The Yazoo City Whig and political register., 1839-08-02
FoR THE YAzoo CITY WIG.
RANDOM THOUGHTS.

RANDOM LAOUEMLSs
PoLTTIcl PRINCIPLE. ssNo free govern
ment, or ID blessings of Liberty, can be
preserved D any people, but by firm ad-
herence oustice, moderation, temperance,
ffugality, aid virtue, and by FREoUENT RE-
rl lcURRENcr 10 5NDAar MENTAL FRINCrpLEs.o
Bill Of Rights Of Virginia.
10 attempt to prove, or even to say, that
we hold it a fundamental political maxim,
} nat all power els and Of right ought to be
derived from the peoplen is at.this time
quite as fiat and ridiculous, as it would be
in philosopher to assert and attempt to
prove that Form is inseparable from Matter.
The nature Of the thing renders this truth
most obvious; and experience has shown
that the people never yet came forth clad in
the full development of its innate might, to
war against Government, without meeting
with the highest success; however neces-
sity and habit may have occasioned a sub
stantial re-establishment of the form of gov
eminent which had existed with them from
time immemorial. Despots and monocrats
have asserted that power was not, and of
right ought not to exist, elsewhere than in
themselves. The foundation for such as
sertion, some said, consisted in the heredit
ary transmission of the patriarchial form of
government; others based it upon Divine
mandate and disposition; and General jack
son, in the spirit and mode of Logician,
said " all political power is in the people
am the representative of the people
am the people-therefore all political pow.
er is in me = and his practice tailed well
with bis theory. When we consider the
strength and blindness Of human passion,
we will find, that General Jackson, in speak
ing thus, has, perhaps, furnished the best
exposition Of the true principle and char
acfer of the Demagogue.
In closely regarding the United States,
we find, that by fair construction of the
language of the Federal Constitution, the
States have actually amalgamafed them
selves into one body polite, in almost every
important point Distinguishing adistinct and
Independent community; hence very natur-
ally has existed and now exists the acknowl-
edged tendency to consolidation. On the
other- lroIaI voleoervoy -tlset 4l.Ss c~T-~.-A
conduct and practice Of the States furnishes
the firmest and strongest inference, that
each State regards itself as being fully and
entirely sovereign, in the most comprehen-
sive sense of the term--to say nothing of
the spirit characterising the manner in which
several of the thirteen original States sig
nifed their becoming parties to the federal
compact. When we reflect that it is Justly
doubted whether such degree of knowl-
edge exists in any portion of the world,
as will warrant the belief that the peculiar
form of government, most properly styled
a Representative Democracy, is at least
permanently applicable to an extent of ter
ritory and population any thing like that of
the whole American Union; when we con-
slider attentively the great and marked di-
Versity of external circumstances, such as
climate, soil, &C., and the diversity of in
ternal circumstances, as for example, the
original essential difference between the
Puritan of the North and the Cavalier of
the South ;and when we remember the salu
tary influence in the way of checking power,
which the practice and conduct of States,
above referred to, have already exerted on
the Federal Government; we must deem it
most expedient for the preservation of our
civil liberty in its present condition, that
each State should deem itself, and be deem-
ed by all, possessed of sovereignty at once
omnipotent and indivisible-and, like the
natural inclination to preserve life, utterly
inalienable. Hence the obvious expedien- |
cy, if not constitutionality, Of Mr.. Cali
houn's view, that the state and Federal
Governments are in relation to the people of
each State, from which, in its sovereign and
independent capacity, each spung, co-ordi-
nate with each other, in the same manner
as are the Legislative, Judicial and Execu-
tive departments, in relation to each (the
state and Federal Government, coordinate
with each other.
The representative principle is to the orr
ginal powero of the people, in political ma
chinery, what the fy-wheel is to the origi
nal power of steam, in the steam-engine,
the instrument by which the primitive NOV
inc power can be most safely and benef-
cially applied and regulated.
In general way then. we may assert up
on the authority of experience and reason
that, in each state, its sovereignty being full
u admitted, the Representative principle,
The institution Of marriage, and the instiiu-
lion Of property fairly institute political
Trinity, BY the pure and fervent worship of
which only, can we expect to preserve the ;
blessing of genuine liberty. The Press and
Education we should revere and preserve
rom pollution, as the High Priests of this
political Trinity, ever ministering with
Teedom and purity in its Temple. And let
s beware Of the Right Of Instruction. this
S the palpable and direct enemy Of the Re
Principle; LET US remember that
Pennanency ID Law and Government is abb
,olutely NECESSARY to the greatest happiness
,ffhe greatest nulnber-that, indeed, with
,ut permanency al nill be anarchy and
,onfusion-and that the constitutional or
iainment Of limited terms Of Office and of
,ur periodical Iightof suffrage constitute ouri
,nl4 middle path and safes means, to guard
against the pernicious general consequent
rs of heightened nal administration on the