cutive, to a prevailing current, either in the community
or in the legislature, as its best recommendation.
But such men entertain very crude
notions, as well of the purposes for which govern-
ment was instituted, as of the true means by
which the public happiness may be promoted.
The republican principle demands that the delib-
erative sense of the community should govern
the conductor those to whom they intrust the
management of their affairs; but it does not re-
quire an unqualified complaisance to every sud-
den breeze of passion, or to every transient im-
pulse) which the people may receive from the
arts of men, who flatter their prejudices to be-
tray their interests. It is a just observation, that
the people commonly intend the public good. This
often applies to their very errors but their good
sense would dispise the adulator, who should
pretend that. they always reason, right about the
means of promoting it. They know from experience
that they sometimes err, and the wonder
is, that they so seldom err, as they do, beset, as
they continually are, by the evils of parasites
and sycophants—by the snares of the ambitious—
the avaricious—the desperate—by the artifices of
men, who possess their confidence more than
they deserve it; and of those who seek to pos-
sess, rather than to deserve it."
Hamilton expresses this opinion, in view of
and in support of the necessity of clothing the
Executive with a power to check and restrain
the will of the majority. In the Ferderalist No.
73, he also demonstrates the utility of a power
which may prevent the promulgation of bad
laws. Jefferson in one of his letters to Madison
speaks of the instability of our laws as a great in-
convenience, and suggests checks and modes of
restrictions. In the Federalist No. 51, Hamilton
also says : "It is of great importance in a repub-
lic, not only to guard the society against the op-
pression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the
society against the injustice of the other part.
Justice is the end of government. It is the end
of civil society. It ever has been, and ever will
he pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty
he lost in the pursuit. In a society, under the
forms of which the stronger faction can readily
unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as
truly be said to reign, as in a state of nature,
where the weaker individual is not secured
against the violence of the stronger,"
Ail these authorities, Mr. President, tend to
show the necessity of checks upon the will of the
majority, by pointing out its dangerous tendency
They are not ephemeral mushroom authorities
of a day's existence. They are not opinions ba-
sed upon merely idle speculation. They emana-
ted from sources of a highly responsible charac-
ter—from the founders of our government—men
of the most extensive practical observation—of
the strongest natural and best cultivated intelects
directed by one holiest patriotic aim—the good
of their beloved country, tor which, they were a
all times, ready to sacrifice self. As emanating
from such sources, they are entitled to our most
grateful approbation.
It is true that these opinions, and others similar, |
have been treated as exploded, by the new lights
that have recently sprung up to teach their fath-
ers the science of government. "This is an age
of progress," say gentlemen, "in all the arts and
sciences, and why not in the science of govern-
ment? The people have shown themselves ca-
pable of self-government, and therefore experi-
ence teaches these opinions, which were worthy
of consideration, when they were promulgated, to
be now erroneous, and inapplicable to the pre-
sent condition of society." Thus they reason
against these opinions.
This is truly and emphatically an age of progress,
of railroad velocity—an age of discovery
and invention unparalelled in the history of the
world. But that spirit of progress and improve-
ment that is known to pervade the abstruse
sciences of philosophy, is not applicable to the
science of government. Nor is the science of
government, subject by the same means which
are applied to other sciences, to be experimented
upon for the sake of discovery.
Government, dates its origin from creation.
"Order is nature's first law." The science of
government was implanted by God, within the
mind of man from the beginning; obscure it may
be, at first, but afterwards improved by revealed
instruction to the chosen leaders of his people.
I do not know that any such revelations are made
to the leaders of the people now, nor do I know,
that those who are, or would be the leaders of the
people, may not be given over by him, to the error of
their ways, because of the hardness of their hearts.
find their contempt of the laws and commandments of
their fathers in government. Throughout the
almost six thousand years that have elapsed from
creation to the present day, every species of gov-
ernment has been tried, that man could devise;
and every theory applicable to governments, has
been tested by practice; and it can safely be said,
nothing new on the subject can be discovered.
As to our competency for self-government, 1
admit it. But I do not see that our condition will
be improved, by tearing down and levelling to
the ground the constitutional walls which
have heretofore enclosed us, and acted as a
barrier to any disposition we might have,
whether from sudden impulse, carried away by
the exciting appeals of our leaders, or from any
other incentive, to infringe upon our weaker
neighbor's rights. We prefer to have restric-
tions placed upon our will, for fear we might en-
ter into temptation—for fear we might in evil
hour—in an unguarded moment, from consider-
ations of avarice, or fanatical zeal, or both, be
led away from a just regard of our neighbor's
rights, and be tempted to despoil him of them.
Let us then govern ourselves with such limita-
tions upon our power, as to shield from oppres-
sion, or wrong, the minorities that may exist in
our midst. While I admit our capability for self-
government, I deny that there is any State in the
Union, in which, there is not some limitation, or
check placed upon the will of the majority. No
experience in our governments has proved the
people capable of self-government, otherwise
than within the greater or less prescribed limits
upon the majorities' will.
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