Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-04-27


sources, we might perhaps remain i'd
but culpable spectators, should the vesse
be stranded or 20 down; and our indIfer
enee would not secure for us and our
immunity and safety from the vastin
volving waves breaking, or about t.
break, over the doomed craft.
Since State, then, represents us, mo
bilized by concessions so as to become =
unit representing fusion of interests
the effect of mutpal concessions and com
promises, it follows that whatever fortune
betides the State is the direct lineal
heritage of each and every one Of us, her
children, native and foreign born. Here
we have practical definition of State in
its normal condition. ",Salus populi
suprsma ler EST" was a saying of the
ancenas, and is to-day the test OF
wise legislation and jadicious gov
eminent. No laws productive of
general wretchedness can be durable
no reform lasting unless founded upon
the general welfare. In considering this,
can we neglect our duty and conscience
by saying we are not Interested IN the
affairs of the ceuntry-have no voice In
making her law. givers or her laws; there
fore, are not responsible for her bad man
agement, and, ergo, will look alone to the
soil which nature has given us, and to the
rains and dews which Providence sends
upon the just and the unjust? For when
the tax gatherer comes for the tithes to
support the Government and to increase
the stealage, can we say to him we had
nothing to do with levying these assess
ments; we were not allowed o voice in
in yonr laws, therefore we should be
exempt from their operations The
great barefaced fallacy stands before US.
The great sca!aweg spirit OF taxation
without representation, and "pay me my
stealage r. impudently, boastiully, and,
in the assumed esrb Of virture, turn the
screws of their iDquisiiion, gloating over
the groans of victims
We are asked what can be done, since
indifference is culpable and ruiBous.
Shall the people wait with their hands
tied, and suffer until things right them
selves by their excessive enormities aud
ipiustiee2 Wait until the grim carpet
Dagger" clothed in the peoples purple
and fine linen. and rich in the peoples
land, ill-gotten through the medium OF
the tsx-title, come, and with patronizing |
nonchalence, strike off their manacles,
and say, "Be free, o citizens, be free;
amass property; till Gods green fields,
once your own, but now leased from me
be free2"
Providence, indeed, sends the rain
alike upon the lands Of the good and the |
evil; but can we, with reason, hope for |
Him to assist those who will not aid
themselves If we look alone for free.
dom to the native increase of population,
forty years suffering in the wilderness
will not bring us nearer to the land OF
promise. Why Because we are fallen
upon no ordinary times; we are in an
abnormal condition, period of transit
ton, following and consequent upon the
upheayal of the old order Of things, in
which new sEnities are to be formed
in which ideas and opinions, so long held
in solution, are>now freed, and must seek
new combinations, forming new COM
ponds, made by The cohesive power of
ike siin:ties, Should we general
;ze. we would determine that
the cause of this continued disturbance
is the great sntagonism or aversion
manifested in the repulsion OF legitimate
and defined natural laws to the spirit of
radical, excessive, unlimited, unsafe and
Unstable free agenoy. or progressivsism.
In other worde, law and order ars con.
sidering whether, with arms folded, they
will allow O cluster of hybrid republics,
bastard scions from the blasted tree of
liberty, or o great government of peace,
good will, maiSal concessions and COM
promises of conflicting interests. durable,
um bra geous, grand and glorious We
would point you to the results of these
tgo systems, their advantages and dis
advantages bow we are to be delivered
from present bondage, and hsw the re-
suit alluded TO is net . delssloD and a
mirage to play Jack o'lantern with
our hopes Ia America, "ibertds non
iarenta est" See the suspension and
hirawsI OF the Republics palladium,
the writ Of "bGbfqs corpus" the sub
version of the Constitution the general
gloom the unsettled condition of affairs,
{" htc 81 rebigus" Everything speaks
10 the renecling observer OF the ma
tural tendency of the period. Those
Ebo are prof,ing by the calsmities
IF the State will always allege that all is
we'll: will CRY oDt-raitors from the
nssthead-"glory and honor to the Re-
public; and we might add that they will,
,ofto roee, tickle themselves with the i'm
nensiiy of their siuPendous deception,
for they exist upon the rain OF the State.
Horace and Juvenal predicted the de-
atruciion OF Rome when in her greatest
spleudDr, but neither did Rome give
credeuce to her prophets, nor lllium lis
ZEN to the yaticinaii5D Of Cassandra
7Tojd fuit is our lesson, aud Rome ofers
Is one by which we might profit.
The dligent and thoughtful reader OF
history will tell you that those who q At
,er are more TO be dreaded than those
who predict and expose the oalamIties of
heir State. Nero and Caligula we're the
legitimate production Of their time
offspring Of corrupt and violated peo-
Die. s., also, with Dlnton, Marat and
1bespiere, The cesspool of internecine
Eill ever engender and throw
into the body poiitle mad virus which
1ft times is taken up BY tie 5laod and
disseminated throughout the whole sys
ZEN, causing it to become so diseased as
10 require the strongest counter-irri;ants
and much blood-lettisg before a normal
and healthy state can be attained. You
who sleep in fancied security, dreaming
not Of the terrible siromboli Travelling
beneath you, will soon have an awful
weakening Who Of us dreamed in
sernestness Of the extent and sum of dire