New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-05-08

Reaction, that way has yet been discovered by
which we can get the actual will OF the people Of
the majority.
The present principle of popular sovereignty is pre-
cisely the expression for the TACT that there yet
pervssve forming principle, but at the time that
there is no longer any rcigning principle. This dogma
is the sanction Of the general indecisons prevalence
IL proof that the people longer subject TO any
of the old principles and also s the that OF
the recent revolutionary attempts, no experiment Of
the people can be ultimately put down This principle
has once for ell made an end with the past and holds
the future open.
II has made an end with the pas-but we are not to
understand BY this that it was the only cause a. NJ
Stab and his reactionsry colleagues assert Oh thc pros
traton of public order. This state OF universal unset
tedness is not its consequence but its HISTORICAL ante
cedent ii is only the classical expression OF the chaouc
state which had long been in existence.
What right has the reaction TO complain that no sue
cessive moment is connected with the past that eacn
subsequent moment destroys its predecessor that no
moment in this age Of popular sovereignty can produce
a permanent and deep-rooted creation ! Do not also
Governments submit the same condition OF unirul
ulness and uncertainty Do not they also retract az
one moment the promises of the past Do they not
stumble at their pronses' Do they not call back
their constitutional Do they not destroy their own pro-
ducons Of the momenti Do they notreject tomorrow,
what they bring orwsrd to-day
The Revolution is often compared to Saturn, who de-
voured his own children and the same image Is used
with regard to the established dogma Of the sove
regnty of tie people.
WELL then, the principle Of popular sovereignty de-
stroys its own children with justice, because it hnds
that none of them is the Jupiter who was to establish
new order Of things but have the Governments then
given birth to the Jupiter who will not let himself be
destroyedi Have they given birth to the new Sover-
eicn of the World who will put stop to their idle and
useless work Of productioni
They complain that the popular sovereignty Is mer'
CHESS leveer that overthrows personalities, and
while it makes all equal makes all equally worthless
but when has the Reaction produced personaiss' OF
such decided power of such comprehensive influence
of such undenabe worth, that they could put stop 10
that leveng systems Where are the personal powers
who have been able to prevent an eecuai resistance
to the victorious progress of the principle OF popular
sovereignty Precisely, because the existing oraer
because the old order could no longer produce any de-
cisve and powerful personalities, has that principle
painsd authority 1t has not leveed, but on the level
ing which already existed, it has impressed the seal OF
history
in vain to bring forward the principle OF authori
ty against this princplc-he sovereignty of the people
is the principle of freedom from authority which has
grown out OF its weakening and dissolution.
Vain attempt to proclaim legitimacy, sovereignty, es
tablshed institutions against this princple What can
these powers avail when it is this distinction which has
given force to the princpe-when the condition OF the
triumph of popular sovereignty was the mbecilty and
etfeenefs of institutions and the exhaustion of legit
macy in frutess experiments
What an enormous blunder, to refer to the divine
gin of sovereignty attempt to defeat the Revolution,
by reference to higher Providence to which the exist
ing order owes its origin Not to say, that authority
and the legal order would in that share the honor
Of divine origin with every immediate production of
nature from the greatest and mighest to the meanest
insect After the experience of the last year, which
preceded the Revolution the celestial origin of in
situations be again spoken of This business OF ex
perimenting which did not succeed In establishing
single permanent law-was this to be regarded d.
vine institution against the attempt of the Revolution This
pepetuay shifting legislation, which proved that gov
ernments regard the legal order their play things
this divine antagonsm to Revolution,
When the order of the State is subject to the expert
of the moment when royalty has lost Its creative
power, and the government longer PRODUCES any
permanent effects and authority in all its parts, from
the highest to the lowest magstrscy is sunk In the spirit
of cque-is then the assumption of popular sovereignty
a sin against Divine Grace, 1t is ON the contrary only
the consequence and the experience of the oosensss
and imbecility of the existing order.
That the authorities should obey the will Of the major
ty, instead of appealing their conscience, to the
will and command Of God announced in their
science this demand of Unpopular sovereignty Is to be
regarded as a sinful presumption
But if the supreme authorities have shown before the
Revolution, that the fountain of wisdom dried up in
ter SOULS that they longer possessed the pervasive
power of command and oversight-if the untary
ter of the political order destroyed-how theni
Then enters humanity in their place-then have
they surrendered the laboratory of political experiment
to the peepethen is the popular sovereignty the legh
heir and to the state "by the Grace of
God
Whatever contemporaries the Reaction may bring
forward it will be nuled by the fact that the popular
sovereignty the necessary historical consequence of
the utter prostratisn Of the principle of legitimacy
Bruno BAUER.