The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1858-12-22
WASHINGTON CITY.
WEDNESDAY. DECEMBER e2, 1865.
ABSOLUTE POPULAR GOVERNMENT IN THE
TERRITORIES.


fering the appointment OF governors, judges, and
other territorial officers TO the people of the Terri
tories at the polls. This is the ne Plus ultra Of
the theory of squatter sovereignty. Blackstone
lays il down that ever wise law is the result of the
experience of mankind in practical life, and is found
ed upon some good aud sufficient reason and that
it follows sound principle of legal construction
and Judicial Interpretation, that when the Of
such law ceases, then the law itself should become
defunct, the maxim being eessae rdoae essdt d pSa
ier 1t cannot be urged in excuse for such law as
is now proposed, that any evils have resulted from
the present mode of appointing the chief officers of
the Territories which demand an abandonment of
il that the mode of appointment now proposed
would correct such evils as doprevail and would not
itself be attended with like or greater evils.
We cannot imagine single evil that the proposed
mode of appointing territorial officers would avoid,
a single practical advantage that it would accom-
plish 1t lacks the most essential ingredient of every
wise law-that of being founded upon sound practi.
cal reason. 1t is the suggestion of theory, re-
gardless of experience and reckless of practical
sequences. 1t is the proposition not of statesman.
ship but of mere idealism unless indeed, it be the
Of French redrepublicanism, not proposed to
be introduced into the government of stable and
firmly planted society in old States, where it would
be comparatively innocuous; but into new, in
FAINT, immature unstable, and rckey communi-
ties, where conservatism exists in form, and
where the sustaining hand of federal conserva-
tisn, stretched out to steady strengthen, and to
save comes as o godsend.
We seem always to forget that our system of
popular government is an experiment; one that has
been often tried in the eventful history of mankind,
under circumstances fully favorable and promising
az those which surround us, but which has always
failed until now. We are but three-quarters of a
century old in governments very small portion
of the infancy of nation--and we already have
concluded that success is complete. Nay,
in the pride of our oyerweening confidence, we
presumptuously applying tho most severe
tests to our institutions tests which, but for their
extraordinary vigor, would already have shat
tered them to pieces. We cannot imagine more
severe trial to popular institutions than the enact
ment of laws which do not spring from the exgen-
cies of practical, outdoor life, not called for by
any experienced evil, and promise no practical advan-
the deductions of crazy idealsm working itself
into frenzy of philanthropic innovation, in the
closet This sort of Legislation pursued in
France for few memorable years, and ended in a
catastrophe which will astonsh and appal mankind
to the end Of time. The stability of British nstitu-
tons for the most part due to that sturdy
sense of the Anglo-Saxon race, which always
sternly rejected reforms which were founded
in mere theory, and adopted no law that
not justified by sufficient practical reason
The strength of British institutions consists in the
fact that they rest upon the broad and solid basis of
the English Common Law, system of laws which
grew UP upon the experience aud transactions of ac
tual lifo extending down from remote times whereof
the memoir, of man runneth not to the contrary.
1t is to the sound wisdom of this same old Eng
lish Common Law which the foundation of all
our American codes, that the stability of our own
institutions and the of experiment of self
government 80 far, mainly due. 1t isl not that the
especial provisions of the Common Law, SO many OF
which we have abrogated, essentially the wisest
or best in every case which theory would suggest ;
but that they founded always in some practical
reason suggested by actual experience. The only
true and real conservatism is at last not the adher
ing to old laws because they stand on the statute
book but the not abolishng them unless sufficient
practical reason for so doing exists, and the not
adopting others unless positive practical adj
vantage is promised by new enactments.
Herein was all the wisdom and conservatism OF
the old Common Law system, that each law was
founded upon reason which it adequately sub
served We cannot hope to enjoy the stability and
happiness which that noble system of laws has Sc
cured to us in this land it did to our ANCESTORS in
the fatherland unless adopt at least this, its lead
ing canon in the repeating of old statutes and the
enactment of new ones. Tried by this test we
defy q successful defence of the proposition now
brought forward for radically changing our whole
plan of territorial government. What experienced
evil does the innovation propose to remedy What
conceivable advantage docs it profess or promise TO
accomplish?
If the measure is merely brought forward as po-
ltical maneuvre partisan artifice, it of course
deserves to be rejected for that alone, and
does aot merit any grave consideration.
THE SURF of PASSMORE WILLIAMSON AGAINST
JUDGE LEWIS.
We see by the Philadelphia papers that the suit
of Williamson against the late Chief Justice Lewis,