The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1871-03-14
.wa.enman, What Of the Night:"

The rights OF man have been.s persist
emily preached tina. they ought to be under
stood very well in our country. The elo'
ouent declaration OF Rousseau has carried
conviction to the mind and heart OF the ma:
iority of our people. At last, by the soph-
isns of the pen and the power Of the sword,
we find humanity elevated rs far as the cir.
cumstances will admit, to the supposed state
of nature We.meet Rousseau's ideal man
every day-in streets, council chambers and
legislative halls-the man who does as he
1pleases anG takes what he wants.
But what the passionate Frerchmau did
net see, his disciples are beginning-to learn
that fherfghts Of man are subordinate to
the rights OF society. Liberty without order
is chaos and license. Rights without duties
are destructive Of society; and without soci-
ety man himself cannot exist. Next to the
wild osgie Of the French Revolution we owe
to the Radical party the most striking illus
trattou Of this principle.
Congress is busy IN discussing Southern
disorders. And they are well worthy OF at
tention. Why are communities OF peace
loving and order-leving citizens SO dis
turbed? Why are theapeople. Of Yorkville
and Chester and other once quiet villages
compelled to patrol their streets at night,
and guard their homes against thestealthy
or sudden marauder? 1t is because public
right has been violated in the interest Of
plundering cIques and thieying partisans
1t is because legislation has become farce.
1t is, in particular, because property instead
Of being protected is rather assailed by law.
Happy would we be if Congress, which has
imposed these conditions upon Southern 30
ciety, would hasten to remove them, and
that not by enactments against this or that
class of men, or this OF that seetiog-of the
republic, but by even-handed legislation.
And would it not be worth the attention
of that most sagacious bndy to consider
whether the disease which has outcropped
here and there at the South is not an epi-
demic, whose ravages'extend to other parts
OF the republic! While they undertake our
cure, we trust that they will take the North
in hand as we'll The coal riots will do to
begin with, or tue Pennsylvania railroads, or
the Indiana Legislature. Let Congress pro-
claim to its partisans in every State that
license is not law, and that might is not
right Else it win be able. to prophesy like
the French Regent: "After me, The deluge."
There are follies and outrages, originating
in high places and encouraged by the pow
ers that be, against which there is no resort
bat The inaliehable right OF self-protection
As our readers we'll know, we have not
been the promoters of violence in any case,
but have earnestly dscountenauced it, We
have studied the things that make for peace;
and therefore we may the more frankly avow
our conviction that to those peaceful conf
binations and policies which would mitigate
our evils, the prevailing Radicahsm in the
Congress of the United States has been the
chief obstacle The change gradually going
on in the character of that body is the most
auspicious omen for the future OF the South
ern States