state. The people are above the Constitution, and, instead of being governed by it, are its creator. The constitution is, and can be, only a rule, which they lay down for themselves, and which it is optional with them, whether they will follow or not. It is, under the relation of government, as good as no government at all. In a Constitutional Republic the great body of the people may be citizens, and share in the administration of the government; but they can administer the government only under the Constitution, and can hold and exercise power only by its authorization. The Constitution may be alterable, but only by its own authority, by virtue of its express provisions. This I hold to be the actual character of our political institutions; and so holding, I must needs resist the attempt to convert them into a democracy, and seek to rally the sound and reflecting portion of the community to their support, as they are. But, while contending earnestly for the constitutional theory, in opposition to the democratic, I contend, with equal earnestness, that the government, by whomsoever administered, should be administered for the good of the whole people, especially of the poorer and more numerous classes. It is here, in relation to the end for which government should be administered, that democracy has its legitimate, and only legitimate, place. So far as we understand, by democracy, the constitution. and administration of the government for the interests of the great mass of the people, so as to break down all factitious distinctions of class or caste, and to maintain all, not theoretically only, but practically, equal before the law, I am, of course, a democrat; any farther than this, or in any other sense than this, I am not, and never have been, a democrat. The great social end I have always aimed at, in all my publications, and to which my whole life is consecrated, is the moral, intellectual, and social amelioration of the less favored classes, on whom falls the principal part of the burdens of society, and who receive very few of its honors, or its advantages. To this end, I am called to labor by my sympathies as a man, and by my faith as a Christian, not to say by my profession as a Christian minister. But laboring for this end is one thing, laboring to establish, or rather to realize, the political theory, which derives all power from the people, who are to be its subjects, and leaving them free to do whatever they choose, is another, and, unless I greatly deceive myself, a very different thing. This political theory, I have never accepted, and never can accept, till I am convinced that government⚫ is no longer necessary. It is utterly incompatible with government itself. Yet I do not object to this theory, because I have no respect for the genuine voice of the people, when and where it makes itself heard. I am not conscious of any want of respect for the real voice of the people; and my general principles, without rendering me a slave to it, require me to pay it great deference, and to dissent from it only with great modesty, and when forced to do so by a higher voice than that of Humanity herself. The great mass of the people I am accustomed to regard as honest, and as desirous of making justice prevail in the state; and I have little fear, that, where they really judge, their judgments of what is justice, would not, for the most part, be sound and worthy of acceptance. But, even where universal suffrage obtains, the voice of the great mass of the people is rarely, if ever, heard. What passes for their voice is only the voice of the corrupt and intriguing few, who contrive to manage them, and to cheat or wheedle them out of their votes. A slight glance at practical politics will suffice to satisfy any ordinary observer, that this talk about the voice of the people is all moonshine, and that the excellence of the democratic theory consists in its affording the trafficking politicians a fine opportunity to talk in favor of liberty and equality, and thus to satisfy the people with the semblance, while withholding the reality. The confidence, which these politicians have in the people, is in the facility with which they may be gulled. Little confidence do they, in reality, place in the people. Would they willingly trust the people? Would they willingly let the people into their secret caucuses, into their councils to contrive ways and means of plundering the simple and unsuspecting? Would the pure patriots, the democratic sages of Lindenwold and elsewhere, let the people know their various speculations and contrivances, by which they cheat, swindle, the laboring classes out of their hard earnings, to enrich themselves and their associates? No; there is nothing that these men more distrust than they do the people; for there is nothing from which they would have more to dread, than from the popular vengeance, which would overtake them, were the people really to know them. When I find men, who are steeped in corruption, gorged with the "spoils" of the people, holding themselves up as the especial friends of the people, and loud in their advocacy of the democratic theory, and in their condemnation of all who question its soundness, I am irresistibly led to the belief, that there is something in the theory itself peculiarly favorable