Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1852-03-24

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sprung out OF conquest, the conuuerors establish
ing themselves as privileged cast in the excln.
ave possession OF the government, and of all rights
noertles and franchises; and this confirmed 10 he
| the case for ages. Gradually however and in e,,ar
"iuenlhg circles, the conquered races have been
admitted to the rights and privileges of The con-
querors. This is the history of liberty in modern
Europe nave already shown you that it is its
history in ancient Europe,-the history of gradual
and progressive extension of rights, which in the
early stages OF society, the birth-right of an
exclusive arstocracy, founded in conquest, to the
different classes of the conquered races Society.
as nave sad, always begins in inequality and
| tends towards equality, and he only deserves the
name OF statesman who sees that its institutions
keep pace with its progress, and that the constu-
uon opens, from time to time, to admit class after
oiass, successfully, as they are prepared to ente
IL. Nations, like individuals have their growth
anu tner Development and to suppose that the ear
institutions of nation adapted to it through
ou. all the stages of its progress, is absurd as
suppose that the swaddling clothes of the infant
ale "oaPteo TO the proportions of the full grown
iia liME, IN this, as III every thing else, is the
greatest Innovator, nor can its march be STAYED =
All human Institutions and systems must follow in
ltS IootstepS, or be crushed beneath its progress
AND II, upon the one hand there is fanattcism
which would upheave the ancient foundations of
society in order to reconstruct it with reference to
some fantastic theory, there is, on the other a BIZ
goty which, by opposing all reform, prepares the
way to inevitable revolution.
nave Salu latCOeVal With our ancient liberties.
ana tnelr only guarantee, is the great principle up
on which the Virginia Constitution of '76 was
1ounded-that principle, / mean, which sets limit
upon the powers of all government, and throws its
shelo around the rights of the individual. | WISH
IN THIS connection, to read to Won the words of a
wise man, which must sink deepIv and indelih1yr
into the minds Of all who hear and can appreciafe
them "Whatever theory" says Mr. Mills, eve
adopt respecting the foundation of the social nnion
and under whatever political institutions we live.
circle pJ;, ;J,,.1
ing, which no government, be it that of one of q
lew, or OF the many; ought to be permitted to
overstep there is part of the life of every per-
son, who has come to years of discretion, within
which the individuality of that person ought TO
reign uncontrolled either by any other individual
or By tile public coHectiuely That there is or
ought to be, some space in human existence thus
entrenched round, and sacred from authoritative
intrusion, no one who processes the smallest gard
10 human freedom or dignity, will call into oues-
tlon." Here, in my poor Judgment is the princi-
pie which distinguishes despotism from liberty; for
the truth is that liberty, properly viewed is not so
much question sf this or that form of govern
ment, as of the rights of the individual as
against all government, whatever form it NAV as
sumo.
If any one doubts the value Of this prnciple-if
he supposes that its application is confined to mo-
narchlcal OF arlstocratlc forms of governmentthat
II is not equally, indeed more important in popl-
lar government than in any other, l have only to
refer him to the latter history of the Greek De-
mocraces; particularly of that great Athenian de-
mocracy which, after having filled the world and all
time with the renown of its achievements in arts
and arms, sunk, at last, utterly debauched and
prostitute, into the arms Of Cleon and the Dema-
gogues Never, perhaps, has there existed at any
Tune upon this earth a more relentless extermina-
ting and memorable tyranny than that of this self
same 1lustrious Athenan Demus. Plato speaks
OF it as E'savage wild beast''-Aristotle as a
"cruel despot,' who, though he has no crown up
on his head, has yet remorseless sceptre in his
hands, and holds his court at the corners of the
streets and the market-place, with syeophants pa
rasltes and dcmagogues for courtiers. We, who
ENJOY the benefits of habe0s corpus and trial by iu-
ny, and live in an age and country in which the Sc
curity of life, liberty and property is fundamen-
TAI MAXIM, can scarcely form any just conception
of state Of things where private was treated uni
1ormly as public property-where, indeed, it was
established as principle, that the citizen was but
a trustee OF his property for public uses-where
forfeiture and coniiscaion organized into
system-Where justice was administered in assem-
bles composed Of thousands of the city rabble-
where the honest, the wise, and the learned were
driven from public affairs and compelled to bury
themselves in academic shades-where the voice
OF truth, justice and wisdom drowned in the
clamors and shouts of the multitude-Where, in a
word, society was one universal scene Of violence
plumber and brigandage, and all the provinces and
functions OF government, were consolidated and
con1ounded IN one tremendous despotlsm, welded
by mob as laWleSs and as british as Comus and
his sWinlsh crew. 1t this state of things in his
beloved country which embttered the latter DAYS
OF the great Demosthenes--which engraved upon
his face those deep lines Of sorrow and melancholy
wMch nave been perpetuated in all his busts and
winch paved the way, at once for the overthrow of
Grecian liberty and the iron rule of Macedon He
who has attentvely studied and considered the
history OF these evil times-who has studied in
the same relation and in the same spirit, the histo-
ny OF the French democracy at the era of the Re-
voutlon, and who has thus seen ssthe most cultva-
ted and enlightened nations led or driven into the
worst crimes by wretches like Cleon and Robes
pierre-who hasseenpolished capitals, like Athens
and Paris, the glory of the earth, seats of the
highest civilization and filed with the trophies of
genius, become the theatres of horrors worthy on
ly OF the most savage hordeS, drenched in gore by
bandltti OF Septembriseurs, doing murder in the
broad daylight, or delivered up to the hellsh or
ges OF mobs, made cruel by suspicion and drunk
with blood-Who has witnessed judicial massacre
solemnly perpetrated in the name of the law and
DEGREES OF tagran iniquity, and revolving for their
barbarity, sanctioned by the votes of maiorjties
made up OF mild and merciful, but tmid and fee
Bile men--who has heard shouts of liberty uttered
by multitudes, subjugated by terror and cringing
before the idols of their own creation, and seen
(what is the infalible consequences of such ex-
cesses) the reptile demagogue moment before,
'ssquat like toad' at the ear of his victim.
sssart up in his own shape the iend and stand con-
tessed the tyrant'-he, l say, who has seen and
heard all this, is prepared to appreciate that great
lnestlmable principle upon which our fathers
founded the fundamental law Of this common
wealth. and on the preservation of which our H.
berries depend. In these schools he will have
learned the Invaluable truth that despotsm is des-
potism, whether welded by one man, a number of
men, or by the numerical majorty-that it is, per-
haps never so harsh, cruel and so relentless, as
when it creeps in under popular forms, and allies
itself with popular sovereignty-and that, in the
worst OF Aslatlc despotisms, there is something
mild, something patrarcha, something paternai,
compared with the despotsm of an Athenian or a
Partisan mob, drunk with liberty, hungry after con-
hseation,and gorged with blood. He will also have
learned that the great and fatal defect in the po-
tical constitutions of the ancient world was that