The daily press. (Cincinnati [Ohio) 1859-1859, 1859-05-25
Popular Government,


the will of the people is made operative
in the administration, is peculiar to no
one particular race or stage of oivilisa-
ton. The desire to rule is all-pervading
and is seldom without some influence
either direct or indirect in the conduct
of affairs; and the popular quality is, and
has been, in all ages of the world, found
active with peoples in every step Of their
progress, from the simplest barbarism to
the highest enlightenment In the scale
Of civilization popular politics are found
at both extremes as well as occupying an
intermediate place, in forms purely dem
ocratic among the little more than in
stinctive compacts of unlettered tribes;
and in the more complex republican, in
the written constitutions of States claim
ing high place in respect to national
dignity and consideration.
Nothing but ignorance will contend
that the principle Of the right Of man to
selfgovernment is either new or modern.
There has probably been no time in the
history Of the world when, by some peo-
Piles, it has net been asserted, and even
enjoyed. There have been democracies
and republics at every period of which we
have any authentic knwledge. Popular
freedom has always supplied to the pat
riot the subject of his most stirring ora
tory; to the demagogue his most fruitful
means Of unwholesome excitement With
our barbarous ancestors, a rude democ-
racy-yerging toward anarchy in time of
peace, and becoming almost despotio in
the hands of some chosen military leader
in time Of war-was their sole idea Of
government; and among all nomadio and
pastoral tribes, wherever they have been
found, the will of the governed has, in
some form or other, constituted the au-
thority Of the governor.
They, however, who form in their
minds theory of what popular govern
ment should be, and then assume that all
mankind are capable to construct their
institutions upon this imaginary model,
are greatly mistaken. The forms which
the polity Of different peoples would as
sumo would be a. diverse as the charao-
ters Of those peoples; and the nature of
these forms none but themselves could
determine. To furnish the tribes of the
African continent with the complicated
machinery Of an American republic,
would be to give them that which they
could neither retain nor understand The
institutions, and the only ones, for which
they are fitted, are the natural growth of
their character and condition and the
adoption of any other would only result,
instead Of freedom, in discomfort and
eonstraint.
1t is most unfortunate condition for O
people to entertain theoretical ideas Of
government at variance with the practical
workings of their civil character In
several nations of Europe there is class
of persons, who to certain notions of pop-
ular liberty borrowed or initiated from
other countries, add feelings of wild and
desperate enthusiasm. Impractical in
whatever relates to statesmanship and in
capable to direct the storm which they
are constantly seeking the means to
arouse. They harangue and agitate for
freedom which, if they should achieve,
they have not the wisdom to preserve, and
for institutions which if they should
create, they have not the qualities neces-
sary to enable them to continue. Not, in
general, more disinterested than other
men, they claim the credit that is due to
patriots, while they do the work of incsn-
diaries; and in the sacred name of liberty
serve as priests TO that anarchy which
always leads TO despotism.
1t would be difficult to fix upon time
IN the history Of Italy, when the people
of that country have not, in theory at
least, been desirous to establish the insti.
tuition of popular government, or to enjoy
the liberty which they are supposed to
secure. The motley rabble that filed the
streets of Rome, as described by Livy
and Tacitus, the barbarian conqueror
whose history may be found in the pages
Of Machiavelli and GibbOn, or the modern
descendant from both drawn by NJ. Sis.
mondi, all cried out and agitated and
plotted revolutions for freedom, but they
never secured it 1t win not do to charge
oil Of their i'll success TO accident or tc
foreign tyranny; portion of the blame
must attach to the people themselves.
There has been wanting some quality
necessary to render them fit for the form
of policy which has constituted their
ideal of civil state; and to combine the
popular with the national in their case
hooks Like . very doubtful experiment