New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-07-23
PuBLIC OPINION.

upholds certain idols and casts down
others. 1t ordains what man shall wear,
and what he shall believe; what virtues ne
shall cultivate and what vices he shall
avoid or conceal. It declares that certain
things. forbidden by the ten command
ments, may under certain circumstances,
be excusably done, and that certain
others, perfectly harmless in themselves,
NAV not be done. Undue submission to
this power makes man a slave; undue
indifference to it an outcast. 1t is con-
stitutional monarch, crowned by general
consent, and endowed with vast authority,
but whose constant tendency to tyranize
requires as constant vigilance on the part
of his subjects. For unrestrained III its
operation, this force would attempt to ex-
ercise an authority quite beyond the
legitimate sphere of action, destroying all
individuality, and reducing the human
family to a procrustean equality, fatal to
progress.
Public opinion manifests itself in a
manner as manifold as its power is extern
sive. In our country it works through
| the press, and the ballot-hox, through the
conversation of men in club-roomS and on
street corners; through the chirping OF
women over teatables during morning
calls; and through the gossip OF both,
when apart or together. No subject is too
elevated and none too humble TO be be-
vond its jurisdiction; and if the man or
woman who is governed invariably by its
demands, sacrifices portion Of independ-
ence. the individual who braves it is sub
iected to a social ostracism hard indeed to
endure And yet men i'll all ages have
been found ready to array themselves
against this power. and from motives the
most opposite -heroism, audacity, vanity.
The martyr, the bravo, and the fool, each
in turn has stood forth and said to the
world, in language appropriate to his
character, Il defy thee The position
of the first, sacrificing, not only life, but
what is dearer, the respect Of his fellow
men, rather than deny his convictions, is
the noblest of which human nature is Ca
pable. The position of the second, court
ing the odium the wickedness de-
serves, glorying in that which is
his shame, is the very depth of
degradation, the self-satisfed igno-
miny of Satan himself, when he >ex-
claimed, evil, be thou my good !"
But how shall we characterize that
Drawing of public opinion which has no
motive but to win notoriety? Is it not
the perfection of folly?
Besides these three classes martyrs,
braves, and fools-there is yet another,
composed of persons not wholly wicked,
not utterly lost to decency, but chatting
under restrictions which they think
society has no right to impose, and
hoping by their boldness to win to their
side numbers enough to form a sort of
bastard public opinion, which shall up
hold them in their violation of social
dogmas. By this class, Buffers epigram-
matte saying, at is a great blessing to
have lost ones character" would doubt
less be recognized as the true gospel of
social freedom, releasing them from the
CALLING bonds of custom.
This is certainly an evil, but fortunately |
it is rare one; the opposite error, a
slavish fear of attracting inyidious atten-
ton by giving play to individuality of
character, being a thousand-fold more |
common. This dread of ''what people |
will say" makes countless numbers of
people all over the world do every day of |
their lives things they do not want to do, |
and abstain from things, perfectly inno-
cent in themselves, that they do want
to do. This form of public opinion in
small matters, whether called etiquette,
as in society, or custom as among peo-
pie, is a public busy body which lets
nothing escape interference, dictat-
ing, as we said, what we shall
wear how We shall comport ourselves
toward our families, even what we
shall believe, for although the spirit of
the age no longer allows persecution for
opinion sake, yet certain forms of free
dom of thought are punished by social
stigma, the dread of which takes many
people to church on Sunday who would
much rather be otherwise engaged, and
prevents others on the superstitiously |
day from engaging in harmless
to which their inclinations
would lead them.
Passing from religion to politics it was
this dread of not thinking as ones neigh
bors thought that, before the war, drove
thousands into an apparent support OF
slavery who were in no wise interested in
the institution; and it was the dread of
not doing as ones neighbors did that,
during the war, drove thousands of Union
men throughout the South into the con-
federate armies. The same cause has led
too many Northerners who have settled
here since the war, and whose education
and habits of thought, previous to their
immigration, were all opposed to those
they found here, to misrepresent them
selves, and what is worse, misrepresent
to others the state of society they found
here.
Viewed on a large scale, the public
opinion Of a country or of community
is a measure Of its civilization, a spirit of |