The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1858-03-31

the peop c, or one in which the will of the
people is supposed to he supreme, but prac-
tically it is a very different thing indeed.
Primitive treatises OH the nature of our
institutions teach, and patriotic oratious
abound in sentiments which convey the
idea that the people are sovereign,-tf,at
the enactors and executors of law are the
mere servants of the people. Nothing in
Jeffersonian Democracy is more clearly
defined than that it is the du,y of the
peoples representatives to execute their
will, SO far as it is clearly made manifest,
and of course that it is the duty of the
former to seek light on that point when
they may be in doubt. But Jeffersonian
Democracy and the so-called Democracy
of to-day have little or nothing in COM
mon, and much that is Numerically op
posed. The Democracy of the present
time teaches emphatically the du,y" of
entire submission by :" the people to the
representative leaders ard through them
to the party. This is the substance-the
only de6nable principle of tho dominant
Democracy and on this the administration
organs ring the changes necessarily.
Our eye now falls upon an article in
the Bradford Telegraph, a mild expires.
sion from this kind of literature, volumes
Of which, Of ranker kind, and hardly
suited to the latitude of Vermont are
thrown out every day:
81 is Me 60"nften duy of the de.
mocracy Of the Union, to stand firm by
and sustain the President whom they have
placed at the head of the affairs Of our
Nation, and his administrative po/tcy
unless he BY some act has forfeited the
right to claim the support of the party,
which so triulnphantly elected him, or his
policy is at war with some known princi.
pie of the Democratic party. 1t is not
right for democrats to desert chosen
chief after he has been put by them in
command of the Ship Of State, and we
have no fear but that he will be sustained
by the Democratic Party"
The import of this is easily understood.
A little laconicised it reads, ait is the
bounden duty of every democrat to 60 it
blind for the President let him lead where
he will" Monstrous as this is, it is the
system of discipline that has ruled the
party for years, and is every year be.
coming more rigid. 1t assumes that the
people have no right to question the poll.
cy the leaders prescribe. S1ch a system
completely carrie out is of course fatal
to true democracy and is infinitely worse
than monarchical rule. The people who
can be permanently dragooned into such
such subserviency are entirely unfit for
democracy. And such we are persuaded
the American people are not The igno.
rance and docility of the rank and file Of
the democratic party and the moral weak.
ness OF the leaders has made it possible tc
bring this to something very like military
discil line, and to give the party almos,
invincible strength.
III view of these facts it is not strange
that sentiments like the following from
Mr.. Douglas should be received with sat.
isfaction by every patriot, and with rage
by those who would frame iniquity by q
law. He says:
Mr.. President, do not recognize the
right of any President or any Cabinet Of
ficer to tell me OF to prescribe to NE my
duties as Senator in this chamber They
have no right to prescribe tests to me OF
to you. The attempt to do SO is an i'm
pertinence Am l to be told that I mus
obey the Executive and betray my princi
pies and betray my State or be branded
as traitor and renegade? If so,
should like to know what is the use of ;
Congrcss--what is the use of Senat,
and House of Representatives if they
must only register the cdicts of the Ex
ecutive 2"
This is rank heresy, which. unless i
can be suppressed, will be the ruin of tn
party. It is return to ancient democ
racy. It asserts the right Of the peopl
to think. To carry it out would compe
the servants of the people to obey thei