The weekly Louisianian., 1874-04-04
S P E L G IL
T sELLA MARTIN, ESQ

we're ~ uALAA ~ c1o:
"onts Of q co~nsecrated lie or a defllee
rrono. The individual who could Tee
y wrong or understand a right wax
,,orc to him than the army "Ii'1
MIGHT conquer a territory and establish
m enpire, because when justice KNOCKS "a.s.
ST. the door Of an interrupted heart
she has a. thousand chances OF ultimate
admission against n chance OF re-
]coanition when her presence IN tue
a.n,,etation of a written document
is saIemnly invoked: He knew that t
~ the great struggles of mankind
an,;nst constitutions, the attempt has
alvays been made on the side OF power
n make authority q substitute for con-
science; to give precedent the command
over reason; to allow interest to domi-
ncer over right, and in our time
especially Charles suwc:1 %:" sl.as
Individual rights were not only buried
rpder a mountain Of statutes, bat he
fonnd that the statutes themselves
could be interpreted by and applied to
only a particular class of the race
which originally adopted them to the
1o4,;n,ont of the negro.
The white man that held his con-
sc;cnce sacred tc the anti-slavery teach
;ngs of his father or mother Was
stricken down more remorselessly than
The negro against whom the tyranny of
legislation wa originally directed.
Garrison had been well nigh ~suffocated
with the hangn1an's cord in his own
town. Lcveioy's blood had stained
the waters of the Missouri river; Fair
bank had Languished for o score Of
years in a Kentucky prison, and Nat.
Turner had died upon a Virginia glib
bet because they believed in saying to
men what God had put in their hearts
to say, or because they did what
humanity prompted them to do in the
yindication of their manhood against
the lespotism Of mercenary and artistic
cratic enactments.
Personal independence was naturally
allied in his well-ordered mind with
individual rights. In his estimation
there could be no such thing as a NOR
al monopoly of political conduct.
Parties are good within the legitimate
sphere of their activities, but parties
are no more than the cobwebs OF q
single nights industry by q spider
when the breath of On honest LEADER
ship is turned against them. He had
seen the old Wing party, under the
captuincy Of the only man who could
measure intellect with him, wrecked OH
the waters of q reAuent public opinion
while Daniel Webster himself Was at
the helm.
He had seen the old Democratic ship
burned to q cinder by this public senti-
ment which turned its focal heat upon
the convention at Baltimore in 1860;
and both these distinctions had taken
place through the independence Of
men like himself and Vice President
Wilson, John P. Hale, Garrison:
Philips, Frederick Douglass and others,
who began by proclaiming their in
dependence of party, and ended in
making a party which, in the freshness
Vi its power, made personal independ-
ence its chief cornerstone.
Mr.. Sumner knew that mankind is
always safe with liberty, and that a
man who has got sense enough to be
independent will nearly always have
conscience enough to do right; and he
knew also that the keynote of every
revolution against an established
lnlqnlty has been struck by some re-
former whose abilities and courage
rendered him independent of the
patronage Of any one set of men.
What does his own life teach us if it
docs not convey the value of this per-
sonal independence? Beginning his
career in the Senate when he had but
two men to stand by him in his moral
attitudes he bore the fierce opposition
OF the party which had aided in his
election, all Indifferent as to whether
ne was reelected Or not in his unswcrv-
ing devotion to his own conviction.
lnseparable from his love of freedom
and personal independence was his
oe'ot'on to principle. He studied
only those masters who had swept
through history in the stainless gar
lents and with the FURNISHED weapons
~ chlvalrous devotion and courage in
Tue oa'lsa OF the right; and he fashion
gu hisll Life upon the model of such men
Us languished in the dungeons or died
IT. .he stake rather than betray the
o'S' committed to their hands. Con-
s's'ency was his guiding star, but it
WIS not the consistency of mere at