Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-05-15
T. E TX L. Y.


of the people are really opposed to il, if its ene-
mics within and without the Order are esii-
mated together. 1t is no matter, then, where
you establish this secrecy with regard to polti-
cal action, the effect is the same; you destroy
the just influences of public opinion, nay, you
make the existence of public opinion impossi-
BILE, and thus popular government itself, be-
comes impracticable.
Felow-citizens, we have therefore, felicitated
ourselves upon the idea, that the power of pub
lie opinion in this country was becoming SO
much greater and more enlightened as to re-
lieve our form of government of some OF the
subjects of it's hitherto necessary jurisdiction,
and to increase its capacity for extending over
greater areas Of territory and larger masses OF
people. But it seems that we are to renounce
these long cherished ideas, and a retrograde
march is fast becoming the order OF the day. In
the name Of Heaven from whence do these new
lights spring, which are SO to uproot the fixed
opinions of centuries? He who seeks to de-
slroy the influence of public opinion, or to de-
prive it of jurisdiction, strikes at the moving
principle of human progress itself, and raises a
fratricidal hand against the best hopes of his
race. 1t is this influence which has given the
greatest impulse to The march of human inn
provement: and as the mighty sphere of it's ju-
risdictiou enlarges with the growth of time, the
governments and institutions of man are called
up, one by one, to answer at that great bar
where reason is free to plead, and truth, when
once revealed, pronounces its irreversible de-
crees.
\, The Church, the State, and the School, all
contribute to the stream of thought which
swells the mighty tide Of public opinion, and
each profits by the modifying influence of the
judgments which are pronounced on their ideas
at that bar, by way of return. Here, indeed,
is the great and conservative tribunal, before
which all must in turn appear 1t can elevate
the weak to the level of the strong, and the
most powerful is strengthened by its aid.
Through doors of oak and bolts of iron, it pene-
trates into the closed council chamber of prn-
ces, where its voice, if not obeyed, is at least
respected and feared 1t whispers the word of
warning into the secret ear of the ruler, and
through the long watches of the night he tosses
in sleepess anxiety to ponder upon its mean
ing. None are so high as to be above its in
fuence, and he must be poor, indeed, who is
beneath il. The weakest and humblest of hui
man beings, if he be strong enough to make
his moan audible may summon his oppressor
to appear at that bar from whose sentence he
can neither appeal nor escape, no matter what
may be his power or his place. 1t was to pub
lie opinion that Martin Luther appealed, when
he took issue with the See of Rome, whose
power at that day was nearly coextensive with
Christendom, and, before that bar, the poor
monk became the peer of pontiffs and Caesars,
and judgment was pronounced in that cause,
which toppled down many place of strength,
in which human authority had dreamed itself
to be secure for centuries yet to come. 1t was
to public opinion that John Locke appealed,
when, stripped Of his living and fellowship for
opinions sake, by the cruel edict of an arbitrary
prince, he was sent forth wanderer upon the
world, a houseless and homeless man, and, as
was vainly supposed, crushed alike in fortune
and aspiration. But his proud spirit refused
to be down, and he spoke the great work in his
essay in favor of religious toleration, which
could no more be hushed, or silenced, until the
test acts, and prosecuting ordinances of his
native land had fallen before il, and the great
doctrine of liberty of conscience had been es-
tablished, wherever his own English was the
yernacular tongue.
A poor Scotch philosopher, whose views when
first published, would have been secuted upon
"change," now exercises, through the force Of
public opinion, larger influence over the laws
which regulate the trade of the world, than all
the merchant princes and statesmen Of his day.
Dynasties which have withstood the destroying
efforts Of Charles the Great, Turenne, or a
Marlborough, and de6ed the arts Of their po-
itical or strategic skill, have fallen before the
breath of public opinion, when put into motion
by some poor scholar or unheeded philosopher,
who spoke from the narrow precincts Of his ne
elected cell or dreary garrett The ideas Of
Luther and Locke, and perhaps of Rousseau,
have, through the force Of public opinion,
written more changes upon the face Of human
institutions and governments than the arts or
the arms OF the statesmen and the generals OF
whom have just spoken. The jurisdiction Of
the only earthly tribunal, where the strong and
the weak must meet upon equal terms, where
reason is free to speak and truth alone is pow
erful, is that Of all Others which this new party,
by some strange perversity Of opinion, would
seek TO destroy. What sin against human
progress, what an outrage upon the best hopes
of man for social and political improvement
But why should this party so fear public opin-
ion, unless they believed that it would pro-
nounce against them? If they supposed the
contrary, would they not seek its mighty aid by
procaming their purposes to the world?
There can be but two motives for concealing
their action upon political affairs, which con-
Germ the welfare Of all; aud these are either
the fear Of public opinion or distrust of the
people. Is this country where we can afford
toencourage party which acts upon such ideas?
But, fellow citizens, there is another reason
special to ourselves for regarding secret polti-
cal associations, as mischevous and dangerous.
Mr.. Calhoun used to say, that after all, the
political issues in every country grew out of
the contests of two parties, which belong to all
organized human societies--the one he called
the "tax consuming party and the other the
"tax paying party The tax consumers are
those who receive more money from the Trca-
sury, in the shape Of patronage, than they con-
tribute TO it in the payment Of public dues.
They look, therefore, to the government for the
means Of support and vote, not as citizens
seeking moral benefits, but as individuals in
pursuit Of personal interests and pecuniary
gain. The tax paying party are those who
look to governmentfor political good only, and
contribute more in money to the Treasury than
they receive in return. If the former obtains
the chief power in the State, then, sooner or
later, there must be an end to free and popular
government The very ends of their organi-
zation require them first to increase the taxes
as much as possible, in order to swell the fund
which is to be converted to their own uses