The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1877-07-04

his rights to life, liberty and the pursuit o
| happiness are his. They are his own in
alienable possessions. TheJ are not con
cessions- They are absolute rights. inner.
/ ent in the individual, which the State should
guarantee aud each and all should heartily
respect.
Through all the ages men have seemed to
i act as il they thought them selves the keep
! ers of their brothers consciences and res
! ponsible for their brothers beliefs. Tolera-
| ton Is the liberty of true charity, just a:
| social order Is the liberty OF law. Surely
/ need spend no time TO prove the justice OF
| Iay Statement nor quote many facts to en-
| force its truth. In proportion "a the State
| Is truly free will the individual be free in
/ thought, free in speech and tree in act. with
| in those general limits which all recognize
as essential to she general peace and securi-
ty. The converse of this is also true. Just
IN proportion as We recognize and secure
the liberty of the individual do we
strengthen and develop and ensure the
success of free institutions. A dead level OF
uniformity in belief, knowledge aud action
depreSses manhood. Ii does not develop
it. IJ may make quiet, stupid graveyard
OF State. 1t will never build up grow
ing, progressive State. Intolerance drives
out brains and hindcrs deYelopement, and
at the last suffers itself jast in proportion
as ii is successful. Mind needs the friction
of opposing mind; and thought the conflict
with opposing thought for its own growth
largest, most enduring growth where
thought, conscience, speech, life and wor-
ship are most free. Think you that Massa-
chuSetts gained anything when she drove
Roger Williams from her shores, or that the
final good OF any political party was ever
advanced by attemp pts TO deny the right OF
petition? Thomas Jefferson stated deep
philosophical as well as political truth, when
he said that even ''all error may be safely
tolerated where reason is left free to com
bat it," We are in greater danger even now
in this free land from lack of federation
than we are apt to admit, unless we think
Ceeply and then act tearlesSlY. Intolerance
in any locality, whether it be the more bru-
tai intolerance of physical might or the
more polished but equally effective intoler-
ance of business aud social forces, keeps
from that locality the best brain and the
most efficient men. How are you strong !
AS you know yourself. When are you
strong? When you are true TO yourself!
Can you wear a muZZle and be man, and
do a mans work? [Applause.) Ii you
cannot, pray tell me how can your fellow
If we are ready To assume that We know all
that can be known and should be known,
then perhaps we may deny to each and ali
the right to think and labor for themselves
and in their own way. But this is the civ
llizatiOn of the Chinese wall. This is the
philosophy that banished Aristides and
pressed the hemlOck to the lips of Socrates.
This is the wisdom that knew the world was
COlum bus as dreamer or idiot.
Young gentlemen, if your books have
taught you anything. they have taught you
how little at the best we know. Newtown
dying was only picking shells by an ocean,
now as then unfathomed and unmapped.
Geology has only scratched the rind of old
earth. When with the Ross telescope you
have swept the skies, you have only looked
through glass darkly." In the investiga-
ton OF science, you have thus learned. as
IL
until you h I'VE tested, weighed and reasoned.
tie who is wisest will thereby be most toler
ant. prove all things, hold fast to that
which is good
AS in science so in religion, in business
and in the State, to be tolerant is to be wise.
Persecution may scatter sect to-day, but
1.-The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the
church." A race may be denied business
facilities and the protection Of the laws for
centuries, as were the Jews during the mid
die ages, and yet at the last they VIII be;
come the bankers of the world and
hold the purse strings of empires.
So is it with the State. II | wished
to secure the ultimate and certain triumph
of an idea or OF party, l would
affix the penalty of blood and COM
his citizenship. That idea may seem TO be
buried to-day, but it it has real truth in it,
there will be growth and harvest to-mor-
row. That party may be scattered to-day,
but It's folded 1lagS Will wave again anu uC-
feat will blossom into victory.
We of the North made in some degree
| this mistake when the war ended. We
charged to individuals that which was the
| inevitable result OF long working forces.
We sought to punish by DISTINGUISHING a
| eel tain few And now | am at the last
| convinced that thereby we made grievOus
error. For thereby we put the entire brain
and conscience and pride of the South I'M
| der bonds to stand by the few whom we in
| part DISTINGUISHED.
We made great mistake, very natural
| but very unfortunate. And here on Mis-
sissppi soil, where none can misunder-
stand my meaning AID none should mistake
my purpose, | make this frank admission.
| Applause Larger liberation would have
| been larger wisdom.
| But the years have passed, and as the
grasses have entwined their fingers above
our common dead, we come at last to that
| highest reason which is born of charity, OF
| federation and of love. (Applause)
| If we have erred, so did you. \ on have
| been intolerant also. You know it well and
deeply have you suffered. applause and
manifestation of assent)
A new day dawns. Another opportunity
is given. | pray that better purpose and
broader wisdom may dwell and rule in all
| our hearts and brains. We have suffered
sorely. Have we not suffered enougk
| By all the dead who have fallen; by all
! the needs of the living; by all the hopes OF
| the futuTes Dy the cross OF him VINO 0leu
that all might live, L plead with you that to-
| gether we may labor for these better days
that surely are to come. Enthusiastic APP
| plause.)
Young men of Mississippi, l thank you
most heartily for this privilege of meeting
| you. In all the years before us, pray that
you may be truly wise in doing all that in
| you lies for the cause of popular education,
for the welfare of your common schools.
| pray that you may be truly just in giving
sure and faithful obedience 10 the law,
| because it is the law, the highest form
| of popular will. anG the last expression
of popular authority. l pray that you
| may be truly free in being tolerant to
all, in bravely securing to each man his
own right of private Judgment and
his individual liberty of thought, word and
deed. lApplause-
And now the hour has come to part.
Thanks for your greeting and still heartier
| thanks tor your patient listening.
Reverentlv let me say, as thus we bid one
| other goodbye, may God bless Mississippi.
May equal blessing be upon my own New
York. May still fuller and richer blessing
be upon our Union, which is once again the
common mother, as it shall surely be again
the common glory of us all. Enthusiastic
cheering and applause, repeated and pro-
lOnged.l
DR.. PONDS CANCER INsTITUTE-The