Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1873-06-04

freedom of mind and for social develop
ment-a yearning, deep, vehement, and oft
times violent-gives strange mark to the
age. IL is peculiar to no order of intellect, or
school of morals, or scale of society. BE il
principle or a passion-be it a reality or
mockery-be it from whence it may-it
has taken possession of the souls of men.
Classify 1t you may not measure 1t you
can not, yet it is none the less the most
active force of the century. 1t has pro-
duced almost as many civil revolutions in
| the last fifty years. 1t has banished kings,
extinguished dynasties pushed empires a
thousand years old to the verge of destruc-
| ton, put the Supreme POntitf to flight
and then Gagged him, planted popular ban
| ners on every palace and Nalhalla on the
continent this side of Russia, trumpeted
| through Europe ideas such as before were
hardly lisped in whispers, evoked new
races into life brought to q common level,
| lords aud their liegemen, summoned con
stituent assemblies, convoked parliaments,
| framed constitutions, levied taxes, debated
| questions of peace or war, commanded
armies it has been blinded, deceived,
overcome, brought to the dust, and yet is
| this very day farther from death than ever.
1t will rise again-rise not only by virtue
of It's own inherent energy, but because the
| strongest of the old helpers of brute force
are dead or dying. Feudalism is dead,
the divine right of Kings is dead, patri-
clan prestige is dead, tradition is dead, SUI
perstition is dead, military conquest is
dying, papal infalibilty is dying, the
balance of power is dying, diplomatic craft
is dying. 1900
Human hearts have their affinities and
mutual influences which distances cannot
dssipate, or difference in circumstances
neutralize. Ideas, too, in these times are
winged, and they find, fly where they may,
principles and aims germane to, If not iden-
|
their origin. They are as sure everywhere Of
the same human nature as of the same
ambient atmosphere. The absolute, un-
conditional character of right and wrong
the Unborn, inalienable supremacy or con-
science-the free self-determining power
of the will-man's instructive sense of
God, true freedom and immortality-these
are your vital convictions. They contra
Vene and contradict that material system
which makes utility the ground of good
and evil, and generalizes primary prin-
ciples and motives from the visible world
and outward experience, They imply the
divine origin of man, his possession of
rights and subsection to duties which come
from heaven and with which nothing UNI
der heaven can Justly interfere.
Believing that right and wrong are eter-
nal, unchanging verities-that they are
authoritatively declared and enjoined by
| conscience-that we have will to submit
/
to believe in individual, unconditional re-
sponsibility, and in our absolute title to
every outward means that will enable us
to meet that responsibility, and in the duty
to make use, and the best use, of those
means.
This is not thing of air, or thing in
r the air. 1t is not a barren abstraction,
r but the most teeming of all realities. 1t is
r the great central truth of ethics, to which
all other ethical truths are to be referred
= and by which their truthfulness is to be
tested. Am 1 asked who in society is tc
apply this rule of conformity or non-con'
formity? 1 might answer conditlonaly
8 and say it is for the leaders and rulers tc
apply It to the ruled and following and
8 in turn, for the latter to apply it to the
l former classes.
$ But 1 have more positive reply. l say
/ you are to apply it and not only this, bu
Q you are bound to apply it, and trust its ap
e plication to no other authority on the
8 globe. You, yOu, in the sovereignties ofyoul
own natures are to 'arraign all policie:
before your reason and conscience, and OF
your individual responsibility are to pro
nounce Judgment. You, as enlightened
lust and Christian men and women, are t.
contribute your part towards that en-
. lightened, just and Christian public
opinion which is so rapidly becoming thu
) | controlling power in the administration o
> all the affairs of the world. The thought
y then, is individual honesty, independence
=, and activity.
But society is another necessity of thu
race. There are men who fear destruc
ton of society; the thing is impossible
Man was made a social being he pre-
serves society not only for interest, but 10y
= instinct. Social preservation is as truly
y a law of nature as self'preservatiOn. So
y ciety came without calculation and no cal
. culation is needed to save it. Mutual want
: and affinities form social bond which M
art can break.
Socialists can invent systems, but they
cannot invent men for their systems, no
can they fit men to their systems when, il
u doing it, they must cut away any of thu
q prime elements of human being.
q Theories must now satisfy the living rea
e son of men. Even antiquity has lost it
It consecrating influence, and prescription
= its authority. Years do not change TIN
l essence of things, PandemOnium, "th
It high capital of Satan and his peers" i
IS older than the oldest thing on earth, anC
= we revere it not, though it contains
V throne of royal state, which far outshine
the wealth of Crmsus and of India.
e Human rights are authenticatednOt b,
IS mortal wax and parchment, but by tn
T.; image and superscription of our God. Thl
II liberty to be valued traces no doubtful ped
$ igree from English Magma Charta, for it ha
e has neither birth, nor race, nor age. Char
/ ters and constitutions may serve it, but ere