The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1875-07-11

the pure rightness of action in this life.
and thus confirming it for all time rs the
royalty and sovereign prerogatiye of
mankind. By short md purely na-
tural process, they made the attributes
of freedom of person, the protection of
property, and the pursuits Of happiness,
Of vital import in maintaining thnt
freedom of conscience. Thus the souls
of men, their divine faculty imbibed,
and sanctified the resistless and indomi-
table desire for civil liberty, and the es-
sentinl part of divine aspiration and i'm
mortal hope, based on the Christian
faith, became the chief purpose and mo-
tive OF patriotic duty, md men were
divinely taught the solid rules of civil
government in their purest and most
majestic forms. This indeed wos the
basis and the essence Of their order of
governmental economy. 1t was lust
when this essential spirit was brooding,
immature, over the institutions Of Christ
endom, that its disciples came to America
to attempt the political realization of its
hopeful promises. And here when,
after many generntions, it ripened to it's
fullness, the people of the English colo
ninl provinces rose in its might, asserted
Its high behests and prerogative, and by
a sacrifice of blood, instituted the con-
JNAS>e IAthSApASo VI 1C1lRlOuS uuu civil
freedom of conscience. It was tenn
pestuous err Of the worlds history, but
our forefathers, under the impulse and
guidance Of the mighty principle, wea-
thered the storm, battling the fatal blasts
OF despotism and stunning tho quick
sands of Democracy and the lurid and
| deluslve glare of fanaticism. They con-
yerted dependent colonies into sove-
reign States, which, by their inherent
sacred and innliennblc sovereignty guar
nnteed the principle on which they were
based, the freedom of religious and civil
conscience On that guarantee, broad
as the widest scope of human want on
earth, by consequent system of natural
logic grew up the incidents of self-go-
vernment, and the right of representa-
ton, IN the exercise of law-making pow
ers. The piety, the wisdom and the
yalor displayed in achieving this empire
and effecting this organism, marked the
elimination Of that order of civilization
to which we have been allotted by the
providence of God. It has been be-
quenthed to us, and His commandment
Is that we shall keep this charge of His
pure and undefled before the world
and in his service, according to the die
tate of His word and of our own service
Under this dread responsibility, have we
done our best to keep this command?
Have we done this piously, wisely and
vnllnntly, In full measure of it's mngni-
tude and appreciation of its transcend
ant value? "Have we done all these
things. we were commanded to do? Have
we done TINT which was our duty to do?"
Let us see. We are celebrating to-day
the nfty years life of this University,
which began this life fifty years after our
forefathers went forth to the sacrifice of
blood under that dread command. In
that warfare they acquired n continent
and perfect liberty, and transmitted
them to us. For the first ten years they
were painting for breath after the strug-
gle, under the majestic sway of Washing
ton, and were thus brought to the begin
nlng OF new century, apparently set
apart and dedicated to their eXnltatiOn-
something over three-score and ten wears
ago. Three-score and ten years! What
OF this allotment of time to the natural
span of human life, in it's relation to the
life of liberty, under the nurture of our
own fathers, and Of our duty and dcvo-
ton to its sacretl behcsts? Thrcc-fourths
of the nineteenth century of grace have
gone into the boundless abysm of the
past, and already time is casting its re-
cords and traditions into the waste of
VIII .AoAit UAiiihiiiS MS piStlN nnu swift
moving phantoms, eeaving to MS their
dark trail, only to warn or to mislcad us
1t has been nm crastrnngely commingling
good and evil to the human family: espe,
cially that portion assigned to the Amc-
rican continent, and most notably to the
people who derived their political exist
ences from the English colonies. In
Europe, the first decade was signalized
and emblnzoned by the ovor-mastcring
genius OF Napoleon subvorting the sys-
TENS and ruling over the continent, and
the mighty intellect of Pitt defying that
rule, and hurling it back from England.
In America, Washington was dead. His
robes of unsmirched purple, misatted
for n time, were again worthily on tho
shoulders of Jefferson; and here white
handed hope waved her sceptre of faith,
and liberty sat smiling beneath tho
bright enchantment, or serenely and
grandiy seemed to move onward to the
amounting and the coronation.
Tenderer and more devoted, stronger
and purer, higher and holier, than aught