The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1877-08-18
For I
COMMUNISM.

have but Il vague and indefinite idea or COM
prehension of its true meaning. God for
bid that they should ever have their under
standing of the term helped bya practical
demonstration of it in our midst.
1t has long been urged by the advocates
and supporters of monarchial form of gov
eminent that the ultimate leading of de-
mocracy and universal franchise is toward
Communism or equal distribution of
property among all the citizens of the State
and that the latter is the inevitable result
of the progress of the former lntidelity
has urged that the Founder of the Chris
tian religion preached Communism, and
that it was practiced by His immediate fol-
lowers, inasmuch as we read in Holy Writ
that the early apostles "Htd all things in
common, and sold their possessions aud goods
and parted them to all nsea as erery man had
need" Yet the fierce Communistic rabbe,
which controlled the destines of France in
the darkest, bloodest hour of the Revolu-
tion of 1893, on the motion of the -11ch-
Jishop Of Paris, suppressed the Christian
FGttItDH duu ucCldlcu liitu tHc plllS oCIlito
henceforth to be worshiped in France were
Liberty, Equality and Reason. How true
is the oft repeated aphorism that history
repeats ITSELF" and this must ever be the
the ditfusement of knowledge, and the
propagation of moral philosophy may i'm
prove and enligEten the condition of society,
it never can change the nature of man.
His natural passions, inordinate selfish
ness, ambitions and vices remain the same
throughout all ages, and his spiritual be-
ing is only changed BY spiritual influences
so mysterious, hidden and profound that
the Divine Master likened them to the blow
ing of the wind, eye hear the sound thereof,
but We can not tell whence it cometh nor
whittier it goeth. -
To be convinced that the y II man is
pretty much the same Great, al
ways was, we have but to rea - Tuliy
the history of by-gone ages. e pro-
tracted struggles and strifes, VIII ! took
place between the Plebeans and Par 3ians
of the Roman Empire, arose from the, Sery
same causes which gave rise to the late
/ turbances in our own Republic. The PIE
beians complained that the Patricians owned
the property, and conspired, legislated and
planned to keep it out of the hands of the
/ Plebeians, whom they oppressed with debt,
made them do all the drudgery Of the State
to support the Patricians in idleness and
! luxury, and when foreign enemy appeared
before Rome the despised Plebeians were
compelled to take up arms and help defend
| their oppre ssors against the invaders.
Now there is q striking similitude be
tween these compla nts and the complaints
of the late "insurrectionists," and we cannot
deny that, in some degree, the grievances
mentioned do exist and must be righted,
or SO surely as fell the Republics of Greece
and Rome, so surely falls our own. But
| have heard it urged, 1--WE have the cleo
/ tive franchise as a protective against unjust
laws, and in this enlightened age it can
never be taken from u.s." The Romans
exercised the right to vote for seven hun
dred years, when it was taken from them
! by Tiberius.
/ 1t is foolish to assert that any calamity
which has befallen other great nations may
not fall upon us. The most troublesome
questions to deal with among civilized ma
tions, since the abolition of the fcudal sys
tenn, is this vexed one of property and the
adjustment of the finances. The disturbed
and unsettled condition of the public fl
nances, and the corresponding depression
of business, and subsequent distress among
the laboring classes, more than all other
causes combined, seemed to precipitate the
horrors of the Revolution upon the French
nation, but upon the Communstic chaos of
that terrible upheaval of society, the first
| Napoleon, a Plebeian, reared his throne,
which soon rivaled in splendor and luxury
the thrones of the old dynasty.
1t seemeth hardly just that any man
should say of any part of our old, kindly
generous mother, from whose bosom we
| spring, upon whose breast we all sink to
rest again so soon, it seemeth hardly Just
that any should claim, as his exclusive
property, any parcel of this old earth.
Surely all vegetable life and the lower
ders of the animal kingdom were created
and exist but to support the intellectual
development of man. 1t is surely the de
sign of the great Creator that every crea-
ture born upon this planet, and endowed
with this intellectual and spiritual life
should have an equal right to the posses
sion of liberty and the pursuit Of happi-
ness
Ever since the wonderful changes wrought
among civilized nations by the invention of
the printing press and the Reformation, by
the aid of which mankind emerged from the
superstitions and folles of the dark ages,
the belief in the efficacy of self government
has advanced with wonderful rapidity.
Under the administration of govern
ment for the people, by the people, like our
own, it is truly humilating and astonish
ing to see idleness and pauperism actually
increasing and threatening, at no distant
day, to compel change in the form of our
government at least.
w HeueNcl We are ODllStu W d
| large standing army to prevent insurrec-
ton, whenever the masses shall turn from
the ballot-box to the sword, then our gov
ernmt mt ceases to be a Republic, except in
name. Is not this calamity to be worked
and prayed against! Wherein lies the
remedy? Not in Communism, not in the
diffusion of mere intellectual knowledge;
for when Athens was stepped in the luxury
and dissipation which caused the subver-
sion of freedom, she had reached the acme
of her fame for the cultivation of literature
| and art. Then the highest degree of intel
lectual grandeur may fail to preserve the
liberties of people,.
-
The hopes for the preservation of the
Republic, with its wise and beneicent laws,
! lie in the revival of the spirit of primitive
christianity. Not an abiding in the letter
which killeth, but in the spirit which max