The Daily clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1866-1888, 1867-05-05

pic 10 WhOm God gave knowledge anu DO
mlnlon over the earth; who bean up AM
toss about these great folks as the oceal
does the foam upon It's surface.
Kings, couruiers and courtesans, f0p
and tashionables, have tor ages constltu
ted what Is technically called society,"
sort of l1cus mon MceRdo affair, for amons
them one is said to be In society when h'
associates with none of his fellows but {
chosen few. For ages courts and thcil
imitators have hecn t01aits Jdtni, showing
pre-eminently that there are In the worlt
moral malarles which combine In them Il
make burning and shining lights to daz'
zie and lead astray the simple.
But they were not, and are not the pe0-
pie, nor has wisdom and power died Will
them. as they have been oyerthrown
Their power was held by the sufferance Of
tho humble tillers Of the soil, the indus.
trious artisans, the poor, the destitute, and
the Ignorant who compose the mass Of
the human race, for whose benefit, and moi
for the aggrandizemen of those who oc-
cupied them, thrones and councils were
set up.
1t wasthe race, and not a few individuals
only Of the race, who were made In the
image of God; and to the whole race, and
not exclusively to few individuals Of the
race, did God give dominion over the
earth, and command that they should
subdue it and discover its material and
moral laws for their benefit; and In the
whole race was implanted, by the fall, that
principle of intense selfishness which, as
we shall see hereafter, Is the grand NOV
ing power both of tyranny and revolution.
| grant that the people have seemed
stupid and british; that they have borne
the heaviest burdens, and have suffered
and groaned, and suffered still that they
have been and are imposed upon by as
sumptlons of superiority; that they have
been diverted from just revolution and
punishment of their oppressors by public
games, by some well-timed distraction Of
war, by the alurements of money making
and the fear of financial crashes that they
lave suffered themselves to be the instru-
ments of cruel ambition in princes and
demagogues; but "there Is a spirit In
man--the inspiration of the Almighty
giyetll him under standing"
Look back on the past and see If the
people from whom we have sprung have
not been steadily advancing their condi-.
ton. They lave slumbered on the way;
they have been cajoled into by-paths;
they have often mistaken The way and
wandered back and around; but their,
that they understood the dignity of hui
man nature, and the true objects of life
and liberty, as we do; but their human
nature, their pride, sense Of justice and
seliishness revolted at their physical and
moral condition, and they had, too, a faint
an instinct of better things.
onward has been the prompting of the
divinity within them; and in their solemn
ana irresistible march they have taken
the faitlless powers that were put into
their giant grasp, and shaken them in
pieces, and have trampled over them, and
nave set up others to prove faithless and
be destroyed in turn. And as they have
done In the past, so they will do in the
future.
1t has been the civil discussions of the
people, or their disaffection to a vicious
government, which has torn governments
in pieces, or suffered them to be over
thrown. 1t was the callous disafection
Empire to crumble in pieces before the
barbarians. 1t was the carelessness of the
Grecians, and not merely the power of
Romans, which subjugated Greece. A.
government firmly fixed in the hearts of
4 people can permanently oyerthrown
only by their determination as a people.
But " the house divided against itself shall
surely fall"
1t makes little difference to the mass of
mankind to what noble heights the hui
man mind can soar in poesy, or with what
,ubtlety it can investigate abstract truth,
)r how near at can initiate Ilature-all
his matters little to them when9they have
70 groan and swelter under the suffocating
burdens of tyranny. IL matters little to
hem how far science may discover and
lpply to useful purposes the objects and
avs of nature. how fertile and beautiful
nay be their land, or how valuable and
,asily acquired may be its products, If
hey are SO governed as not to enjoy the
I'LL benefits of these discoveries and in
'entions, of this paradise and its treas
Tres.
There has been great deal of talk
bout "manifest destiny"b and liberty"
old-fogyism," Young America" "pro-
.ress," and such cant terms, all of which |
ontain an idea of "going ahead" but are |
Without more definite Specification. |
'ruly, we are going ahead; but where are
We coming from and where are going to |
Youth looks eagerly into the future for |
reatness. and may chance to delude it.
elf. But, we say, this young and stirring
ge has done SO much already, and with
IS labors is growing SO powerful that it
lay well hope and look for glorious
lings.
But what glorious things? Certainly
re cannot boast of glorious progress in
overnment. for, eighteen hundred years
go Tacitus wrote many of the particulars
nd described the exact spirit of the latter
overnment of the United States.
The painting of the Middle Ages, and
lie statuary and architecture of the An
nute III nc tuith txyOp6or nd Contamination.
nd leave us no superior excellence to be
Dped for. Demosthenes, Hschlnes and
icero still stand as models in oratory.
rchimides and Euclid are still the great
onders in mathematical science. Man
md studies and tries in vain to initiate
lie sublime strains of Homer, Pindar and
irgil. The tragic pathos of Sophocles,
&c grave, historic pages of Thucydides,
ivy and Tacitus have never been ex-
lied. The ancient spirit-rappers raped
, real devils; Socrates, Plato. Aristotle,
.neca, and Epictetus, the slave, gave the
ost exalted examples of the lofty and {
ute powers of the intellect. The pow
5 of the human reason and imagination [
i've long since been discovered and ex-
ted to the utmost.
We have, then, not progressed in the |
lie arts, in government, or in intellectual 1
MCE. Dub VIC HdNc uOIG btllS--We nave
piled art and the intellectual powers to
eful purposes.
Archimides could apologize for his !
ldness as being merely innocent results !,
the dolce far nieRte of philosopher; !
neca could strive to clear Democritus ;
,m the disgraceful stain of having made i
9 first arch; the ancients could apply \
9 power of steam to add terrors to their q
rsteries. But the present age has taken a
am and bound it in iron, and taken the !,
'er and screw of Archimides, and the =
ID of DemOcritus, and set them all to a
'rk. Art and mind build factories, rail-
IDS, steamboats, and foundries. And ?
Or family low can travel better, and =
We better coats, shoes, buttons and pins, a \
ter house to live in, better chairs and =
Is, and better food, than the philoso- "
ers, or even their own grandfathers i
ae Philosopher despised Astronomy, except :,
t served to elevate the mind in cOntem- 3
ton. But the present age has set the =
to work. and made the stars glittering "
e-stones. Philosophers, Kings, and q
ests thought that knowledge and PhilOs- 81
~ were not fit for the vulgar herd now, ii
printing presses strive to elevate every n
u to knowledge and true Philosophy. y
, vigorous minds of the old sages could =,
template life in all its phases quite as a,
| us we-but very different is our Philos- n
" lifeof from theirs. a
life is like a great feast of the costliest y
coarsest fare spread beneath canopy of
g, spappled with stars and illuminated q