# The American Democrat/On the Publick Duties of Station

ON THE DUTIES OF STATION.
The duties of station are divided into those of political or public station, and those of social, or private station. They are not necessarily connected, and shall be considered separately.
ON THE DUTIES OF PUBLICK OR POLITICAL STATION.
By the duties of publick station, we understand those of the private citizen, as well as those of the citizen who fills a publick trust. The first lie at the root of the social compact, and are entitled to be first enumerated.
On the manner in which the publick duties of the private citizen are discharged, in a really free government, depend the results of the institutions. If the citizen is careless of his duties, regardless of his rights, and indifferent to the common weal, it is not difficult to foresee the triumph of abuses, peculation and frauds. It is as unreasonable to suppose that the private servant who is not overlooked, will be faithful to his master, as to suppose that the publick servant who is not watched, will be true to his trusts. In both cases ​a steady, reasoning, but vigilant superintendance is necessary to the good of all concerned; to the agent by removing the temptation to err, and to the principal by securing an active attention to his interests.
The American citizens are possessed of the highest political privileges that can fall to the lot of the body of any community; that of self-government. On the discreet use of this great power, depends the true character of the institutions. It is, consequently, an imperious duty of every elector to take care and employ none but the honest and intelligent, in situations of high trust.
Every position in life has its peculiar dangers, men erring more from an inability to resist temptation, than from any morbid inward impulses to do wrong without an inducement. The peculiar danger of a democracy, arises from the arts of demagogues. It is a safe rule, the safest of all, to confide only in those men for publick trusts, in whom the citizen can best confide in private life. There is no quality that more entirely pervades the moral system than probity. We often err on certain points, each man having a besetting sin, but honesty colors a whole character. He who in private is honest, frank, above hypocricy and double-dealing, will carry those qualities with him into publick, and may be confided in; while he who is the reverse, is, inherently, a knave.
The elector who gives his vote for one whom he is persuaded on good grounds is dishonest in his motives, abuses the most sacred of his public duties. It is true, that party violence, personal malice and love of gossip, frequently cause upright men to be distrusted, and that great care is necessary to guard against slander, the commonest of human crimes, and a besetting vice of a democracy; but the connection between the constituent and the representative is usually so close, ​that the former, by resorting to proper means, can commonly learn the truth. Let it be repeated, then, that the elector who gives his vote, on any grounds, party or personal, to an unworthy candidate, violates a sacred publick duty, and is unfit to be a freeman.
Obedience to the laws, and a sacred regard to the rights of others, are imperative publick duties of the citizen. As he is a "law-maker," he should not be a "law-breaker," for he ought to be conscious that every departure from the established ordinances of society is an infraction of his rights. His power can only be maintained by the supremacy of the laws, as in monarchies, the authority of the king is asserted by obedience to his orders. The citizen in lending a cheerful assistance to the ministers of the law, on all occasions, is merely helping to maintain his own power. This feature in particular, distinguishes the citizen from the subject. The one rules, the other is ruled; one has a voice in framing the ordinances, and can be heard in his efforts to repeal them; the other has no choice but submission.
In Democracies there is a besetting disposition to make publick opinion stronger than the law. This is the particular form in which tyranny exhibits itself in a popular government; for wherever there is power, there will be found a disposition to abuse it. Whoever opposes the interests, or wishes of the publick, however right in principle, or justifiable by circumstances, finds little sympathy; for, in a democracy, resisting the wishes of the many, is resisting the sovereign, in his caprices. Every good citizen is bound to separate this influence of his private feelings from his publick duties, and to take heed that, while pretending to be struggling for liberty, because contending for the advantage of the greatest number, he is not helping ​despotism. The most insinuating and dangerous form in which oppression can overshadow a community is that of popular sway. All the safeguards of liberty, in a democracy, have this in view, as, in monarchies, they are erected against the power of the crown.
The old political saying, that "the people are their own worst enemies," while false as a governing maxim, contains some truth. It is false to say that a people left to govern themselves, would oppress themselves, as monarchs and aristocrats, throughout all time, are known to oppress the ruled, but it is true to say, that the peculiar sins of a democracy must be sought for in the democratical character of the institutions. To pretend otherwise, would be to insist on perfection; for, in a state of society in which there is neither prince nor aristocrats, there must be faultlessness, or errors of a democratic origin, and of a democratic origin only. It is, therefore, a publick duty of the citizen to guard against all excesses of popular power, whether inflicted by mere opinion, or under the forms of law. In all his publick acts, he should watch himself, as under a government of another sort he would watch his rulers; or as vigilantly as he watches the servants of the community at home; for, though possessing the power in the last resort, it is not so absolutely an irresponsible power as it first seems, coming from God, and to be wielded on those convictions of right which God has implanted in our breasts, that we may know good from evil.