Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1856-06-11

'ttieir absolute democracy, and~reNtace them
with constitutional republic They will
thus have demonstrated 10 themselves, that
they have emerged from form Of govern
meut, in which their rights were absolute,
vet mono secure, to one, in which by we'll
adjusted chicks upon their own power, they
had secured the highest degree Of liberty;
from despotsn,, in which the will Of a
bare majority was supreme, TO a free com
monwealth. in which The weakest citizen
may defy the oppression Of the whole
State itself; from an absolute den ocracy,
in which life, aud liberty, and property were
held at the caprice Of the hour, to consti
,utional republic, in which the power OF
numbers was dispensed under the auspices
of law and order; in which balance Of
power conserved the rights OF nlinori:ies;
and il which all its action, delayed through
well ordered removes, was crowned with the
wisdom of the second thought.
The philosophy Of the republican forms
Of government may bo summed up in word.
1t is impossible, where the powers OF :.tl are
equal, to rule without being ruled. When,
therefore, rights are unlimited, the ruling
power is absolute; but where they are re-
stricted by common checks, that power is
TO some extent restrained Every surrender,
therefore, Of i power which an individual
may capriciously exercise, secures so much
freedom; for it preserves him from the ca.
PRECIOUS exercise OF it in others.
Now the due measure of The surrender oil
the rights necessary to attain these high
ends, will always be a problem, because it
is not q matter OF demonstration, but OF
Judgment. But it its ulterior limit may not
be defined, yet there is Il point short of
which it MAY not STOP Every system OF
liberty must embrace all those maxims and
conventions which the common sense Of
mankind in every age has approved. Law
is, itself, but the embodiment of the naxins
of experience; and the whole structure OF
our society rests upon well established con-
ventons. Thus, in theory, all men are soy.
ereign; but the conventional sovereignty
resides in the voters. Again, it is of the
essence of sovereignty that it las no supe.
rior. An extremist would assert that women
and minors* are enslavcd because they are
eEcluueQ from lHc uailut DoA. but WV
but a radical or mailman would change this
state of things for Il mere abstraction!
Again, in theory, the abstract idea of equal
rights has been run into Aboltiouism. la
practice, it is our boast, that Slavery Is
the very corner stone Of our republican
ediice." In short, all the radicalisnl which
clogs the civilization of our day, is but the
,!erivaivc of Acknowledged rights, urged to
an extreme.
We call the nltraists who embrace these
distractions, fapatics; aud 80 they are. But
they are only the great leading minds and
their followers, who have ou!run the genius
ofI cir idea to the goal to which it tends.
Now of all the distractions upon which
the theory Of republic rests, an unqualifI,
cd reception of none has been moro insisted
on than that which asserts the capacity OF
the people for self government. They have
been pronounced inIalI;ble,. .omnipotent; and
their voice las been impious'y called the
.Wumen and minors constitute innr'iiths OF our
white population. The power Oh te state IL 'ere!oe
IN The hands of ouc.ith Of its white. or nie.fent OF
is whole. population. Let the reader recall the popr
iaiion of his own district and he may see for himself
Hhat proportion of il is actually sovereign.