Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1866-05-12
Extremists, North and South.

leans Times" 1t IS piece o. very vigorous
writing, as well as very sensible article:
3. We are all poor, crring, warning creatures,
led astgay by passion and prejudice, and SEX
dom, certain as to our promises or our conclu-
sions. Some of us preach what we do not
practise, and others, knowing the right, per-
sistcntly pursue the wrong. Interest warps
and tramples principle into it's own likeness,
and prejudice, with distorted vision, con-
ysrts light into darkness, and adds feasarcs
Of ff5monstrosity to the fairest forms. Even the
best Of us have cur failings, our prejudiees
and our errors cf Judgment; we see as through
a glass darkly, and mistake our own blind
passion for inspiration. If in honest self
comm innings we look into our own hearts, we
fnd enough to censure and condemn. All
around us are the evidences Of our failings,
thick as leaves in Vallambrosa.
3Extcnding our view from individuals to
communities, we find that the general partakcs
sofF the qualities of the particular, and that
neither South nor North, East nor West, can
claim immunity from the failimgs common to
our nature We of the South have had our
wild Hotspur extremists, who, giving the
reins of Judgment to their passions, found
can excellent plot" in secession, and if any one
limited Of doubt or danger in the premises, he
was called "a shallow, cowardly hind" and a
"lack- brain" The peculiar institution was
declared in danger, and arevolution was neces-
sarySto save it, And so the revolution was
pracipitated, and the institution was saved
wnhEa vengeance Had the battle been
foyght.in. Congress, where Democratic ina
orSaIiizc=,i vI,posipipn to the
policy and platform Of the Abolition party,
slavery, either for good Or i'll, would still have
been in existence throughout the South, and
it would have been impossible to effect it's re-
moval without the consent of the Southern
States themselves But constitutional guar
antees were unwisely exchanged for those Of
the sword and bayonet, and they, in the day
of trial, proved to be but broken reed
Not only was slavery swept away in an I'M
necessary and unwise attempt to preserve 1t,
of prosperity were. also at the same time de-
ours is no child's play. Countup, if you can,
the immense amount Of property given to the
flames and floods during our lustrum of civil
strife, and ask what we have secured BY way
of offset Destruction is easy, compared with
the cost and trouble of building up, and when
once it becomes privilegcd-when vengeance
seizes the incendiary torch-no bounds can
be set to its ravages, no compassion can be cx-
pected of its agents.
Even now, though the sad consequences of
our struggle are plainly apparent, we have
still our tribe of sectional extremists, who
! learn nothing and forget nothing, and exhibit
their waspish bitterness, as if it were an act
Of high patriotism to make fools Of themselves,
and prejudice the interests of their friends
and relatives. We have among us, indeed,
types of both the Northern and Southern ex-
tremists-men of simple idea, who get
astride Of hobby and ride it as witches do a
broonl-stick, or maniacs phantom. When
a man tics iliusclf down to extreme opinions,
it is safe to conclude that he is either an hon
est monomaniac or pretcntious hypocrite,;
as to the effect of his conduct on society, it
matters very little which.
Ia tho North, some Of the EXTREMIST Of ex-
trcme men are to be found in Congress. Let
us take for example the scholarly Sumner and
Boanerges Stevens The keen blade Of the
first, like tho lance Of the savage, is always
pointed and always poisoned His head is
turned by the memory of a wrong, and no Goa,
g Kissing hot from hell" ever burned with a
moro deadly CLEAN or intense vitality than
does his classic ire Pretending to Christian.
ity, he fluids "higher law" than that of the
sIeek and Lowly One, who, when he was re-
viled, rcviled not again, and who said to his
followers Love your enemies p There is a
wicked, vengcful "metiiod lii his madness" !"
which shows itself like skeleton frame be-
meath the thin, cloak Of Pharisaical religion