The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1877-02-15

that such is their belief. A man be-
comes firmly imbued with the idea that
the United States is a free country, and
perhaps with no more definite under
standing of liberty, than that it allows
him to act as his passions and desires
prompt, he Immediately abuses his free
dom by getting beastly drunk setting
aside all law and decency Of behavior.
If you attempt to RAISE him up from
the mire into which he has fallen, and
from which he is unable to rise, he will,
very likely, ask you if this is not free
country, and if it is any of your bust
ness where he lies down to rest; or
will reply after the manner Of the
drunken man who fell head first down
stairs and when a friend kindly offered
to assist him, supposing that he was in
jured, rudely told the friend to let him
alone, that he always came down stairs
in that way. Or perhaps actuated by
the same feeling he allows his children
! to grow up in ignorance and crime; a
burden to themselves, a curse to the
| community, and a source of danger to
the State.
But far too many, with the means of
knowing better, forget that liberty is
not license but limitation Ignorance
Of this fact or unWillingness to believe
it was at the bottom of the late civil
war The southern states, cherishing
their doctrine Of estate rights and
urged on by the desire of perpetuating
slavery, assumed the prerogative of
sovereign power and declared their
fright to secede. The immense amount
Of bloodshed, suffering and distress of
all kinds, which this war caused was
surely sufficient to teach them their
relative position in the Union; but it
is a lesson which they have been slow
to learn, and even at this late day, as
the" recent election returns clearly
show, the boosted independence and
liberty of their people has degenerated
into the most gross and shameful Ii
cense. The purity of the ballot box,
and the rights Of the individual have
been as nothing compared with the
success of the party. a
So too in the acts which led to the
Revolutionary War, and which secured
the independence of the United States.
England transcribed her rightful au-
thority by levying unjust taxes, with
out allowing the right of representa-
ton. Oppression provoked resistance;
resistance was made the pretext for
fresh oppression. Act after act was
passed by the government of the
mother country; warnings and appeals
were sent, time and again, by the peo-
pie Of the colonies, until endurance
ceased to be q virtue, and two millions
of English subjects, who short time
before had been loyal to their king and
country, separated themselves, by q
solemn act, from the empire. And
thus after desperate struggle the col
onies were acknowledged as an indie
pendent nation, and England learned
the lesson that liberty and justice so
hand in hand.
The freedom of speech and of the
press is one of the much boosted prin-
ciples of our government; but how apt
is freedom to degenerate into license?
In proof of this we have but to look at
much Of the correspondence in our 10
cal papers, at many Of the speeches in
our legislative halls and especially at
the vile vituperatiOn and PERSONAL cal
umny which marked the late presiden-
tial campaign. 1t is high time that
public opinion should froWn upon all
such perversions of the truth, and
that public servants one and all should
be held to a strict account for all they
sag and do.
/ $50 far shalt thou go and no farther"
lis the embodying principle Of animate
and inanimate nature. Human insti-
tutions are stable so far as this is the
governing principle in their formation.
Laws embodying the same live. That
life is the happiest which earliest takes
in this thought and is guided by it. On
all sides, and in every thing do we meet
and see the law of limitation; nor are
we at liberty to set it at variance. The
i unWritten laws of society are no more