Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1872-11-14
Domestic Legislation.

threatened TO break up the institution
Every effort was made to bring the
young men within bounds, but with. /
out avail. The college ordinances
were enforced to the letter, in the case
of every offender who could be dis
covered. New statutes were made on
ly to be defied, and finally the presi-
dent resigned in dispair. A new pre-
siding officer was chosen, and at the
beginning of another session hesaid to
the assmbled students:
Il have been asked several times
what are the laws of the college under
my administration, and 1 take the
occasion to answer, once for all, that
there are none. 1 assume that You
have come here to study, and that YOU
will behave reasonably well Ii you
do, 1 ask no more. If you do not, l
shall send you home.' -.
There was no more turbulence in
the college after that. The students
could not be insubordinate when there
was nobody asking them to be subor-
dinate. They could break ne laws,
because there were none to break
The plan was bold and an original
one, and it might not work quite so
well in every case, but it had for its
basis principle too often overlooked
by those who have young people to
manage, namely, that there is nothing
worse than too much law. Now we
have nothing to do with the govern
ment of colleges, but we earnestly
wish we. could impress this fact upon
the minds of parents throughout the
land
1t is an exceedingly easy thing to
make Median statutes in the house
hold and to enforce them rigidly-
! The system is simple one which sup
poses only absolute authority on the
part Of the father and mother, and un-
questioning obedience on the part of
| the children. 1t saves a world of
trouble, too, to simply say to a child,
You SHALL" aud "You shall no" ;"
without giving any count to him of
your reasons for the command or the
prohibition. Now and then boy or
gill endowen with strong individuali
ty of feeling and an unbending will,
makes serious tr rouble in households
governed upon the absolute system,
but ordinarily the little ones accept the
despotism and live under it until they
arc old enough to throw it of, and to
throw it off with all respect for the
wishes of the tyrant they have served
so long.
We have known good many very
excellent people who ruled their
homes this way, and who took pr ide
in their success, forgetting that to
make a slave Of a child is not very
good way to fit him for the life of a
freeman.
We admit that houses in which the
father is absoIute-house in which ev
erything is governed by law-are lar
ticularly quiet and orderly ones, but
there is something better than order,
something Of more worth than quie-
tude. The father whose children arc
afraid of him, must pay for his pres
ent control of them by an entire 10 8!
of influence over their after lives.
The mistake which nearly all of u:
make is that of regarding parental u
thority as something belonging to thu
parent, to be used for the promotion
of his own ease and comfort, when in
fact it is something given to the paren
for the good of the child alone, and
every exercise of power over q child
which is not designed to promote thai
child's present or future we'll being is
} simply bit of domestic tyrany which
is without excuse. The rights of the
child are gu tie as sacred as those OF
the parent, and every infrin cement of
: those rights is wrong.
But" says a lady of our acquaint-
anee, ''I must make my child do right,
} so that, when he shall be grown up,he
will continue to do right
There, madam, you have just a gliu.
mering of light, but it is misleading
you. 1t is not your business to make
your child do right, but teach him to
do right. Making him do right now
is pretty sure way to of making him
do wrong hereafter. He should be
taught to do right because it is right
and not because his father or mother
commands it. 1t is your duty during
his childhood to so exercise him il
the art of self government as to fl
him for a manhood in which he mus
:, act as his own master. If ycu wis
: TO develop the muscles of his arms
+, you exercise them every day; ant
< wishing to develop in him the powe
t of proper self government, you shoul
: eXer else him in self-government eV
y cry day. You should teach him, no
r what is right and what is wrong, bu
lUhy certain things are right, and Gel
: tain Others are wrong; you shoul
+ teach him the principles of moral rec
r titude, and teach him to follow thei
e lead of his own free with, with as littl
constraint as possible. He will thu
learn to regulate his life properly
a while yet under care, and when L
! shall pass from it, his life, bark will |
! fully equipped with chart, compass
a and ballast, and an experienced pile
will be already at the helm Heart
- and Home.
The exposure which the Ne
n York Times has made of the inside
II nancial operations of the Liberal M
10 tional Executive Committee is suff
IN cient to largely account for the failur
- of the Liberal Democratic movemen
!. The tendency of Mr.. Ethan Allen
). cackle when anybody laid golde
N egg made capitalists, disposed to fave
"A Mr.. Greeley, exceedingly reluctant
r. come down with the dust, and prob;
70 bly, lost the cause many thousands {
- dollars needed to carry on the canvas
n Nor does the money which was raise
"a appear to have been judiciously e,
10 pended. If the Times is to be believe,
i. most of the money subscribed to met
To the expenses of the State canvass