Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1866-12-18
AN OLD DOCUMENT S1yTEs AND OLD PRIH-

V4fAGos
Without being ancient ourselves, we
admire that quality in others. We like
to look upon head whitened all over
with times SHOWS, every hair of which
is monitor, whose suggestions should
be at once law and gospel to youth and
manhood. There is something in age,
an unrevealed secret, which awes the
generations of stalwart life into rev
erence, and rebukes folly in what form
soever it is developed. The staff upon
which age leans, is true preacher, and
the best philosopher, because it suggests
experience, the boarded wisdom OF
wears. which teaches the inevitable truth
that life, however ford, is but one OF
the aspects in which dust appears But
we grow serious, and wander from our
purpose. A friend has handed us pros
pectus of an old paper, bearing the date
of May 2, 1903. 1t is entitled Minerva ;
or, Anti Jacobin, and published in
Raleigh, North Carolina, at two dollars
a year in advance, or two and half dol
lars, payable half yearly; by WILLIAM
BoYLAY. At the bottom of the sheet &C.
cur the names of twenty-one subscribers,
their residences, and the amounts paid.
1t is printed on type Of the old style,
and paper quite rough, but thick and
substantial. The style of the prospectus
is clear, and even elegant The senh-
ments are true to liberty, and the prln-
ciples upon which the Government was
founded. The editor thinks it "unfor-
tunate that larger portion of virtue is
necessary in the representative than IN
any other form of Government in which
man has thought proper to place his
hopes and his happiness" True, every
word of it, and it is no less so that the
simple virtues of republicanism have
in all ages, sooner or later, become a
prey to the hypocrisy, knavery and adj
dress of intriguers. He maintains that
to sustain representative liberty, "vir-
tue of itself is not sufficient; it must be
enlightened" If he could revisit the
climpses of our institutions now, he would
find his philosophy of Government con-
frmed by example. In his day, it ap-
pears that the liberty of the press was
assailed, but nothing daunted, he speaks
his mind freely. "The late display, he
writes, sixty.three years ago, =" in some
of the States of democratic hostility
to the press, will not deter the
editor from faithful discharge
of his duty; he is aware that the spirit
of Jacobinism, which no,c perrades a
large part Of the United States, Is man
aqed 6y conclace, chose sitfingS are
permanent and achose energies are IN
perpetual actiriy he is also aacare that
this spirit acknowledges no restraint,
brooks no control, and calculates its
egjoyments By the number Of lis PIC
TINS" Can any pen OF our day describe
with more truth the present Radical
party2 More than half century ago,
the principle which predominates in the
Radical party, was denounced, because
it was recognized as the enemy OF lib
erty. What is the present party but
Radical conclave ?-and are not its sit
tings to be perpetual? Does its spirit
acknowledge any restraint Does it not
calculate its enjoyments by the number
of its victims? Yes, yes. But that
spirit was stricken down by the people,
and became SO odious that it never again
lifted its head until invoked by the Jaco-
bins of our day. II it shall, like the devil
that entered into the swine, drive them
into the sea, mankind will fad nothing
in the circumstance to regret