The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1909-09-09
THE TOLERANT SPIRIT.

paragraph thought that has for centuries
been used as defense of narrow minded"
ness. He said:
"There are those who believe something,
and therefore will tolerate nothing; and,
on the other hand, those who tolerate
everything, because they believe nothing"
1t is true that there are multitude of
people in every age who refuse to become
excited or ruffled in the slightest degree by
the gravest concerns of life. They do not
care what religion men profess, or whether
they have any religion: they are Indifferent
to all social problems; they exhibit no in
terest in politics, because they are perfectly
willing to permit others to shoulder the
burdens of the day and do the work. There
is nothing quite SO hopeless in life as apa-
thy, Indifference and passive acquiescence
in whatever happens to come along, and
this attitude is born of the corrupt charac-
ter and the sterile mind.
Indifference in matters of import is quite
a different thing from the broad and toler-
ant spirit of the high-minded, intelligent
man, who recognizes the fact that myriads
of the peoples of the earth are largely the
product of their environment and heredity.
Some years ago the question was pro-
pounded to several eminent Americans,
What is the most excellent feature of the
Constitution of the United States, and what
is the part of our system and polity which
has produced on the whole the greatest
benefits to us and to mankind? Charles w.
Eliot, President of Harvard University,
answered that the most beni6cent feature
is the guarantee in the Constitution of free
dom of conscience and the positive separa-
ton of Church and State. This feature
had aided in the welding of the people to-
gether and in the ready assimilation of
our immigrants, and had furnished to the
whole world mighty example of the bene-
fits of federation.
The religious liberation which is sin the
air which Americans BREATHE is only a
part of the evidences of the freedom of our
system which is founded on free speech
and a free vote. The spirit of q broad
liberation runs through the whole system
Of free country. Sir Philip Sidney said
of diversities of opinion:
''Among the best men are diversities of
opinion which should no more, in true
reason, breed hatred than one that loves
black should be angry with him that is
clothed in white, for thoughts are the very
apparel of the mind.'
The spirit of federation comes only to
highly civilized and highly reasonable men,
who have been trained in freedom or have
knowledge of the history of the world.
Moderate and honorable men know that,
however admirable and desirable may be
the cause for which they are struggling,
there is certainly nothing of greater inn
port than the preservation of the right OF
all men to struggle openly by an address
to reason for the things which they deem
to be of good report. Wise men also know
that though victory may be won by the
suppression of freedom of discussion or by
a denial of fair hearing to their oppo-
nents, the triumph is in danger of being
merely temporary, or at least illusory, if il
be gained by the denial of right which is
as sacred as the immediate object sought
Emery A. Storrs in his political oratory
said finely in sentence, "Our soil is free,
our men are free, our thought is free and
our speech is free," and wise men are al
ways eager to give this sentiment the most
liberal possible Interpretation in the prac.
tice of actual life. They are impelled tc
liberality by the consideration that in free
countries, where the very government is
founded, as Bagehot says, upon "discus.
sion" and where the people must be trusted
strong and virtuous men have an abiding
faith that, in the long run, the right will
prevail. Milton expresses the thought:
'For who does not know that truth is
strong, next to the Almighty; she needs
no politics nor stratagems to make hel
victorious; those are the shifts and the de-
lenses that error uses against her power;
give her but room and do not bind he,
when she sleeps.
1.-The very essence OF truth is plainness
and brightness; the darkness and crook.
edness is our own. The wisdom of God
created understanding, fit and proportion.
able to truth, the object and end of it, as
the eye to the thing visible. Let her and
falsehood grapple; who ever knew truth
put to the worse in free encounter?''
Lowell in his lectures ON "Demooracv, ,,