The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-04-01

! there is nothing new under the sun
! But, as successive ages present new
! phases of principle, we may say with
every epoch in history, Behold l make
all things new" We say of the past
that 1t is q light and guide TO the
present. Patrick Henry said, There
is but one lamp by which my feet are
| guided, and that is the lamp of ex-
perience." 1t is to experience that pro-
foundest wisdom appeals. The system
of law that conserves our rights and
liberties, is a system OF well ordered
and well preserved experiences. 1t is
system OF facts and presidents, COM
prehensive. diversified, and rising into
a body of harmonious. practical and
authoritative knowledge. But, mark
you, the world would have perisned
long ago, had it not been possible for
it to grow out of, above and beyond
the precedents ana experiences of any
preceding age 1t is wisdom to re-
spect precedents, but it is folly and
destruction to be bound by them TO the
extent that we shall not modify them,
reform them, cast some of them away
and interpret the deeper meaning or
others. Suppose the feudal system
which was so deeply rooted into Saxon
civilization during the middle ages
had held full sway on the score OF pre-
cedent and experience? Today, II an
existence at all, we should in vase
majority of cases be held in the most
abject bondage. Suppose our fore
fathers had been governed entirely by
precedent and usage. Today we should
be in a state of colonial serfdom to
Great Britain. Suppose the train OF
legal precedents' that eliminated IN the
bred Scott decision of Chief Justice
Taney had been acquiesced in by the
American people? Today we should be
dominated by the slave oligarr'hV, a1H
the enfranchised millions would still
be the chattelS of their owners. NOW
the great thought underlying all TINS
diversity and apparent contradiction
of experience and precedent is that
while absolute truth and principle are
eternal and immutable, yet 1t is only
in proportion as humanity grows 10 us
full stature that they can be incor-
norated into human life and institu-
lions. Hence every age has deep
kernel of truth within its social life;
but the purely practical and super
fetal beliefs, experiences and prece-
dents must be sloughed off like the
bark of the eucalyptus tree; for they
are misleading for any subsequent
age, valuable only as milestones thal
mark the progress of growth from
crude beginnings to larger and truer
civilization.
In relation to the subject in hand.
the first section of the article on suf-
frage. the proposition that 1 lay down
as a conclusion from the foregoing re-
marks under this head, is that the
distinctive principles of American po-
litical history were promulgated by
the fathers in the revolutionary con-
vention of 1776: and that American
precedents will grow in harmony
70
fullness of those principles shall have
expression in American political and
civil life. We have seen already, in
the light of one of the most sanguin- |
airy and persistent struggles in the his
tory of the world, that while Thomas
Jefferson perceived the application OF
those principles to the condition OF the
slave, and said, 'I tremble when re-
member that God is just" yet the body |
Of the country did not feel the force
Of the divine truth that weighed upon |
his soul. So it was left to the people |
as whole to grow into a knowledge |
Of truth until 1t should burn upon their |
hearts, and reveal to them that
slavery was in direct violation of the |
of liberty laid down in the
declaration. When the time finally
arrived and the genius of liberty
struck the hour for old things to pass
away and all things to be made new,
The inhumane presidents of all past
years were swept to the winds by the
Bosom of destruction. Abraham Lin
,oln stood out as the servant of God
10 give effect to the words of divine
Inspiration through Thomas Jefferson
and the ether seers of American free
lom. With one desperate carnival of
leath, the dark cloud, like a funeral
pail, rolled away The sky became
clear, and slavery was gone! The
of the United States had
;loughed off the dead bark of selfish
less and inhumanity that had grown
lpon it from the precedents of Rome
md Greece and all the barbarous past.
That constitution was renewed by in
within it the eternal prin-
,iples of the Declaration of indepen-
lence.
So it must be with the question in
land. Lincoln saw and declared that
lnder the principles of American
liberty, it was a violation of the trust
opposed in us by the God of liberty to
lold half our population in a state of
He declared that
women as we'll as men were entitled
O the franchise. He knew too, that
he time had not come for action in
he matter; but we may rest assured
hat if our country is to have a future,
t must be on condition that the
ruths which lie at the foundation of
ur nationality must have freer and
uller course in our civil and political
ife as the years roll on.
'oIiticaI Equality of Man and
Woman.
At the start Of our country's his
Dry the women by custom and usage
ave a tacit and implied consent"
hat in public affairs they should be
by the suffrage of the
1ale half of the population. The pre- !
edents have largely run in this direc-
lavery. the political equality of man ,
nd woman as a truth of the declara- :
on has stood out in manifestations {
{ dissent through many years. At I
r-st this truth was but a speck on the I
orion not larger than a mans hand, 5
Ike the rising cloud before the eyes +
{ the prophet of old. Soon equal !
lffrage, as an issue, began to fill the
KY; and now we know that a great
nange in political life is upon US. Old 9
lings must pass away; all things !
lust be renewed in the light of the ,
ndying principles of American liberty. !
Ye have now a respectable number 7
precedents on the lines which 1 now q
ivocate. The section that we have 7
hand is taken bodily from the or /
anic law of an adjoining state. The c
Use of Wyoming is peculiarly instruc- S
We. It's natural resources and topo- t
raphy are similar to our own. Her il
ealth and population are inferior, v
nd in respect to educational facilities =
I'd popular intelligence we may per- i
APPS claim an equal precedence, ac-
,rding to the United States census h
ut the point of Importance is that i
waning Ieealize5 Foman,s s,,ffr-a oe {