The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1870-03-17

I
| fecting the rights of the widow and the or
phan, these courts will necessarily be of the
most direct importance to owners of estate
Aud while we devote the utmost solieitude
to the interests of labor, we must see to Il
that we bestow no less anxious solicitude on
the interests OF property. The incoming or
der Of things is that of well ordered soci-
ETY. in which, while the working classes are
made to enjoy the fullest rights of wise and
free government, the propertied classes are
made to enjoy the fullest rights of wise and
strong government. The men to be chosen
for the administration of the Chancellor's
courts, must therefore be, under the very
highest considerations of sound policy. men
distinguished for probity and learning
amongst the members of the bar. In the
still more important court that which de-
cides beyond all appeal on questions invOlv-
ing the property, the liberty the life of the
citizen. the men to be placed upon the
Bench. shall be men of the highest order OF
courage. character and legal ability.
The Constitution of the State has taken
the selection of our Judges out of the hands
of the people. In this it intended. evident
", to withdraw the choice OF those highly
important funcriouaries form the passions
of politics. It clearly sought, by the change.
to bring to the selection of our Judiciary all
the eievating influence of deliberate judg-
ment and individual responsibility. And
under this view of the objects of the Consti-
tuition, feel it my solemn duty to hold OF
'
straints that may so narrow my choice for the
Supreme Bench. as to confine me to men
falling below a very high standard of fit
ness, morally, and Intellectually.
The duty which the incoming authority
of this State owes to the poor, is in every
lishment of a Militia in the interests of
strong government is in fact not more a
measure for the well-being of labor than it
is for the safety of property. The organiZa-
q e
ed though the duties of the Board will nee
essarily be. is not more commendable as
stimulant of industry. than it is as an enhan-
Ger of estate. And public education in
society whose political power rests to so
great an extent in the hands of men without
property is certainly not called for more as
a benefit to the poor than as safeguard to
the rich.
The mutually of the interest of labor and
property in the reforms of the new order Of
things, is not greater in any other particu-
lar than in that of wise read ustment of
the old system of taxation. Under every
principle of justice and policy. the State
ought not to impose any encumbrances
whatever that may prove, in the least inju-
riOus to the productive energy of labor
For, amongst other reasons, any tagging in
the earnest application of that power of pro-
duction, involves direct loss of the income
of the wealthy. AnG therefore does the
system of free-labor which we have crown
ed with political supremacy to-day, demand
that our taxation shall be made to bear with
the least possible burden on industry, in or
der to keep that industry up to the highest
level of activity called for by the real inter-
ests of property.
All classes of our society are interested in
the wise employment of our capital. The
surplus-income which had been absorbed of
old in the purchase oflabor, will, henceforth,
aggregate into large accumulations. Do
mestic capital will thus, for the first time in
our history. become an element in the State;
and even already shows signs of its presence
selves for its employment. The restless ac
tivity which the public mind begins TO de-
velope in that direction is a cause of appre-
hension; and suggests that the wisest and
severest scrutiny be applied to dealing with
projects which may involve the absorption
of our active capital. In fact, mania of
speculation threatens us +; and, if we do not
treat it with tirmness and foresight. may, as
it ever has done elsewhere. not only plunge
us into financial disaster, but may result in
such bitter disappointments to individuals
of enterprise as to leave behind it, for many
years, heavy encouragement upon meas
ures OF even healthy progress.
The new administration, in acting as
drag upon progress of dangerous rapidity,
will set its face against additions to the pub
lie debt 1t Will discountenance all meas
ures designed m a speculative temper to
open the doors for burdening the future by
any increase of the liabilities of the people
of the State. When the State sha.. .Iave
been enabled to place her business on ba-
sis of cash, and her counties and cities shall
have reached financial position from which
they can meet their ordinary expenses, not
at a discount of twenty to thirty per cent
on their paper, but at the par amount in
money we will have reached point at
which will be time enough for a spirit of
even enterprise to think of plunging US into
a policy of municipal loans.
The North and the South have long been
by general Emergencies of
mind. The Southern thinking took the di-
rection of pure intellectually. That of
the North followed the less lofty, but very
much safer, flight of material wisdom
Southern statesmen have ever sought. and
ever found. strength amongst this people by
in political theories; while the
statesmen OF the North pursued the less
brilliant, but more judicious, course of
in behalf of industrial great
ness. The one group of thinkers gave their
section doctrines on the theory OF govern
ment, while the other group gave their sec
ton fishing-bounties. coasting laws harbor-
steamship-sq bsidies, navy
Yards. rifie-manufactories, railWaY-grants.
and all those other gifts of practical wisdom
by which they had been enabled To accept
of Southern theories with the as
sured patience of men who had entered on
the policy of erecting physical strength
which could, at its own good pleasure, crush
those theories into powder under their heels. |
John e.. Calhoun's genius was of the very
noblest. 1t has left to the Southern people
the elevating influence of brotherhood with
a transcendent intellect. But with this
tribute to the memory of great man, what
let me ask. have the triumphs of his Won |
derful mind given to the people he loved |
WELL if not wisely? In tenderness for his |
fame do not ask you to turn your eyes for |
an answer to his beloved South. Look for |
an indirect reply to the canals, the railways
the harbors, the fishing fleets, the coasting |
deets, of the North. If these do not speak |
out to you a plain answer as to the results |
accom- plished by Southern devotion to polit- |
ical distractions, while the North followed |
paths leading to material strength. look for |
! more pointed summing up OF all these in |
that climax, of the comparison of the South |
ern with the Northern school of statesman |
ship, presented to US on an occasion of pro- |
found humiliation under the apple-tree of
War is the schoolmaster of Nations. Attic |
followed the footsteps of the |
Greek Phalanx. Latin learning kept pace |
In its expansion with the advance of the |
On the battle fields won by the scimeter OF
the Moor. And to cite no less notable in |
stance la our own day. the defeat of Sadowa
has taught the obstinate despotism of Aus
ria the grandest knowledge of ala knowl- |
edge which has Effected a revolution in her |
political thinkingi Shall it be said that the |
Southern people have been made an excep- |
lion in history by factious blindness that |
resists the plainest lesson of history les |
son which tells them as plainly as the letters |
which Constantine saw surrounding, in the |
Heavens, the Cross of our Salvation, that |
hey must abandon their political tbeori- |
zings for the wiser statesmanship which de- |
votes ITSELF In the first place, to the foster |
age of material interests.
The old constitutional parties of the coun- |
Try are dead. The Democracy retains, IL is |
true, q semblance of life; but can never be- |
come living power again until it shall |
have entered on an existence totally dis |
.inct from that of the past. The propriety |
Of this occasion, does not therefore, forbid |
me from dealing with the two old narfias of |