The Orangeburg democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1879-1881, 1879-01-24
:, ,ooRAlNSauiEsbUne, lSuis !. &, JAM "a, 1879.
Northern Humanity

). The, responsibilities Of the duties
.cfhuman life are always modified by
the, circumstances which surround
men-the state OF society and the
light which they have to guide them
in their performance. The ruder the
former and the more obscure the lat
ter, the more, cxcusable arc the
irregularities and the less Of crime in
human conduct; on the other hand
the more refined and cultivated the
fotmer and the more generally diff
fused the latter, the less excusable
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 benefact 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-
~ distributed, every principle Of gen
ulne viltue G. vcr,ed, and the human
mind locked up in Ignorance, the
most superstitious man was the great
est. Among barbarians where ncith-
erlaw nor society is recognized, and
virtue and morality are unknown,
the most cruel savage who
Yields the heaviest tomahawk, or
counts bis noble deeds Of daring by
the greatest number of innocent
scalps, and whose savage heart de-
lights most in the shrieks of the<iy-
ing or the stencil Of the dead, is the
greatest. So in land Of fr, edom
and an age characterized by light and
nction-an age Of science and art, of
civil and reli gions liberty, Of popular
education, and OF common and gcner-
al Improvement, that man is greatest,
. who, as scholar, subdues the ele-
inents and makes them subservicnt to
human will; or as a citizen, plans
and executes the best scheme 10 di
rninish crime and benefit civil socie.
W; as an educator transit rms Che
rude ashlar in the brain of the child
to the magnificent genius to direc,
States and bless his kind or as re.
ligionist, ,enthrones 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, il the light OF
these propositions, of Northern Hu,
manity, when her education yields
such brute as A. Webster, Profcs
sor at Philadelphia, who murders
l'arkman, and, to hide his savage
crime, cuts the flesh from the bones
and burns it; Of its religion, which
tolcrates Henry Ward Beecher, Of
Brooklyn, lauds the man and magni-
fies imaginary virtues to obscure the
enorm;ty 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 q party which
without it is 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
seize 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-
mainly, 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 i'll human society.
The question naturally arises ::