to the prosecution of their corrupt designs, and I want no better evidence to assure me of its utter hostility to the legitimate ends of government. What we want is not windy professions about liberty and equality, noisy rant and frothy declamations about democracy, but substantial freedom, however secured, for each individual to perform, without let or hinderance, his special function in the social body, whether it be the function of the head, of the hand, or of the foot. The real enemies of this substantial freedom, are your democratic politicians, who with their lips praise the people, and with their hands pick their pockets, or those who act as jackals to the dainty chiefs who are too exalted to plunder-except by proxy. For these and their masters democracy is, no doubt, a glorious doctrine; but the people of this country will, ere long, yet not till it is too late, I fear, find, that, in following the lead of these towards democracy, they recede from all wise and equitable government, and from all moral and social soundness. It is because democracy affords an ample field to these political spoilsmen, that I chiefly distrust it, and demand the preservation of our constitutionalism, as some protection, against them, of the mass they flatter and plunder. I have stated the great social end, for which we should labor, to be, the moral, intellectual, and physical amelioration of the poorer and more numerous classes. This is the end I have all along had in view, and to which all my labors have been directed, for the last twenty years. Whatever changes may have come over me in that time, or whatever modification my views have undergone, I have experienced no change in regard to the great end which every true man must labor to gain. That my views have from time to time been essentially modified, as to the means of gaining this end, it were worse than folly to pretend to deny. He who really has an object to gain, independent of his own reputation, will change his views often as to the means to be adopted; but changes of this kind imply no fickleness or want of stability; they imply merely an enlarging experience, or more practical wisdom. There is fickleness only where there is frequent change of purpose. In laboring ostensibly for this end, it would be easy to manage, to manœuvre, to gather a party, and make oneself a reputation; and I should feel humbled, indeed, if I felt that I wanted the ability to do so. But I have believed from my early youth, and I have been confirmed each day in my belief, that it is never lawful to attempt to gain even a good end by ignoble or unworthy means. I have never suffered myself to seek an honest end, by any but honest means. It requires reference being had to the gullibility of the public -no extraordinary capacity to be able to devise, and successfully prosecute, a low, crooked, serpentine policy, which may raise oneself high in the estimate of one's contemporaries: but after all cui bono? A reputation, gained in this way, is too cheaply won to be worth a brave man's ambition, and is too foul a reproach to him who wins it, to say nothing of its deteriorating moral influence on himself and others, to satisfy any one - who feels that he is placed here only to be good, and to do good. The most rigid morality should govern us in the choice of means, as well as in the choice of ends. Yet, in laboring to accomplish the end in question, the exercise of the highest wisdom, in the choice and application of means, is not only laudable, but obligatory. I have learned that we must work with such materials as we have. One method of accomplishing the end stated is, undoubtedly, to awaken the spirit of the laboring classes themselves, and to induce them to strike, boldly and. resolutely, for their own elevation. But this method will not be found sufficient. Quicken the spirit of these classes, create a great social movement, and you have only invited ambitious, selfish, intriguing demagogues to mount upon the wave, and float into place and power. The cause of the people cannot be advanced in opposition to the more wealthy, intelligent, and influential classes. Any policy, that tends to create a horizontal division of society, will never result in any social amelioration. In all communities, there is a portion of the community, who, by their wealth, talents, education, manners, position, if not by their virtues, have a commanding influence. Against the combined resistance of these, no real practical reforms can be successfully attempted, unless by a more than human power. These must, to some extent, be coworkers with us. While we refuse to truckle to any class, or to compromise the cause of truth and justice, in order to win the coöperation of any one, while we meet all in a firm and independent spirit, and with a manly bearing, we must still so meet them as to command their aid, in working out our reforms, and in carrying our measures. I am more disposed to appeal to the more favored classes themselves, than I am to the less favored; for I rely more on the sense of duty and love of sacrifice, than I do on the sense of interest. It is easier to induce a man to sacrifice himself for another, than it is to induce a man to do what is really for his own interest. I look to the educated and more influential classes, |
