The spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1840-1844, 1840-05-08


encc. The excuses Of one class cancel the ex-
cesses of the other
Just so geographically. The voice of universal
reason, in Massachusetts, is sometimes affected by
the camOr of associated wealth at the South, by
seliishness of an opposite tendency The error,
balance each other. As in algebra, the minus anr
the plus, it equal, neulralize each other. Thus i
is that the voice Of the people is the voice eff pure
reason opposite, unjust passions balancing eucl
other, justice emerges.
Give power to fraction of the people, and you
have partial exposition of justice. Give powe
to the whole people, and you gain the nearest eX
preston of the law of God the voice of conscience
the oracle of universal reason.
Thus, then we see, that the moral law is graver
on the heart of every man that, while each midi
vldua has personal bases and passions the uni
versal principles of the moral law exist in every
man that, therefore, to gain institutions and law,
founded upon universal reason and niNersa justice
the appeal must be made to the whole people.
This is the democratic principle. Democracy i
| ETERNAL JUSTICE, RULING THROUGH THE
PEOPLE.
The PRINCIPLE of democracy, of Itself, die
tatcs the FORMS under which it establishes tse
in the fundamental laws.
And here the character of democracy exhibits il
selfat the very beginning, For, ON what basis does
government rcst'
A respectable and very ambitious party represent
that the people meet in convention, and form Il
compact that this compact at once obtains char
acter of sanctty, and that it constitutes the bash
on which society rests. I his is the wing doctrine
1t rests government not on any thing that is in man
but on parchments and title deeds.
This theory gives no higher authority to govern
| ,a MT th,n iI.nt Of, j. tbnrn
fore essentially relative, ard is remote from the hial
idea of Justice in its origin, as in its character, A
party adopting this theory may look for safety ,c
checks and balances it cannot invoke higher
sanction: it may have maXims ; it never can have
principles.
And here is the reason why the wing party has
no faith. Whgism gives sanctty TO the form, and
not to the prncpc which led 10 the adoption OF
the FORM 1t udhcres to the letter and nCgccts
the spirit ; and the dead letter cannot inspire faith.
Whigism values forms in lhcmselys, because they
may be used us so many checks ON the people.
Is it denied that the Wings prefer forms 10 the
substance? Have we not seen, in hlassat huscts,
an executive council refuse to bend their ear to
hear the voices of the ycomanry and hardy me-
chancs of Wcstiicd, and reject vote of which
the accuracy was undisputed because the town
clerk wrote his name in the centre of the fourth
page, instead of on corner of the third; Have we
not seen the whole whig party claiming ON the floor
of Congress for IL broad seal, under VIGOROUSLY
false record higher power than for the voice of the
Commonwealth, as registered at lis polls and pre-
served in lis archives
Or, is it denied that the Wings have no faith in
their own causei That they have not iih, iso.i-
dent from Il flood of reaOns. They appeal to the
passions of men, and not to their reason. They
ur. nal la tl,n ,,I
umny to the work of personal defamation. As
if ashamed of thcmsclvs, they are pcrpcluay al
cnptng no wear dcmocray as mask They dare
not present to the people, as candidates for high
Offices the men who lnos adequately represent their
party. The doings of the late convention of wings
at Harrisburg are iraught with sublime moral.--
BY not daring TO ask the sulragcs of the people for
Henry Clay, the gifted champion of their cause,
they themselves made confession in advance that
they deserve defeat that n true representative of
the whig party is not an available candidate To
them, availability consists in that happy mediocre
ty, which, from its own weakness, has escaped
being identified with any promncr, measure what
ever
Democracy on the other hand, regards govern
ment MS sprnging from the necessity implanted in
mans nature. Wherever there are human beings
wherever there are intelligent life and freedom
there, also, the inward voice of God IN the soul
commands society to be instituted Society exists
of necessity, and from God; aud rests primarily
on the law of justice imprinted on mans heart,
long before parchment was scmwled upon, or II
constitution devised SOCIETY rests on nlnuiah,c
justice and justice like all moral TRUTH lives not
in books, not in letters of black and whe not in
archives or compacis, but in the souls of men.
When the people assemble in convention To set
tie the forms of government, they do not create
government, they only institute it. The office
Of the members of convention H., to inquire
what ustic commands. They do not arbitrarily
create forms they do but ask after the forms
which are best adapted TO the great ends of >oce-
ty. And not claiming for themselves inialllbity,
they do not regard their work as an inyio!ab!c
compact, but as an institution to be amended, re-
formed, and perfected, as fast as the increase of
knowledge and uprighlncss shall demand.
Thus democracy rests government on the strong
est possible foundation ON the law of God in the
soul of man, II seeks To establish fundamental
laws, in conformity to the immuiabe principles of
neyerchangns Justice. And as the race is constant
" advancing in intelligence democracy secures to
the people the right TO make constant progress in the