The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-12-12

ment has been elevated and the pcrma-
nence of our Society guaranteed.
The farmers vocation and its concomi-
tant interests require more thought
more study-and unless they are given,
the probability of relapse into ignor-
ance, dependence, and poverty is assured
beyond a doubt. Let US see to it as a
class, then, that the Grange press is more
substantially and extensively supported,
making allowance, of course, for occa-
sional editorial fallibililes.
Clubs should be formed this winter,
and tangible help should be extended to
these who would help us. The grand
columns on which the entire Grange
superstructure rests are intelligence,
virtue, vigilance, and charity, and these
must never be permitted to corrode and
perish through our neglect.
SUGGESTIONS.
The following remarks seem to suggest
themselves to me in closing:
First. This session should be as short
and inexpensive as possible.
Second. The wisdom of this body
should be taxed to project plans for the
revival Of dormant oranges.
Third. In every proposed change of
laws, opinions, regulations, ritual, regalia,
or anything else, the stability Of our
order should be closely consulted.
Fourth. A new book has been pub
lished and circulated at very considerable
expense, containing the Constitution and
Bylaws of the National Grange GER
emonies appropriate for installation and
funeral occasions, for the dedication of
Grange halls, rules for the organization
and government of cooperative associa-
tions, the declaration of purposes, di-
gest of decisions and opinions, parliamen-
tary law, &c., &c. This will be likely to
instruct and govern our members for a
long time to come, and hence the fewer
the alterations made, consistent with our
general welfare, the more reliable and
more valuable will be this compendium.
Fifth. Article XII. of our Constitution
reads rs follows:
Religious or political questions will
not be tolerated as subjects Of discussion
in the work of the order. and no politi-
cal or religious tests for membership
shall be applied"
Every single member has dedicated
himself by solemn act to an inaexible
support of this provision.
The pleedngs of shrewd demagogues,
the towering ambition of selfish, insidi-
Gus leaders in times of intense excite
ment, may crerte temptation 10 cut
loose the Grange ship from her secure
moorings, but an unswerving fidelity to
obligations assumed will prove an anchor
both sure and steadfast in seasons of CO.
iolery and trial. Every semblance OF an
Infringement of our fundamental law
should be sedulously avoided. Fanatic
ism, political or religious, if given un-
bridled license, with torch and axe in
hand, will sooner or later seal the doom
of society of q republic.
Sirth Let the doctrens enunciated in
the Declaration of Purposes" be regar-
ded as immovable landmarks.
Ssrenth. Standing as we do to-day upon
soil made illustrions as the "Mother of
Presidents" and sacrediy holding the
ashes of him who was "frst in war, first
in peace, and first in the hearts OF his
countrymen," let us, the representatives
of the agricultural classes of this coun-
try, and the descendants of revolutiona-
ry sires, solemnly resolve to uphold and
maintain forever the "unity of govern
ment." "For it is main pillar in the
edifce of your real independence-the
support of your tranquility ut home,
your peace abroad, of your safety, of
your prosperity, of that very liberty
which you so highly prize.
"But as it is easy to forcsee that from
different causes and from different quar-
tiers much pains will be taken, many ar
tifces employed to weaken in your minds
the conviction of this truth as this is
the point in your political fortress against
which the batteries of internal and ex-
ternal enemies will be most constantly
and actively Though often covertly and
insidiously) directed, it is of infinite mo-
ment that you should properly estimate
the immense value of your National
Union to your collective and individual
happiness that you should cherish q
cordial, habitual, and immovable attach
ment to it, accustoming yourselves to
think and speak of it as the palladium
of your political safety and prosperity ;
watching for its preservation with Jealous
anxiety discountenancing whatever may
suggest even q suspicion that it can in
any event be abandoned, and Indignantly
frowning upon the first dawning Of every
attempt to ALLEVIATE any portion of our
country from the rest, or to enfeeble the
sacred ties which now link together the
various parts. You cannot shield your
selves too much against the jealuusies
and heart-burnings which spring from
Misrepresentation they tend to render
alien to each other those who ought to
he bound together by fraternal affection.
And the Father of his Country, from
his consecrated resting-place at Mount
Vernon, further says emphatically to us
and 10 the people of this land this very
day: Let me warn you in the most SOL
cmn manner against the bane!ul effects
of the spirit of party generally. This
spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from
our nature, having its root in the strong
est passions of the human mind. 1t ex-
lists under different shapes in all govern
ments, more or less stihed, controlled, or
represscd ; but in those of the popular
form it is seen in its greatest rankness,
aud it is truly their worst enemy The
alternate domination of one faction over
another, sharpened by the spirit of re-
venge, natural to party dissension, which
in different ages and countries has perpe-
trated the most horrid enormities, is it.
self a frightful despotism. But this leads
ut length to 4 more formal and perma-
nent despotism. The disorders and mis-
cries which result gradually incline the
minds of men to seek security and repose
in the absolute power Of an individual ;
and sooner or later the chief of some pre-
vailing faction, more able or more furtu-
nate than his competitors, turns this dis
position to the purposes of his own
elevation on the ruins of public liberty.
Without looking forward to an extremity
of this kind (which, nevertheless, ought
not to be entirely out of sight, the COM
| r,on upd continual mischinfs the snirit