Richmond semi-weekly times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 184?-1853, 1852-06-11


exercise of the great responsibility depends the
very existence of their liberty. 1t is surely
wise step to establish for the rising generation
schools in which the young men of the country
may be trained in those habits indispensable to
the permanence and successful operation of the
government, if the electors shall prove incapa-
bic of choosing with discernment agents whose
sphere of action is placed Immediately under
their own observation and the fruits of which they
immediately taste, how gloomy is the destiny of
the federal government entrusted to remote agents.
the effects of whose acts cannot be SO readily ap-
preciated! In this connection, we will call at
tention to that rude and undisciplined multitude
whose traditions have not been derived from re-
publican or Democratic sources, but whose ideas
of freedom caught up from the theories of
warm and inexperienced enthusiasts, are at
best but vague and extravagant. Since it has
become the settled policy of Congress, to
people our Western soitudes with this alien
population, and admit them to an early par
ticipation in the highest franchise of the coun-
try, would it not be prudent for the States in
which these people have numerously settled, to
exercise them in the simpler forms of self-gov-
eminent, aud in some measure repair the defects
entalled upon them by the passive condition in
which they have been kept by their hereditary
governments! 1t is in this way only that the
vassals of despot can be converted into discreet
electors, fit to exercise the privileges of Demo-
cratic republic.
But the deceatralizing force of provisional in
situations, operating to difuse and dispense the
powers of government, is not the least of the ad-
| mrable consequences of the recent alterations in
| our organic laws. Large Democraces run as ma
turay and violently to the centre, as impetuous
whirlpools La respect to this, we shall here in
sert the speculations of DeTocquervle in his mas
terly examination of the Democratic principle as
developed in our institutions: Il am convinced
| that Democratic nations are most exposed to fall
under the yoke of a central administration. The
constant tendency of these nations is to concen-
trate all the strength of the government in the
hands OF the only power which directly represent
ed the people; because, beyond the people,
nothing isto be perceived but mass of equal
individuals compounded together. But when
the same power isalready in possession of all
the attributes of the government. it can scarcely
refrain from penetrating into the details of the
administration; and an opportunity of doing so is
sure to present itself in the end as was the case
in France" Provincial institutions in building
up and calling into existence organized assem-
blies authorized lawfully to declare the popular
w i'll, may when the occasion shall arise, be rea-
Oily converted into the organs of resistance to on
pressive laws and afford an important balance
against the overweening authority of the central
power. 1t these advantages can indeed be fully
realized, it would seem that this advancement TO-
wards pure Democracy ought to be received with
an all hail by every person of refection-cer-
tainly by the Wing party which has ever shown
itself averse to the accumulation, without posi-
tive necessity, of power in the hands of public
functionaries. In respect to the policy of popu
larizing the government by dispensing and locali-
zing the various powers of the State government,
we beg again to introduce passage from the great
work of the philosophic Frenchman-that the
reader may behold the importance attached to
this feature of our government by that enight-
ened observer. Il have visited the two nations
in which the system of provincial liberty has
been most perfectly established, and I have lis
tened to the opinions of different parties in those
countries. In America l have met with men
who secretly aspired to destroy the Democratic
institutions of the Union; in England I have
found others who attacked the aristocracy party :
but know of no one who does not regard provin-
clal independence great benefit. In beth
countries [ have heard thousand different eau
ASST gned for the evils of the State but the To-
|
L have heard citizens attribute the power and
prosperity of their country to multitude of rea-
sons but they all placed the advantages of loca
institutions in the foremost rank. The only ma
lions which deny the utility of provincial liber
ties those which have fewest of them; in
other words, those whoare unacquainted with the
institution are the only persons who pass a CEN
sure upon it, This is assuredly the theory Of
our national system. The establishment of q
central power for the management and superv-
sion of the general concerns the nation and the
coeXstence of state governments to which are
confded the custody and exercise of provincial
liberty, and provincial authority, is the grand
characteristic of our institutions. The operations
of this great and beni6cent principle upon that
enlarged scale have been entirely satisfactory to
our most enlightened men and we perceive nc
reason why it should not in its application to the
internal organization of the States themselves, be
followed out to its legitimate consequences. The
future, in our eyes looks cheerful and we be-
hold but one cloud that hovers on the horizon
portending storms. We will frankly state the
source of our apprehensions Judge Marshall,
inspired, as many thought, by prophetic wisdom,
in one of those moods in which great men some
times pronounce oracles, declared that upon the
people, whom the Almighty wishes to curse, he
sends an elective judiciary. We fondly hope
that for once in his ife Chief Justice Marshal