San Saba County news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1874-19??, 1893-11-24
Equal Rights.

The mere concession OF abstract
rights amounts to nothing in the bet
tering of the condition of men. A
simple right is as worthless as though
unspoken, unless clothed with the OPP
portunity to do. There are many.
however, who mistake a conceded
right for an actual right. They seem
to think that the simple declaration of
the equal rights Of men to the enjoy
ment of the blessings of life is wholly
sufficient, and that Notwithstanding
the individual is compelled to aid his
government in the maintenance OF its
rights against nations. the govern
ment does not owe him a reciprocal
aid in the maintenance of his rights
against his fellow citizens. A citizen
will deprive a fellow citizen of the ex-
ercise OF his rights and even his very
liberty as quickly as one nation will
another. hence it is as much the duty
OF government to make opportunities,
as to concede rights to its citizens. In
this assertion there are some who
would purposelg misunderstood us.
and, contemplating the impossible
probability of direct contact of the
government with the individual, i'm
mediately exclaim, paternalism
We mean to say that the gov
eminent, which is the people,
should establish certain and well
defined principles to become the
basis of legislative enactments, whose
object should be to forcibly protect
every individual in the exercise of his
rights. That such an order of things
does not prevail, cursory glance will
satisfy the most casual observer.
The cause of its not prevailing,
however, is to be sought outside OF
the origin OF our government. Equal
and exact justice to all men and the
means of forever attaining it was
fully contemplated by the the found
ers of our national government. The
equality spoken of in the declaration
OF Independence meant nothing more
than that every one should enjoy the
opportunity OF achieving his own hap
piness IN his own way, unhindered by
the greed or avarice of his fellowmen.
1t was freely within the scope of thai
immortal instrument that no system
should ever obtain whose tendency
was the division of society into mas
tiers and servants. We have only to
glance at the times in which it was
written to perceive its full signif-
cence. 1t was the result of an
age of the greatest revolt
against every form of tyranny, of an
age that subsequently produced the
French revolution and the rights Of
man. Our fathers sought through its
instrumentality forever to bring into
hatred among men the privileges OF
caste and the pride of wealth con-
summated by all kinds of monopoly
and the usurpation of power. They
knew from the wrongs they had suf-
bered that men were enslaved through
the insidious tendencies of a false so
cial system as thoroughly as by open
violence. They were as painfully AS
recently aware of the immense power
accruing to wealth which but awaited
the opportunity of caprice to do evil
They had fled from the domination
and servitude OF great corporations,
and with the liveliest sense of recent
affection they wrote the Declaration
of independence; and when the
great jefferson wrote, I'VE hold
these truths to be self-evident,
all men are created equal;
that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain inalienable
rights; that among these are life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness,
he wrote without an exaggeration of
his real sentiments, confidently hoping
that they would become the corner
stone OF any fabric of government
which posterity might rear. He did
not contemplate gigantic combine
tions and trusts consuming the liber-
ties and lives of the people; he did
not intend the repetitions Of the ex-
actions of place and the outrages of
power from which he himself was al
most a fugitive. In his darkest antic-
ipatiOns of the future miscarriage of
the latest and best of human institu-
lions he did not dream of the corrup-
ton and tyranny of wealth which
curses America to-day. That Amer
leans should forsake their innate love
of liberty to become the fawners upon
an untitled, but none the less noble,
few; that all which was one noble to
them should degenerate into lust for
money-making; that the peaceful and
ennobling pursuit OF agriculture
should be degraded to serfdOm; that
in land cherishing the memories Of
Lexington and Valley Forge there
should arise an aristocracy as impe-
rious as any that trod the gardens Of
St. James or the halls OF Versailles.
Such devilish imaginings entered not
into his widest fancy, and yet it is
even so,
The most sanguine cannot deny the
great poverty of the majority of our
people in a land of unparalleled rich /
ness. And, however, after a brutal I
to the sufferings of men,
many suggest idleness as the cause,
the heart and brain must recognize in .
the present great inequalities in the
fortunes of the people, the subversion,
however, effected, of the first princi-
pies of our liberties Equal rights
to all and special privileges to none"
Terrell Free Press.
Beeoher Was Right
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, the