The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1869-05-27
HOYT & CO., Proprietors.

rected patriotism be fred anew, as their
fathers was fired, with fresh love of lib
erty secured by law. But we have no
such man to whom we can look for conn
sel or redress. The largest of those who
presume to take his place are shrivelled
and shrunken things compared to him.;
This barrenness of great men ana aoie
statesmen is to us very serious mlsfor-
tune. How it has come about is not so
obvioiis as that it has come about. Doubt
less, however, tbs due in great meas
ure, to the convulsons consequent
upon o great civil war. We should
not forget, for it is historic, that in
times Of such upheavals the weakest
and worst elements are usually thrown
to the surface, while the more solid and
worthy. the real force, like the force OF
the sea when it is disturbed, are obscured
underneath. Commotions in society,
produced by war or anything else that
takes off restraints from the passions OF
men, usually brings forth crop OF fana-
tics-a feverish race of mortals, moro I'M
aginative, desperate, and headlong than
wise-whose forte it is, in such u crisis, to
gather round them the iatemperate-
n nmirded and the constitutionally lawless,
and by fiery appeals for fanatical purpo-
ses. intensity the already overwroug ght
feelings of the masses, and augment the
prevailing tumult, and then, scizing the
opportunity offered by the public mind
haifcrazed, assume sort OF wild leader
ship, and strive, borne on and upheld by
popular passion, to retain it. Something
like this has been thu process by which
our public affairs have been taken out OF
the hands of those capable Of managing
them. and placed in the feeble and incom.
petent hands that now unhappily control
them, and that seek to keep that control.
If we observe, great many OF the men
now in the ascendant have been in the
army during the war, some to share,
some to run away from its dangers. The
war presented an opportunity for fanat-
les, and men of small calibre of every
sort. such as comes, at most, but a few
times in century, and our fanatics and
little loud men have made the most OF it,
and managed, whoever sank, that they
should be conspicuous even though con-
temptible, on the crest of the wave. In
this the people are to blame. They lost
their reason in their gratitude, and ad-
vanced to posts of civic honor men Who'll
ly unworthy of them by reason of def
cheney of caihre and character, thinking,
perhaps, that man capable OF plunging
his sword into the heart of IN enemy
must be capable of creating nations
laws or administering her government.
Such men were carried into high place as
the whirlwlnd sweeps the dust and leaves
and waits of every sort to pinnacle and
stecple. Proper gratitude is due to brave V:
men who triumphed, on Il nations behalf,
in the valley of death, but there is lin
it TO which gratitude should carry U.S. A
man who can fight well is not necessarily y
i, statesmen, nor has earned astatcsmans
place. Great public questions and poll
cics that work the veal or woe of
mighty nation are not things to be trified
with. They need great minds, stored
with the wisdom of the present and the
past, to handle them. Upon the way in
which they are treated rest the hopes and
and happiness, perhaps the heritage, OF
But though we are now destitute of
large and luminous minds to irradiate the
dark plans and the complex principles of
State policy, we DO not despair. We do
not believe that the greater elements of
American character are exhausted; we
only know that they are not now in play.
Perhaps they will rise greater, when they
do rise, for the obscurity and repose in
which they have so long lain concealed.
This, at least, we do know, that when
they do come, they will come forth hand
in hand with wiser systems of laws and
sounder doctrines of public policy than
those which now prevail.-National In
tplIj1encer