The Orangeburg democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1879-1881, 1879-01-24
Northern Humanity

!, Ehe, responsibilities OF the duties
.cfhpman life are always modified by
the, circumstances which surround
men-the state Of society and the
light which they have to guide them
II, ,,heir performances. The ruder the
former and the more obscure the lat
ter, the more, cxcusahle arc the
irregularities and the less Of crime in
human conduct; on the other hand
the more refined and cultivated the
fora,er and the more generally diff
fused tile latter, the less excusuble
and the greater criminality Of human
conduct. Judging from these modi-
flying conditions of our actions we
are lead to conclude that people to
he greatest both as individuals and
public benefac, ors who do the largest
portion Of public good according to
the state Of society in which they
may be called upon to act. In the
rude ages when light was but scanti-
.ly distributed, every principle of gen
ulne viitue g. vcrted, and the human
mind locked up in ign norancc. the
most snperstitious man was the great
est. Among 'barbarians where ncith-
er law NOR society is recognized, and
virtue and morality are unknown,
The most cruel savage who
wields the heaviest tomahawk, or
counts his noble deeds OF daring by
the greatest number of innocent
scalps, and whose savage heart de-
lights most in the shrieks Of tte-sly-
ing or the stencil Of the dead, is the
greatest. So in o land Of fr, edom
and an age characterized by light and
nction-an age Of science and art, of
civil and religions liberty, of popular
education, and OF common and gener-
hl Improvement, that man is greatest,
= who, as a scholar, subdues the ele-
inents and makes them subservient to
human will; or as a citizen, plans
and executes the best scheme 10 iii.
minish crime and benefit civil socie.
ty; as an educator transft rms the
rude ashlar in the brain of the child
to the magnificent genius to direc,
States. and bless bis kind or as re.
ligionist, ,cnthrones virtue in the hearts
Of men and thus exalts his being and
makes him answer to the great pur.
poses Of his creation.
Such an age is the nineteenth cen.
tury and such land is essentially
the United States Of America.
What are We to say, ir the light OF
these propositions, Of Northern Hu-
manity, when her education yields
such brute rs A. Webster, Profcs
"sor at Philadelphia, who murders
Parkman, and, to hide his savage
crime, cuts the flesh from the bones
and burns it; Of its religion, which
tolerates Henry Ward Bcecher, Of
Brooklyn, lauds the man and magni-
fies imaginary virtues to obscure the
enormity OF his guilt; of its states.
manship, which conceives and exc
cutes the Reconstruction Acts in the
South whereby the intelligence Of
eight millions Of American citizens
is put under the domination of the
ignorance of four million African
slaves for political purposes-to per-
,petuate the power Of a party which
without it is q failure of its civilian
tion, which hangs Benjamin Hunter
in Camden, N. j., when in the act Of
dying--not only hangs him, but, in
their brutal haste to execute the MUIR
derous act,' the officers Of the law
eeize the rope to which the weight
is attached, pulling hard draw the
body several feet in the air and there
hold it until strangulation ends the
unconscious mans life and Of its hu-
manity, when society can brook the
brutality, of these and other crimes !,
without making single successful
effort to prevent them.
The enormity Of any one of these
crimes is enough to damn an age
but their multiplication assigns the
people, though educated and profess
edly refined, among whom they arc
perpe!ratcd, the highest position for
savage brutality in human society.
The question naturally arises