The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-08-05
A. 4. PLEA / FOR TOLERANCE.
An Address by Henry Watterson, Ed.
itor of Louisville COurier.JOurnal.


ana State University at Bloomington,
Ind, an address entitled "a Plea tor
Tolerance he said at the outset that
he had to offer few loosely jointed re-
Aections upon everyday life with some
particular references to the compromises
needful tt. its well being and safe con-
duct. After explaining that the founda-
ton Of all greatness in man is characters
he said: -.r.,! -. 81, @.
I believe that in the conduct of life
The first of the virtues is tolerance. In
deed, tolerance of a certain kind is o
basis Of physical necessity. We do not
move along the street or drive across a
bridge in straight line, looking neither
to the right nor left, giving the way to
no one, keeping our own course regard
less of consequences, and priding our
selves.upon the principle of obstruc-
ting everybody and everything in vain,
and, practically, in an ,idiotic effort at
s'directness." The man who does that is
Justly accounted madman, or an enemy
tosociety, log at the least, a blackgguarHd 3!
and a bully. I knew a man once who
did not end his days in a lunatic asylum,
but who came9tosa haltzsuddenly with
half dozen, bullets in his mortal frame,
who had passion; somewhat exaggera-
ted. I am bound to admit, for keeping
the neighborhood In a state Of perfect
order,a reducing men and things. to his
own acute sense of propriety. He was
possessed of great personal courage and
Vigor Of intellect; was as pretty a spe-
cimenH Of manly beauty as one might
meet and take a passage Of pistols with
on summer day; an Apollo Belvidere;
plausible, kind=hearted, and exacting::
For ten years he kept many hundreds of
people in state of perennial terror,
Swearing all the while and believing that,
if it were not for him, things would go
to the bad. Well, finally, he carried his
regulating propensities to point which
8 Young friend of his could not brook,
and, to use newspaper technicality, the
verdict of the coroner's jury was Justl-
fable homicide. The people, about
there. were immensely relieved, and be-
gan forthwith to make a hero. of the
slayer, who was elected to the Legislature
in consequence of .his-act. - -, -!
There is in most of your primitive
schoolreaders bit of yersifcation which
recounts an interview between the great
Alexander and poor devil of bandit
Who had fallen into the hands of the
Macedonian captain. I have always
thought the ebandit got the better OF the
argument. He fell, like my own unfor-
tunate acquaintance, who carried his
revolving, si1barrelled system Of domes-
tic reform. too far-like many another
social philosopher who does not know
where to stop-and he suffered in conse-
uuenee. But, after all, what more did
he do than Alexander, Napoleon and
Bismarck9 The difference lay in the de-
gree, not In the classification.
Not to be too classic, nor yet to be too
vaguely illustrative, let us take the pres
ent situation of European, affairs by way
of example, and look at it from an i'm
partial point of view. You all admire
Prince Bismarck. He is your current
type of hero, uniting many ancient and
modern characteristics stalwart man
whomighth hold his own with Rolando
or Robin Hood 4 a cultivated political
metaphysician, able to cope with Glad
stone or Manning; an astute statesman
and diplomatist, who circumvented Ma
poleon and set Gambetta down to the
foot of the class. You admire him. He
is your idea hero And why SO? Because
he is successful. You do not ask why
or how. You, do not stop to consider
whether he is right or wrong, whether
his purposes are good or bad, just or un-
lust. and for the reason they do not I'M
mediately affect you. You merely see
being who mows down all before him
Ikea skilled scytheman, a lucky gam
bier who beats every one, and is never
beaten. There is nothing like success.
Yesterday it was he.Hero of .Austerlitz;
to-day it is the Hero of United Germany;
tomorrow it may be-one of you. Who
can tell? So youlfall down and worship
the. craven images of success, never
thinking of the unfortunates who fall
in his way and are wiped out, never car
ing for the principles of evil or of good
which; he may employ or sacrifice In his
career.
To make q. .dirrct example, you do not
sympathize with France at all. The
beautiful country the brave, the gener-
ous peopIei who have been, time out OF
mind, precipitating themselves over the
precipice Of liberal impulses, yet, withal,
frugal and honest, paying their just
debts, refusing to confess defeat or to be
Inundated, regaining their foothold and
coming again.to the scratch. undaunted
in spirit, undiminished in ardoI, demon
strative and sympathetic, and true to
their native country. Every man of you
is more or less indebted to these. quail
ties in the French for the freedom he en-
joys. to-day. But there are not many
Frenchmen in America, while there are
q great many Germans, and, as the Ger
mans are considerably ahead in the
struggle for absolute supremacy on the
part of Bismarck and for national exis-
fence on the part of France, why you let
your opinions cheap, like an unmarked
able, out-of-t the way tenement, and 60 in
for the upper dog in the fight.
You viii understand that am plead
ing for tolerance against brutal force,
and, to make the point still clearer and
Bring my meaning nearer home, let me
come back to our own country and dwell
for moment with our civil dissensions.
You have most graciously invited me to
address you, restricting me in nothing,
and as, in patriotic sense, I feel myself
to be equally entitled with you to all that
should belong to an American citizen,
vet find myself, and the class of people
whom represent, constantly prescribed
&C