The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-09-03

for its chances, and must be ruled and modified
by those conditions. theoretically imperfect
as the rule of practical reform is, it must be
used, for the Systematically perfect is wholly
inapplicable. Laws and customs are the ex-
preston of opinion and the exponent of con-
ditions. They do not go before, but are born
of the previously-subsisting dispositions of
things. They are the will, or they will not
be the ways of the people they must be in
duced according to this necessity, and they
cannot be forced in defiance of it. This is
the reason why historians have overlooked the
very essence of their story; they have recorded
revolutions in their explosive state, but they
have not noticed those concealed changes which
announced themselves in the revolutions.
From all this we learn that we must alter
the state of the people, change their wills and
wants, and adjust them to the proposed ad-
vancement, so that of themselves they must
make it, before it can take formal existence.
An amendment of the life and manners of q
people must precede its enactment into NUM-
cipal law. 1t must be the rightfully governing
will of the community before it can be made
compulsory upon the disobedient and refrac-
| tory.
Now, for the effective instrumentalities of
all necessary change, we have institutions equal
to the highest imperative requirements. oars
is a government of the State by its people :;
they are the rulers, and they must be changed
before the rule can be. If they were not, if
they were the subjects of separate order of
men, all amendment for them must be first
wrought in them. So the procedure is the
same in all cases, and must be observed for
| this and for all other reasons, both of means
| and ends
We have machinery of government which
gives instant and complete effectiveness to
every purpose of the people; our duty and pol
icy therefore concur in directing the enterprises
Of progress through the channels of political
law toward their aims. But laws with Us are
not only ultimate forces, they are also initial
agencies. Well devised, they can be made eff:
fective in disposing the minds and aims of the
people in the right direction.
The function of civil government is to pro.
tect the private rights and to promote the col
lective interests of the people. The communi-
ty is corporation Of mutual insurance, and
partnership of productive industry and com.
merce. 1t charges itself also with the neces-
sary charities, and collectively undertakes the
education Of its members. Much as Govern
ment leaves to the citizen of his private inter-
ests, its general provisions comprehend every
one OF them, and they are fostered without in
reference with their freedom. The nation is
defended, by its laws as we'll as by its armies,
| against the encroachments of foreign nations
Its criminal code guards the personal rights,
| and the civil takes care Of the personal inter.
ests of the people. There is State almspiv-
ing answering to benevolence, State Justice
| obeying conscience, a State education prac-
tcing philanthropy, and State economy, serv.
ing for the acquisition of wealth. Il does
everything needful except preaching, and fur
nishes effective agencies, through which every
man can work for the general we.being. The
machinery of democratic government an.
| swers to every duty as well as every necessity
of the individual for effecting the greatest good
he can any way do in the affairs of his fellow
men. No attempt, however we'll devised in
| itself, to amend the condition of the masses,
has ever accomplished anything independently
Of the political power, and every form of effort
capable of accomplishment finds in it vehicle
| and an instrument answering to the purpose
| The State and National Governments of this
Union have done more good for the millions of
its present population, and for the coming mil
lions in expectancy, than all the instances of
associative effort made in all time by philan-
thropists undertaking the work without the
proper political agencies. If our civil authori.
ties did nothing but make the artificial thor.
oughfares for travel and transportation which
they have done, either directly or by enabling
statutes, tley would be larger contributors to
the general well-being of every kind than all
the volunteer benevolence that all the wide
world can show 10 its credit in the same ac-
count The unity of agency and fraternity of
impulse which all the social architects ain at,
subsists in outline in the framework of our DO
litical system, and they are made operative
and effective to the full extent of the purpose,
by every charter of incorporation granted by
our thirty-odi parliaments. The very religion
of all reform is active in our political policy
and there is as much latent resource of benef.
cent power in it as humanity can ever employ
to purpose.
There is something in the organic structure
of our system which is capable of giving force
and effect to the best intentions of wisdom and
| goodness for the common benefit. St. Paul
finds the human individual perfect analogue.
q type, or exemplar of divine society. The
order, relation, and hsrmonized variety of the
vital functions serve him to express the highest
organization Of the Church, here and hereafter.
We have the individuality in all its freedom, and
the unity in all its efficiency, in the parts of our
organization, which makes "of the whole one
new man" as fast as each functionsry comes
up to the fitness of his use. Our system pro-
vides place, protection, and opportunity, for the
man, as an individual, and as a social being /;
it separates the family from the neighborhood,
guards its privileges, and cherishes its iufuen
ces; it incorporates the school district, the
township, county, State, and the Union, sphere
within sphere, and gives them play and i'm
pulse to their utmost possibilities of good, a.
harmoniously as the planets roll in their re.
spective orbits; and it artifcislly creates a
thousand corporations, whose organism is ne
cessary to the combination of ability and en-.
terprise which secures the prosperity, and pro
notes the wealth, intelligence, and power, Of
the whole community. The individual man,
IL