The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1885-07-29
FoR THE CLARIoS.l
Who Shall Rule Us?

w uO 0A6AA - ~
srBa time il at hard when the people
~ Mississippi will be required to choose
tbeir rulers, who are to make laws for
tbsun for the next two years, and If they
wilI.refect a.ittle.they may soon discover
that IL is not so much of a picnic occa-
sion. or holiday pastime, as it is
.erious matter, affecting their interests
In every way. When the Legislature
meets next winter, it will either add TO,
and promote the welfare OF the people,
ar blight it for many a year to come.
WHY * Mississippi poor with all her
natural resources2 1t must be because
our law-making bodies are not equal to
The demand for an outlay Of mental and
moral power. Every country under the
sun Of heaven is made happy and pros
porous, or ruined by its laws, and law
makers. 1t il not the soil, rivers,
mountains, and climate that make a
country rich and powerful, but its laws
wisely regulating the commercial and
individual relationship between its citi-
zens and dealing out justice to all alike,
laws that foster and encourage the
peaceful and productive pursuits of
the people laws that protect the inno-
cent anu puuAEH TIC Eullhy d way
that shows that they are not founded in
cruel vengeance, but with the humane
and christian intention, simply to pun
ish crime according to It's magnitude
and correct disorder. With a popula-
tion trained to good citizensbip under
such a government, and inyidual and
national character formed under the
happy influence Of such laws, with all
their industries properly encouraged,
any country will be prosperous and the
people contented.
There are many notable examples in
history of a people poor in natural
resources, but governed by wise and
patriotic rulers, who sacrificed self upon
the altar Of their country's good, and
Welding ready obedience to their laws
because they were righteous and just,
they became great, prosperous and pow
erful; while on the other hand, there
are instances Of people blest with the
richest soil, the finest climate, the most
splendid rivers on the globe, and the
boundless ocean before them on which to
their float navies, and spread the sails of
their commerce, but their corrupt system
Of laws, enacted by empty headed, and
wicked-hearted rulers, held them to
poverty by ayaricious exactions, and
exterminated their aspiring manhood by
closing the road 10 eminence against the
masses, and opening them to the privi-
legged few. The same sun that shOne
upon Greece two thousand years ago
shines there still. The same moon and
stars that looked down upon that clas-
sic land trembling beneath the tread of
her mailed squadrons, and mighty heroes
marching to Marathon to fight for
liberty, look down upon it now, there
are the same rivers running to the
sea, the same mountains, and plains, and
the same soil, but where are the men
who cultivated the arts and sciences,
fought against tyrants, hurled kings from
their thrones and carved ost for them
selves glorious immortality? The peo-
pie became careless, ceased to be vigilant,
and neglected the preservation of those.
laws that make them great, and they
became the prey of men who legislated
in their own individual interests-men
without mind, or patriotism, and to-day
Greece is poor, her people without re-
nown in war, or peace, and taxed to the
lowest poverty to support an aristocracy
that is ignorant of the first principles of
true legislation, and the spirit of liber-
ty among them dead. Yet they are the
same people whose ancestors fought at
Thermopyld, and stood against the onset,
and earthquake shock of three millions,
of men hurled against them by Hexers,
the Persian despot. With these facts
before him, can any man say that
their degeneracy is not due to
to neglect Of her laws, and con-
iiding the reins Of government to the
hands of men incapable of directing the
chariot of state, and who for gold, were
ever willing.to speculate in their coun-
try's honor, their resources were wasted
in extravagant schemes that burdened
the masses, and their national character
cast in the smallest mould. Where are
the mighty Romans who made themselves
masters Of the world? Their descendants
are lower in the scale of true greatness
than the Greeks. They are the same
people who conquered Hannibal, the
great Carthagenian, overturned Greece,
and carried their arms farther than
Alexander the Great did. They have
the same soil and climate, and the Tiber
runs to the sea as it did then. 80 long
as they preserved and reverenced their
laws, and chose their Legislators with
regard TO their ability, prudence, love of
country, and fidelity 10 the public good,
they unfurled their triumphant banners
on land and sea. But when they lost
their reverence for the laws that made
them great, and chose their Legislators,
and rulers from the ranks of Ignorance,
and imbecility, they fell down TO the
lowest rank among the nations OF Eu.
rope. When Rome was in the zenith OF
her splendor and power, the people OF
England were clothed in sheep skins,
and had no law except the Will OF their
tyrants. But England borrowed, or
rather picked up, as priceless gems, the
laws that the Romans were throwing
away, and made them her safeguard,
and guiding stars in political science,
and while Rome il in the dust, her peo-
pie poor and ignorant, England is.rich,
powerful, her flag on every sea, and one
OF the greatest leaders in the grand
march of civilization. We, ourselves,
owe all our greatness and power to those
very laws, borrowed from England, ana
that England borrowed from Rome.
Those laws are founded upon great prln-
ciples of universal application, and II
properly understood by legislators, will
promote every proper interest, and settle
peaceably every clashing pursuit, and
controversy among men. loo mucn
care therefore, can not be exercised In
choosing those who are to be our rulers,
but it is often doue with carelessness
that would be criminal in any people.
We too often choose them because they
are clever, and popular, but it Is not
every clever and popular citizen that
will make Solon, or Lycurgus, In leg
islation. Our public school system, the
liquor question, the fehce question. the
lien laws, and almost every great interest
involving the public welfare, need care
full revision, and moulding TO private
and public good, and men without the
necessary mental, and moral qnalifica-
tions, whether they be old or young,
can not successfully do that. 1t Is said
that Mississippi is out of debt, and If that
be so why do taxes continue to rise like
aswelling flood? ? 1t must be because those
who are sen. TO Jackson to make laws
for us, lend their assistance to every
scheme of extravaganza that Is born in
that body, regardless of the people who
sent them there, and the people are
made to carry the heavy burdens thus
imposed upon them. II Mississippi is
out of debt, why can the people not
have few years Of losc tdrcs until they
can recover from the grinding oppression
of the tax mills, and the poor once more
have, at least, some of the comforts of
life. II is enough to make true man
hood weep TO 90 TO the houses of the
poor and see how they toll, and how
little they have, and it must be, and is
20, that all this grinding poverty il the