Iowa capitol reporter. [volume] (Iowa City, Iowa) 1841-1855, 1848-10-25
Letters Of n Democrat to his Pc.
Iitical Associates.
No. A.

No. 4.
That thing then over which it is neces-
sary for us to exercise constant vigil
lance is the Lust Of Dominion. The points
toward which we are to keep watch are
the officers and the avenues to Office
The persons upon whom our watch is to
be set are the rulers and offices whom we
have elected. The founders Of our liber-
tiles and the trainers of our constitution,
together with all those bright and pure
patriots Of their day who aided in defend
ing our rights, in all their words and works.
every where impressed, every where in
scribed, every where enacted and prac-
ticed, over all and above all else, jealousy
Of rulers as the great safeguard of liber-
ty. By this is not meant an uneasy jeal-
ousy Of the heart: no rancorous, or passion
ate or distrustful feeling: nothing incon-
sistent with generous regard and fair
confidence. The jealousy which they in
culcated was a constitutional jealousy
1t prescribed that the repositories Of pow
er should hold their trust but for short
term, and return them again to the people.
1t provided guards against the seductions
Of ambition and the abuse of authority, by
limiting the tenure of office to short Pc
RODS, and by frequent change of the
trust, and reposing it in new hands. II
condemned the practice of life Offices and
long terms of office as leading to abuse oil
power and dangerous to our institutions.
This idea was the foremost among their
cherished plans for rendering the iberi-
ties of the country secure and permanent
1t is no doubt correct. BY investing a
man with power for life, the influences
and appendants of the station become much
more powerful in reality than the legal
and essential authority Of his office and his
functions. And in proportion to the
length of the term, are these incidents
(more dangerous because indirectly, in
creased or lessened. 1t is safe and a
republican principle, short terms Of office
and frequent rotation. 1t is an aristocrat-
ic principle and dangerous practice to pre-
scribe long terms, or to bestow office for
a great length of time, even by renewal,
on the same individual. The provisions of
our State constitution, that the Governor
and Senators shall hold their offices for
four years, cannot therefore receive my
approval or assent. consider them as
anti-republican, aristocratic features in
our constitution, and on that ground high
ly Objectionable. There is also another
reason against them in this. Those Off
ces, especially that of Chief Magistrate,
should, in my opinion, be-object of the
honest emulation of all the citizens. But
by electing the officer for SO long term,
the opportunity is not offered more than
three or four times, by average, in mans
life to be elected to the office after the
period when he would generally be con-
sidered as eligible; the office is necessary
confined to a few hands, and general
emulation is extinguished. These minor
objections, it is true, are not worthy to be
named, in view of the disregard of the
great vital principle, which is at once our
best safety and defence, and the beauty
and ornament Of our system: set tutamen
ct dulce decus nostrum." l desire to see
liberty progressive, democracy progress
sive, human rights progressive. Above
all would avoid any retrogression from
those points to which our fathers had at
tained-to which the age that has passed,
had advanced. The world, ever advan-
cling, has now rapid progress; man is in
progress; the arts arc in progress; the
sciences are in progress; all the works of
man are in progress let not that which
most concerns his happiness, the science
of government and the principles of lib
erty fail to advance with an advancing
age;-and least of all let them not pass
away and be lost with the age and the men
that have passed away and bequeathed
them to us.
CURTIUS.
"a sLor4 Tina affax Tonnass "a Loo