Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-04-17

istence of the soul nearly six centuries be-
fore Christ, and propagated the gentle
hearted belief in transmigration of the
spiritual essence which protected animals
from slaughter and abuse, and so made his
followers the non-eaters of meat. But this
was opposed by the moral sentiments of
Greece and southern Italy, and, applying
this Judges doctrine TO the Pythagoreans,
they were cast in dungeons, where they
starved rather than feed on flesh, and when
some died and the others in the delirium of
famine deyoured their rotting carcasses, the
moral sentiment of the community plumed
1tsef upon the conversion of the Pythago-
reans Herod, later on, heard rumor
that the King of Israel was to be born, and
he boycotted the babies of Judea, and their
white and innocent bodies were given to
the executioner. Later on, the Saviour of
the world found himself in non-conformity
to the moral sentiments OF the community
when He preached peace on earth and good
will toward men, and PLATE gave him up
10 the mob, which cried, - Cruelty Him ~
And as the Man of Sorrows toiled along
the via Rosa, toward Calvary, with the
blood streaming down His ineffable face
from the crown of thorns, there stood by
the path Salathiel. Superior Judge in
Jerusalem, near whom the sufferer halted
to rest, but the Judge, in conformity to the
moral sentiments of the community y
said 10 Him, Move ON Later sill, the
Apostles were crucitied head downward, fed
to wild beasts, transfixed with spears, dis
emboweled and chopped with axes in
conformity with the moral sense of the
community"
When the Middle Ages were long past.
and the pageantry of the Age of Chivalry
had gone by, and men began thinking for
themselves, the moral sense of tie COM
munity invoked Church and State to in
dungeon them, to hitch horses to their
hands and feet and rend their quivering
bodies asunder, TO stretch them on the rack
until they parted at the strained joints.
Social, political and commercial ostra-
cism sent Sir Archibald Campbell to the
gallows in Edinburgh, because he sought
| the freedom of his country. 1t REDEEMED
the ravine of Glencoe with the blood of the
| MacDonalds, and sent women and children
naked into the icy mountains to freeze and
starve. 1t bound Scotch women to stakes
| low down the beach, where the tide rose to
their lips and drowned their prayers. while
Superior Judges strobe up and down the
| dry sands to see that the moral senti-
nients OF the community were enforced
by murder.
One Titus Oates, the professional dis
coverer of Popish plots, was an agent o.
| the moral sentiment of the community
Gentle women and cultured men were SEN
to the block by his peFiuries, sentenced by
a Superior Judge named Jeffreys. Regard
| ing Ireland as a part of England, the
moral sentiment" of Great Britain ha.
| put a boycott on schools and religion, on
priest and teacher, and has applauded The
ripping open of women and the paradine
| OF the bodies OF unborn children on the
pixies point
All of these things, we are assured by
this Superior Judge in San Francisco, are
=" the vital principle of the growth of civil
cation" 1t is not true. Religious evolu
ton has its impetus in the man who takes
| up the weapons OF the spirit against tht
moral sense of the community in hi.
time. Civil liberty has its first hearing
| in the world on tongues that defieC
| social, political and commercial ostra
cism, too often to be silenced in the grave
| by the tyranny of the majority with the
headsman as its agent. We tell the learned
Judge that the day has gone by, or this i:
not the country, FOR the propagation of the
doctrine he sets up. Already it is identi
fed with outrage upon the common right:
| OF man. In one town the water supply O
a citizen is poisoned. in conformity to 'itht
moral sentiment and material interests o.
the community and his wife and babe.
drink it and die. In another the spring,
which supply large number are rendered
unfit for use by filing them with salt and
filth. Elsewhere woman is left to perish
in the exquisite agonies OF maternity be-
cause her husband is boycotted and none
of her own sex dare come to her relief, lest
they might be left unaided in the same
| trial, and the doctors feared 10 answer the
call to her bedside lest they be killed.
These are the agencies of civilization,
these the incidents of progress, these the
ultimate results that are promised US by
| the learned Judge.
Let US say, in conclusion, that the boycott
cannot Withstand many such judicial inter-
pretations. The people are considering it
carefully, as they would new illuminate.
They wish to know whether the good in it
is more than the harm. They are restless
under the pnblic instructions of Judges
who put off the ermine to put on the armor
OF contention, and i'll the press PREJUDICE
cases that may reach them on the bench.
When enforced public opinion makes its
mind up on the boycott its efficiency will
be justly judged. No more definitions,
please