The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1878-05-10
Ola FashIonea Logic.

any community. All the tortuoHs
iwistiDgs, explanations, appeals, sc-
cusations, denials, confessions,
of other peoples char
acters, and vain attempts to justify
wrong by trying to make it appear
right, by which some men attempt
to achieve q short road to success,
turn out in the end to be only
grievous err Ors, and the more per-
sistently such pratices are adhered
to, the more trouble and disap-
pointment they result in. Right is
right and wrong is wrong, and be-
tween right and wrong there is q
gulf fixed, and those who try to
ignore the difference simply fall
intothe gulf. The best way of
living is to recognize the fact that
honesty is the best policy always,
and stick to it through youth, man
hood and age, through thick or thin,
fortune or misfortune, plenty or
poverty, praise or censure, friend
ship or prejudice, want or luxury,
popularity or unpopulsrity. Better
for any man TO depend on the COM
monest forms oflabor, unknown and
unhonored by the world, than to
clothe In purple and fine linen, and
fare sumptaously every day, at the
expense of integrity and good faith.
Thousands, millions, of honest in
dustrious, useful citizens do the
former, and no man can justify him
self in doing the latter-nOt even
though he plead the imperative ne
cessity of his becoming rich and
honored, at any cost to other peo-
pie. Nor can any man justify his
own shortcomings by alleging that
all men are liars and hypocrites,
and that were the secrets OF all lives
disclosed his would be no more
spotted than most others. 1t is I'M
just to condemn any man until his
guilt be proven-how much more
unjust to condemn all men against
whom no evidence ofguilt is shown.
Faith in the integrity of others is
one of the strongest possible in
centives to maintain ones own in
tegrity-the belief that all men are
liars and hypocrites is fatal to
reformation. Such belief is the
most egotistical and the most de-
moralizing of all beliefs. There is
nothing meek, or modest, or charit-
able, or just, or decent, about it. 1t
is destructive of the individual con-
science that accepts it; it would be
destructive of the community that
would acquiesce in it. The princi-
pies of truth and honor are not to be
so lightly estimated that they must
bend and twist to meet every indi-
vidual desire or necessity. No COM
munity can afford to countenance
and uphold any man, high or low, in
undoubted wrong-doing. Such a
license in regard to one man in
wolves similar license for all other
men, and would result in general
corruption and ruin. Distinction
between right aud wrong must be
upheld against all assaults-eVen the
strong ties of personal friendship
and sympathy. Every individual
must conform HE life to the Just re-
quirements of society, instead of in
sIsting that those reg uirements must
in his case be disregsrded to en-
nance his comfort, prosperity or in
fuence. They cannot be disregard
ed in any case witho ut inius tlce and
injury ia thereby done. Men must
adhere firmly to their conscien-
tious convictions, and draw the line
so clearly that no man can sue
cessfully plead that what is wrong
in others is right in him, or that he
has q right to violate law and equity
because he thinks or chooses to say
that other people do, or would If
they had a chance. Every body has
plenty of chances to be honest or
dishonest, under temptation and
pressure, and we believe that most
people live and die honestly, with
out committing any crime. Ger
tainly the mass of the people of this
county, State and nation, are honest,
industrious, lsw-abiding, Justice
loving people, who try to do right,
and who earn their bread by the
sweat of their brows, never de-
frauding or wilfullY iDiuring any
one, and when they claim to pos
sess this kind of record, they are not
self-rigLteous,or hyprocrites or liars.
This is not being any better than any
good and useful citizen should be,
and whoever sneers at this standard
of morality needs most of all to
abandon his precepts and his prac-
tees, and do his level best to in
crease his stock of truth aud in
legrity.