertained
by any man educated in American liberty.
One is tempted to ask himself what is the
use of liberty if those who have breathed
its atmosphere from the cradle up bear to
it no more intelligent allegiance than this?
That Americans, in the middle of the
nineteenth century, should be found at
the feet Of the Spainards of Alva gravely
meditatng the conquest of opinion by
force Of arms, and the suppresions of
''sympathies" by violence and injustice,
strikes a cruel blow at the self-esteem of
the age in which We live, and. puts US to
asking, with Sir Thomas Browne, whether,
after all, any one country be really much
better or much worse than another. Ger
talnly cue never could have believed, even
live years ago, that we should live to hear
men of the blood of Chatham and Burke,
men OF the inheritance of Washington and
John Adams, twadding the sanguinary
commonplace of a superanuated spiritual
despotism.
"To say that any human being who in
habits any State of this Republic has a
right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness, sacred and inalienable, aud
not to be inteifered with until he or she,
by some positive overt act, interferes with
the general good and public service, would
have seemed, five years ago, 'most fragrant
ly supertuUus." The assertion rises now
apparently to the height of public duty.
1t is not pleasant that this should be so, and
the fact that So it is assuredly redeems the
actions of the Cleveland Convention by
which General Fremont was nominated
fer the Presidency, from the imputation
cast upon it of being taken merely in the
interest OF a vexed faction and of disap-
pointed personal ambition. If we really
need as community, to be taught the al
phabet of our political existence, the
Cleveland Convention was not held a day
too soon. If we have still to learn that it
Is the first condition of our national viror,
whet er in war or in peace, that individu-
ais should be left entirely untrammelled
in the formation aud expression of opin.
ion, then are we, 'of all men, the most
miserable putting our loyalty in tithes
of mint, anise, and cummin, while we not
only neglect but POSITIVELY decide to spit
upon the weightier matters of the law.'
Such is the avidity with which any
thing, however repulsive, is received by
certain persons in the name of "loyal;y,'
that if modern Dean Swift should arise
among us with "a modest proposal. for
eating the children of Rebels, (similar to
that commended to British roy alists by
the Dean of ST. Patrick's in the case of
Irish children is it not probable that he
would find herd of facle assentatores,
who, in their eagerness to prove that no.
thing could revolt the fierce "loyalty" of
their stomachs, would straightway give in
their adhesion 10 the proposition without
suspectiug lis pleasantly!