The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1842-09-12
AWE ARE GOVERNED TOO MUCH

The great evil of our day and country is le-
gislation We have learned TO look too much
10 il, and depend too much upon IT. IL is es-
ieemed universal panacea, potent medicine
that no evil to which the body polite is subject
can resist, No matter what i'll befalls US, whe-
lauguishes, or produce il deprecated, or specu-
lations prove disastrous, or the ever-lntiatins
and evsr-exploding bubble that men so eagerly
pursue, vanish from their grasp, resort must be
had to legislation. No one SO high, no Ole SO
low. that he is not taught to look to legislation
as the great magic wand by which the goid-oe-
decked spirits of wealth and prosperity shall be
called from the Vastly deep, and BY which the
spirit of the storm that may desolate our hopes
and prospects for the time, and that rules the
hour shall be sent back to his dreary caverns-
The blind, the hall, the lame and the diseased,
ever remain about this political Bethesda, and
seek TO plunge into its healing and restorative
waters
The eager and sanguine adventures, who,
with buoyant visions of health and renewed
YOUTH and vigor, and beauty, sought the far
famed and tabled Fountain Of Rejuvenescence,
in the New World, were not engaged in more
wild and visionary pursuit, than those who be-
lake themselves TO legislation as the great foun-
tain Of national health and vgor. commun-
", debauched by unnatural stimulants, when
assiude, and exhaustion and disease come upon
it, can no more look to legislation for sound and
r ~ Cd ho has
sha,terd d and impaired his constitution by ex-
cessive indulgence, can resort to the nostrum OF
the empyric for sound and healthy restoration
when disease has laid hold Of the human frame,
and when vigor is wasting away, and beauty
fading, what permanent relief is attained from
simple and heal,hfu diet, from occasional fast
ing, from faithful exercise, from the braclng
influences Of the mountain air, and from The
captivating and enchanting prospects OF natural
ta0ua- mature all her in
as to the mind. Lett invalid betake himself to
the simplicity of nature. Let him desert the
ramperng Injuries OF artificial life, throw of its
unnatural restraints, deny himself its stimuIants,
and go out to the beautiful world of nature, and
have his eye delighted, his ear charmed, his
mind one while filled with sense of its gran
deur, and at another soothed by its serene and
tranquil loveness land soon will the wrinkles and
paeness and lassitude of disease be gone, and the
fresh bloom, and vigor, and cheerfulness of
health return. So with community when
overtrading, and wild speculation, and extrava-
giant habits, and luxurious living have disease
and enfeebled it, let 1t return to the simple ha-
bits of virtue and republican economy, instead
Of seeking to gather gold from the trees, and
pearls in the brooks; let it depend upon the
loom and the plough, yielding slow but certain
wealth; let happy and perseverng toll do its
work, and let men be satisfied with little profits,
with moderate expenditures, and with simple
habits, and how soon will prosperity be restored
the aboring man happy in his industry, and
well rewarded with good wages (; the farmer and
the artisN all enjoying staid and heathful pros
perity.
The duty of Government is plain and sim
pie 1t is not to aid those who can but mill not
help themselves who call upon Hercules with
Out putting their shoulder to the wheel. 1t is TO
exercise lis delegated power as TO protect
those interests of community which each
man cannot protect for himself; it stands in
stead of parent, and where a prudent father
ushers his son into active life, he gives him The
necessary aid, and then throws him upon his
own resources. The ability of the son is soon
called into requistion; his. energies are devel
oped and if he encounters difficulty, his perse-
verance and his courage are tested and i'm.
proved. A few years of such effort makes
man of him." and it is only when he may be
come so situated by some peculiar circumstan
ces, that he cannot aid himself, that the fathe
comes 10 his relief, and applies principle cs
tablished and settled in the government OF hi
family and children, to aid his son.
We shall pursue this subject in our next
The fear Of being abducted will probably dete
his Excesncy from making trip either TO the Nort
or the South this fall! II he is Kidnapped be will b