Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-05-25
ont Garernncnt.

The events which have just occurred at
Washington are calculated to make us pause,
and ask ourselves if we have representative
government among us. We haze, theoretical
ly, no doubt. We go to the ballot box and
make Presidents and Congressman, in order
that they may administer our laws, and rep
resent our principles and ideas; but, the
question is, "Do they care anything about
our ideas, OF u.s." Are they faithful servants
of the Repeblic, or, are they not rather, mer-
cenaries, who obtain commissions in our SER
vice, on false pretenees and then turn round
opportunity to do sos If petitions, remons
ira ices, and the united voice of the press,
could inform any body of men, regarding pub
Ii, opinion, on the Nebraska bill, our legsla-
tors were informed. The people, the clergy,
and the press-the numbers, the piety, and
the eloquence of the country-united with
the faithful men in Congress, to let the ma
jority know that the Missouri Compromise
must not be abrogated; but the majority
spurned, despsed, and spat upon the petitions
and renonstrances of their constituents, and
have opened up Kansas and Nebraska to slave
re, in defiance of them.
In Great Britain, when aroused, although
oaly one-sixth of them exercise the elective
anchise, the PEOPLE invariably compel the
lie ;islature to listen to their voice. In our
country, where we generally have universal
Suffrage, Congress laughs at the popular
ssrash, and executes its own will, as insolent-
ly and peremptorily as the Gar of Russia does
his.
Now, the principles of democratic freedom,
are not to blame for this state of things. The
blame attaches to the lax morality of our pol
iticians, and in q great measure, to the peo-
pies own indifference to freedom. In the
first place, men are too often elected to Office,
because they are available, and not because
they are capable and yirtuous.
In the next place, the people have got SO
much into the habit of acquiescing in what
ever the administration does, that the adninis-
tration has come to look upon the peoples Pc
titions as nothing more than smoke, or a tenn
porary efferyescence, which passes off, leaving
them flatter than cold water.
The President, dishonoring his lofty posi-
ton, and ilespising the constitution, has gone
with his satellites, in amongst the peoples
representatives, and has bribed, browbeaten
cajoled, and bought. them up, with the peo-
PIES money, to commit this great outrage up
on justice, the reputation of the Missouri
compact And men elected, in the free States
as the representatives of Northern principles
and the guardians of Northern rights, have
consented to be bought, and have betrayed
their sacred trust. Will the people submit TO
this condition ofthings at Washington? Will
ley consent to be cheated, and tyrannized
over, by the toadies of the Slave power, and
subsidized adherents of the administration p
shall this nation with all its vast material re-
searces, and glorious capabilities, become moth
ing more than one vast negro plantation, and
slave market And shall our government,
based upon the noblest theories of democratic
liberty, be allowed to dwindle into lottery,
where political gamblers, under the egs of
authority, gamble away the nations freedom,
for the sake of their own personal aggrandize-
men:s Wetrust that there is still enough of
the spirit of /" Seventy SIX" in the land, to
whip the traitors out of the temple of liberty,
to drive back the tide of human slavery, and
to so purify and exalt our government, that
it viii, once more, truly represent the popular
will.