The Daily clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1866-1888, 1867-05-05
oRATIoN
Dy Ooh. John 5. IoII, Of Natche1.
DELIVERED BEFORE the PRESS AssocIA-
TIoN, AT BRANDoN, MISS, MAY q 1867.

| men,
II would be out Of place and season II
were to attempt 20 pronounce beforeyou
formal Grafton. But two subjects are cho
hen for Orations--POlitles and Death; and
though 1t would seem we are near our pc
lltical death, II Is certainly not yet tim,
, for our olegy. i VIII content myself ant
tious form OF discourse. s.f,l
Inpublic lectures the audience Is gener
ally carried In imagination TO foreign
countries or the stars; Is called upon Il
examine the relations of man to things
TO admire the wonderful discoveries o
science; or to 20 over the face Of tn,
earth, or Into the bowels of the earth Ii
search Of pleasure and wisdom. But yor
will to-day be called back TO yourselves
TO some Of the scenes, relations, and i'm.
portant duties of every day life.
For while an extended knowledge o.
physical objects, and of the material laws
Of nature, Is useful, enlarges and liberal
lies the mind, knowledge Of moral rela-
tions and Of the moral laws of nature
from which no living man Is exempt, Ii
absolutely necessary.
Nothing In nature exists without cause
and without Its necessary and proper eff
fects. Judging by this truth we may say oil
everything that 1t is right or Ii Is wrong
II i be right In itself and rightly used OF
rightly done, Its ELECTS will be good. lfit
be wrong, Its effects will be disastrous
and thus we are met ut every turn by the
commands and sanctions of law.
just as surely as nature Furnishes to the
utmost the least infraction of hermaterlal
laws, Just so surely does the infraction OF
one of her moral laws receive its just de-
serts. Poverty, Ignorance, vice, a crippled
commerce, an oppressed commonalty, a
feeble government, decaying civilization,
and barbarism, are but monuments of her
unerring Justice, and infiexible power.
memorial, as well as the material laws
of nature are as old rs nature herself To
discover and profit by them is the noble
employment of rational creatures. The
discovery and publication of natures mo-
raj laws, 80 far as they relate to directing
the affairs of State, and regulating justice
between man and man, Is the true object
of human legislation. When the English
judges declared that the decisions OF the
| courts were merely declarations of what
the common law is, they meant that the
moral law of nature was the common law
OF England, las 1t Is the common law of
every country.
This moral law of nature fills the law
yer's and preachers libraries, and the
manner of its performance is the burden
Of all history, and Of every work of tic-
ton.
The command 'sThou shalt not kill = was
no new law when 1t was given to Moses !:
nor was the truth that "IIe becometh poor
who dealeth with slack hand" new
creation when 1t was discovered to his
cost by the first autediluvian "fast' young
man. Both are parts Of the great order Of
nature as it was established and is sup
ported by Its all-wise, powerful, and good
Author. Like the subtle invisible, and
universal electrical fluid. the law mani
tested and eXerted itself the moment the
proper conjunction Of materials was
made. srasa,.1l ms issf f
The rules of moral conduct laid down In
the scripture are not arbitrary, but are de-
clarations of those fixed laws of nature
man was too deprayed to see or observe
revelations made because God is wise AID
good. and because Il speak with rever-
ence) He would, by manifesting Himself
directly to his rational creatures, show
them how far short they come of perfec-
ton, and show them, too that He Is not
God who has created and left the scene,
and Chat they must worship and obey as
divine, not nature, or an Idea, or an Es-
sence, but Living God, who upholds and
directs all things by his infinite power,
wisdom, justice, and love, now, as at the
beginning.
The subject of the moral laws of nature
is infinite, but trust that the branch Of
it have chosen to speak upon to-day.
should not prove tedious. 1t is society
and the duties of citizen.'' In treating
1t, my design is to picture the nature and
general lineaments of society, and to
touch briefly and generally upon the du-
ties of a citizen under the peculiar insti-
tuti0ns. and in the present extraordinary
condition of this country, And it seems
to me that, except the subjectof religion, |
this is the most interesting topic which |
can be presented to an enlightened audi
ence. agaef |
Every nation is, as it were, upon a jour-
ney through an untrodden wilderness,
and in the every day jog-trot Of existence
men are so intent upon the little scenes
lust around them, and the thorns and
which impede them. that they
ire not apt to look up and around and
mark the general direction of their way.
And as each generation starts from where |
The preceding left off, and generally pur-
iues the same direction, nation may |
chance to find, and, judging from our pre-
ient state, invariably does find itself after
! while in labyrinth, with destruction
before 1t. 1t behooves men, then, to look
lround, to ascend the hills and look back
md out ahead over the face of the coun-
ry, at the density of the forest and the di-
'ection of the water courses. IL is doing
his which makes the statesman. Gfll
1t does very well for people to make
treat strides in the physical sciences; they
hould be enterprising and religious; it is
rood for them to be learned and polished,
g were the Athenians; but so soon as they
'egin, as did the Athenians, to spend their
ime in nothing else, but either to fluid out,
0 tell, or to hear some new thing; or so
Don as they become discouraged by the
roubles of government and grow care
ess oftheir constitution, and neglect the
allot-box, and all those duties imposed
pom them as citizens, the barbarians will
e upon them, and the good of all their
lbors will be in the house of another. !
Tor can it be otherwise. Such is the law
+ nature; and such nation has no war I
ant to call upon its God In the emergency ,
0 work miracle to save it from the just !
fleets of His natural law. He helps those !
rho help themselves.
The question of the formation of society ,
GEMS to have been as difficult problem to !
Dive as that of Columbus egg; and many {
ave been the theories advanced. But the T
vet is, that it is the necessary result of I
lan's nature. He naturally has virtuous !
Elections which must be exercised, or he !
incomplete and miserable. And these :
Ifections can be exercised only towards j,
Is fellows in the various relations of hus- 4
and and wife, parent and child, master 4
nd servant aims giver, neighbor, and cit 4
en-. The first individuals of the human n
ice multiplied into families, held together h
: mutual affection under the Patrarchal h
overnment, which is the natural govern i
ent, and is the most absolute despotism. n
/ the ulden time, when the age of discre- +
on was hundred years, a patriarch :
ould live to see himself the loving head a,
large and respectful tribe, which, =
hen he was taken away, naturally ele- q
tied some one to his place, or suffered 1t n,
be usurped, For union in society is, as p
have shown, the natural state of man; q,
I'd as naturally as children look to ~
ther for counsel, Judgment, and correc- n
On, so, naturally, does every society look n
some superior to direct its way, to ar r.
trate its disputes, and regulate its affairs "
It'll other societies. So natural is this de- q,
ndence that, as DeLolme has admirably
id in his work upon the Constitution of a,
ngland: mo people ever yet gained HI
cir liberty but either gave it away, or "
ffered it to be taken from them" w
It was to be expected that as the ties of "
lection were weakened by distance of so
and by clashing interests be- th
'een the tribes, and between the govern CO
= -