Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1871-10-26
Am Uncducated Ballet the Wind
ing-Shect Of Liberty.

THE REA EXPONENT OF REPUBLI-
CANIsM.
Trusts, responsibilities, interests, vaster
in amount, more sacred in character, than
ever before in the providence of God were
committed to any people, have been COM
United to us. The great experiment of
republicaDsim, of the capacity of mar for
elf-government, is to be tried anew, which,
wherever it has been tried, in Greece, in
Rome. in Italy, has failed, through an in
capacity in the people to enjoy liberty
without abusing it.
Century after century, mankind had
groaned beneath unutterable expressions.
To pamper a few with luxuries, races had
been subjected to bondage. To s~atiate
the ambition of atyrant, nations had been
dashed against each other in battle, and
millions crushed by the shock The up
ward-tending, light-seeking capacities of
the soul had been turned downward into
darkness and debasement. All the realms
of futurity which the far-seeing eye of the
mind could penetrate. had been peopled
with the spectres of superstition. The
spirits of the Internal world had been
subsidized. to bind all religious freedom,
whether of thought or speech, in the bond
age of fear. Heaven had been sold for
money, like an earthly donlicile by those
who, least of all, had any title to its man.
sions. In this exigehcy, it was he ex-
pedient of Providence, to transfer domin-
ion from the few to the many-from those
who had abused it, to those who had suf-
fered. The wealthy, the high-born, the
privileged, had lad it in their power to
bless the people; but they had cursed
them. Now, they and all their fortunes
are in the hands of the people. The pow
srty which they have ei.tailed is to com
mand their opulcnce. The ignorance they
have suffered to abound, is to adjudicate
upon their rights. The appetites they
have neglected, or which they have stimu-
lated for their own indulgence, are to in
wade the sanctuary of their homes. In fine,
that interest and concern for the walfare
Of interiors, which should. have sprung
from motives of philanthrophy, must now
be extorted from motives of Self-preserva-
ton. As a famine teaches mankind to be
industrious and provident, so do these
great &c, elopments teach the more fayor-
ed classes of society that they never can
be s'fe while they neglect the welfare of
any portion of their social interiors.
WHAT THE CENTURIES SHOULD HAVE
TAUGHT Us.
With the change in the organic struc-
ture of our Government, there should
have been corresponding changes in all
public measures and institutions. For
every dollar given by the wealthy, or by
the State, to colleges, to cultivate the
higher branches of knowledge, a hundred
should have been given for primary educa-
ton. For every acre of land bestowed
upon an academy, a province should have
been grated to common schools. Select
schools for select children should have
been discarded, and universal education
Joined hands with universal suffrage.
In these schools. the first great principle
of a republican government, that of ma
tive. Unborn equality, should have been
practically inculcated. by their being open
to all, good enough for all, and attended
by all. Here, too, the second great prin-
ciple of a republican government should
have been taught, that all men, though
n~atively equal, become inherently un-
equal the moment that one grows wiser or
better than his fellow. A drowning child
should not have been snatched from a
watery grave with more promptness and
a~lacrity than an ignorant or an abandoned
one should have been sought out, and
brought under elevating and reforming in
huences.
The noblest public edi6ces, the most
splendid galleries of art. theatres, gardens,
monuments, should all nave been deemed
a reproach to any people. while there was
a child among them without ample and
improved means of education. The ma
ture and functions of our Government,
the laws of political economy, the duties
as we'll as the rights of citizens, should
nave been made familiar as household
words. The right to vote should nave
been held up as the most sacred of human
rights, rs involving all civil and religious
rights, and therefore to be constrained,
(coactum, as the Romans would have
more vigorously expressed it, by all civil
and religious obligations.
METHODS AND RESULTS OF ELECTION.
Now at the last presidential election,
when every voter not absolutely in his
w~inding-sheet was carried to the polls.
when the haryest-ield was SO thoroughly
swept neither stubble or tares were left
for the cleaner, at that election the ma
iority for the successful candidate was