The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1874-02-19
Ignorance and Crime.

There are some things that are indissolubly
connected. The tie that binds them together
which dissolution can be effected is by to-
tai destruction of one of the things which 1t
connects Ignorance and crime may be men
toned as thus connected. Never did shadow
follow a substance with more certainty than
crime follows in the wake of Ignorance. Be-
and national wealth fall, as the ripe grain falls
before the scythe of the reaper, or the trees OF
the forest fall before the axe of the woodman.
In the van of ignorance, there may be helds
waving with luxuriant harvests ana homes
happy in the enjoyment of peace and plenty !;
in its rear there is nothing but fields overgrown
with thorfIs and thistleS, and dilapidated homes
inhabited by tenants gaunt with hunger.
Ignorance is both a crime and the originator
of Crimes innumerable. The ignorant are, by
an irreyersible law of nature, doomed to suf-
fering, to ignominy and to shame. These
things fall to them as portion, ny the liked
law that punishment follows crime, as the
effect follows the cause.
The crimes which are originated by ignorance
are innumerable in multitude, and hideous in
shape and degree. They embrace all those
crimes which initiate against the individual
and general good Of every community Inthe
black catalogue of crimes, which nave their
origin in ignorance, is included every species
of iniouity, from the robbing Of hen-roost to
cutting mans throat in the dark watches Of
the night, and then plundering and carrying
of his vaiuables. Ignorance is an expensive
thing 1t is not simply cancer that Kills the
mildew and blight which causes bright pros
poets to wilt and die; but it is like Pharaoh's
lean cattle-it devours and consumes every
thing good within its reach, and, like the
horse-leech, it cries, ''give, give" It con,
sumes the rich productions OF the earth ana
still its gauntness increases. Like an untamed
and undomesticated wild beast, it breaks over
the enclosures of law and order, and destroys,
without mercy, the rarest trophies of art and
science Like whirlwind, it never ceases to
destroy until its powers have been wholly ex-
hausted. What arithmetic can enumerate the
expense which ignorance annually inficts
upon the world? Behold those massive struc-
t,1res of brick and stone, whose doors and Win
dows are barred with iron rails These are
some of the necessary expenses of Ignorance.
To protect the innocent, to secure justice and
right to the weak, against the ignorant intru-
sions of the strong, cost in dollars and cents,
sum equal to all the other expenses of civlli-
zation. The court expenses Of the United
States amount to a sum sufficient, annually, to
build harbor at every port that would shell
ter every vessel in the. world. Every County
in South Carolina expends sufficient, annually,
in the administration of law and justice-in
furnishing and restraining the ignorant-to
build and maintain school in every heighbor-
hood. The producing cause OF all these ex-
penses is gnorance-ignorance OF law and lg-
norance of right and justice.
The expense entailed upon the world by ig-
norance is not all tho evils. that flow from it..
What countless woes are unnecessarily 1nt1lct-
ed upon the human family by ignorancel 1t
causes the tears of the orphan and widow to
run down like rivers. 1t makes the heart, once
happy, to be sad. 1t robs the world of all its
sweets and sows broadcast and with an un-
sparing hand, evils innumerable. 1t hastens
to the gallows and then to the grave. 1t pulls
down the home that protects from the storms
of winter and wards off the burning suns OF
summer, and exposes US to the inclemency OF
the weather and the merciless pity Of an alien
ated world Yorkville Enquirer.