The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-02-24

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whether it will pay, and, if so, what is
the best way to accomplish tho end in
view.
GOING BACK TO FIRST PRINCIPLES.
1t is refreshing in these latter days,
which some people think are degenerate,
to see an exalted official like Chief Jus.
tice Comegys, ofDelaware, attack some of
the prevailing evils of the time, like he
did in hisrecent charge to the Grand Jury
at Wilmington in that State. Not only did
he charge the Grand Jury thas such
lectures as Col. Robert Irgersoll is de-
livering in support Of his infdelisy, but
he at the same time referred to evil of a
species with that which many persons
indulge in different parts of the country,
and said:
Lately gang of that great pest uf we'll
ordered society-sporting men as they
are called-came into this State from
some other place, and promoted a dog
fight for their amusement, and 70 decide
questions of betting with the respect to
the result of it. The reason why they
came here was that they found we had
no special statute against such practices.
This is to our credit, because nobody had
ever thought of dog fights as a means of
amusement to our own people, and the
Legislature, had, great while ago, re-
strained by penalties the similar prac.
tice of cock fighting, then common
vice. Aside from the cruelty of the so
called sport in the latter case, there was
the sentiment that our people ought not
to encourage, nor fail 10 repress, any
cruelty, whatever form it might take.
If there be no enactment of specific
nature to prevent the vicious and auda-
cious from defling and disgracing the
State at their pleasure with the practice
of fighting animals for amusement, one
ought to be passed, or we shall speedily
descend to the level Of those who encour-
aged gladiatorial sports in Rome-so
brutalizing and degrading that the digni-
ty and respectability Of the State finally
disappeared; and she, with all her great
power, degenerated into condition of
mere effeminacy, and lost forever her
pristine vigor. But whether there be
statutes or no, we have the ancient COM
mon law our forefathers brought here,
which has always proved itself equal to
any emergency of protecting society.
Intemperance and other vices were
also reprobated by the Chief Justice, and
the people told that they as we'll as the
police were responsible for their preva-
lence.
The Chief Justice next gave reproof
to the law.abiding people of the commu'
nifty for not enforcing the laws, which
was just and practical. His remarks as
to the cause of failure to enforce the
law apply to almost every portion of our
Union, and should be duly considered by
all thoughtful readers. He said:
In community of such importance
as this Wilmington why is it that men,
and worst of ally women, are permitted
to defy the law against their illegal prac-
tices? There can be but one answer to
this, and that touches the obligation of
duty which every one owes to the whole
society of which he is part, and which
he ought not to shrink from performing.
It will not do for the best among this
people to turn their eyes away from gross
exhibitions of vice that lie before them,
and yet expect policemen to notice them.
If the highest appear to be indifferent to
them, can it be required that one who, in
his endeavor to repress them, runs the
risk of personal danger and incurs the
certainty of hostility, shall throw himself
into the breach in behalf Of law and
order? Policemen are governed, in their
ideas of mere duty, by the example ol
leaders in the community about them,
who, if they show no spirit of hostility
to crime, can hardly expect others not to
follow their example. When the people
of this city shall see to it that every
effort made by its officers to suppress in.
fractions of law shall be duly sustained
and when they take an active interest in
the performance of official duty, then
will it be found that the law will be
obeyed here, aud not before.
For his own part he declared:
Obeying the Mosaic law, we "shall not
respect persons in judgment, but shall
hear the small as we'll as the great" we
''shall not be afraid of the face of man. y
And we shall sustain every man who
takes upon himself, from the sense OF
public duty, the task of protecting society
from the vices which are continually
multiplying within it.
In all of these things Judge Comegys
has only said what all right.thinking
men approve, but it is not, unfortunately
every man who approves sentimenl
who has the independence to utter it
Men too often yield to that which is
prevalent, or has popular clamor to sup
port it, while they feel that duty dictates
different course. We do not agree
with the Chief Justice in the policy o
an Indictment Of those who choose tt
deliver in6del lectures, for although he
is undoubtedly right in his statement o
the law, yet the sentiment of the age il
against such oppression, and in favor o
free speech. The foundations of the
Christian religion are too strong ever to
be destroyed by the infdel. 10 be sue
cessful it must grapple with the question