Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1866-06-08
RADECALISM.

politics may be used to designate an advo-
cate of extreme measures Of whatever
kind whether ia favor cf or in opposition
to reform. The word radical is derived
from the Latin radiss root, and il proper
" used to designate measures or principles,
that go to the root of the matter III ques-
ton, that is, 50 back to original and funda-
mental principles. In this, its true sense it
may be properly applied to the advocates of
any reform, who base their measures upon
the great original and fundamental princi-
pies of right, justice and humanity as indi-
Gated in the teachings of nature, or set
forth in the inspired pages of Holy Writ.
This is the true and legitimate use of the
term radical, hut common usage within a
few years has largely increased it's scope,
so that it is now used as cry OF persecu-
ton against every progressive idea, innoya-
ton or change in any department of life.
All who propose, in the interest Of progres
sive ideas, to introduce new or revive old
principles, that have been lost sight of, in
the political arena, to make new appliea-
ton of mechanical ferces in the physical
sciences, to discover and demonstrate the
existence of hitherto unknown laws in
nature, to advocate reform and progress in
the intellectual world or to ineulcate the
legitimate development of the great moral
truths laid down by the Savior of mankind,
for the guidance and continued elevation
of the human race toward the standard of
perfection in all good, are now vociferously
denounced as radicals and the measures
they advocate as radicalism, alike by the
designing demagogue and the ignorant rab-
bic. The term radicalism as thus applied
is the natural outgrowth in a new and dan
gerous form of the innate wickedness of the
human heart. Its moving power and actu-
ating spirit are the same that eighteen hun
dred years ago persecuted the great Apos-
tie Of peace and good viii to man, and has
continued to persecute his followers and the
promulgators ofhi doctrines to the present
time, and viii do SO to the end. Il called
him plotter against the peace and security
ofthe Roman Empire, and his followers tur-
bulent and dangerous citizens, and it reit-
crates the same epithets for similar pur-
pose to-day yet TO him and his followers,
under various opprobrious appellations, ever
striving in the onward and upward course,
does the world owe all of progress it has
ever made, all Of good it has ever known.
Thus struggling not for themselves, but
blessing their revilers and laboring for their
good, noble men, initiating their great pro.
totype, all the way down through the march
of ages have ennobled and made honorable
each epithet heaped upon them in scorn.
Each was intended to crush out the spirit Of
progress and suppress the aspirations of the
human soul, but the unquenchable FIRE stiIl
burns and its enemies know it to-day as Rad
lcalism. 1t is the same ennobling spirit still
1.-The same that actuated Copernicus when
coming forth from the dungeons of the In
QUESTION be stamped his foot upon the
earth and muttered still it moves the
same, that actuated Luther when in defence
of his firm convictions of right and truth he
determined to go to the Diet at Worms
though devils were as plenty there as tiles
upon the house roofs-the same that actua-
ted Huss, Howard, Knox, Whitfield
or Wesley in their various fields of reform.
II was the same spirit that led the
people Of England to persevere until
they wrung from reluctant rulers one
guarantee of liberty after another until
they became the freest, best and most
prosperous nation of the old world,--the
same, that led our Revolutionary fathers of
glorious memory to resist the oppression of
unequal laws under British rule-the same
that actuated our brave soldiers to willingly
lay down their lives for the preservation of
our free institutions, the embodiment of the
great progressive idea of universal liberty
and the greatest attainable good for all men
the same that led good men and noble
women TO 90 forth from luxurious homes
and endure the privations of camp and field
while engaged in binding up the wounds Of
the manned, cheering the hearts of the sick
and desponding, and minislering to the last
wants and wishes of the Gying-the same
that now leads so many to go among the
enfranchised and labor to raise them from
the depths Of ignorance and degradation to
which long years of cruel bondage have
reduced them. All have been actuated by
the same high aims founded upon the great
principles of truth and justice, viz: love for
their fellow-men, and desire to promote
the moral, Intellectual, spiritual and tempo
raj welfare of the human race In all her
progress the enemies of truth have resisted
her in every shape and form and heaped
upon her all opprobrious epithets, but she
has ever triumphed. Her latest enemies
call her Radicalism, but it checks not her
progress nor turns her aside from her great
purpose; at the end of nearly two thousand
years of bittei, unrelenting persecution her
disciples, ike Copernicus, may walk forth
upon the earth and declare of truth tri-
umphantly still il moves, as each new
enemy o'ercome gives testimony that
Truth crush'd to earth shall rise again,
The eternal years Of g cd are hers;
But Error, wounded, writhes in pain,
And dies among his worshippers"