Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1860-03-29
THE GAZETTE.
rHnRspAY MORNING, MARCH %, 1860


MAcAULAY ON AMERICAN GOVERNMENT
The numberofthe Southern Literary Mes
senger for March, comes to US filled with In
teresting matter. This number OF the Mes
senger is, we think, decidedly the most III
teresting which has been issued Tor 4 long
time. The letter Of Lord Macaulay to Mr.
Randall embodying the distinguished es'
sayist's views on our government, aud fof
the first time given to the public, is sufhcient,
nc itself to invest the March number OF the
Messenger with peculiar interest TO the Amer
lean reader. ;. ,,-
However much we may dissent from Mr.
Macaulay's idea of the instability OF our
governmental policy, and OF its destined faii-
nre. vet the views OF SO profound thinker
are entitled to the careful consideration OF
the American statesman. The glst OF Lord
Macaulay's argument is contained In the iol'
lowing extract:
"You may think that your country en-
lows an exemption from these evils. will
frankly own to YOU that am OF very dit
ferent opinion. Your fate | believe TO be
certain, though it is deferred by physical
cause. AS long as you have boundless
extent of fertile and unoccupied land, your
laboring population will be far more at ease
than the laboring population OF the old
world; and, while that is the case, the Jet
fersonian polity may continue to exist with
ont causing any fatal calamity. But the
time will come when New England will be
as thickly peopled as Old England. Wages
will be as low, and will hnctuate as much
with you as with us. You will have your
Manchesters and BirminghamS and. IN
those Manchesters and Blrminghams, hun
dreds of thousands of artisans will assured
ly be sometimes out of work. Thenyonr
institutions will be fairly brought to the test.
Distress everywhere makes the laborer mu-
tnous and discontinued, and incllnes HIM
to listen with eagerness to agitators who tell
him that it is a monstrous iniquity that one
man should have q million while another
cannot get full meal. In bad years there
is plenty of grumbling here, and sometimes
a rioting. But it matters little. For here
the sufferers are not the rulers. The SUI
preme power is in the hands of class, nu-
merous indeed, but select, of an educated
class, of class which is, and knows itself
to be, deeply interested in the security OF
property and the maintenance of order
Accordingly, the malcontents are firmly,
vet gently restrained The bad time Is got
over without robbing the wealthy to relieve
the INDECENT. The springs of national pros
perity soon begin to flow again; work Is
plentiful; wages rise; and all its tranquility
and cheerfulness. | have seen England
pass three or four times through such critl-
cal seasons as / have described. Through
such seasons, the United States will have to
pass, in the course of the next century, If
not of this. How will you pass through
them? | heartily wish you good deliver
ance. But my reason and my wishes are
mt war; and | cannot help foreboding the
worst. Is it quite plain that your govern
ment will never be able to restrain a dis
tressed and disconnected majority. For with
YOU the majority is the government and has
the rich. who are always a minority, abso-
lutely at its mercy. The day will come,
when, in the State of New York, a multi
tude of people, none Of whom has had more
than half breakfast, or expects to have more
than half dinner, will chose Legisla-
ture Is it possible to doubt what sort of a
Legislature will be chosen? On one side
is statesman preaching patience, respect
for vested rights, strict observance OF pub
lie faith. On the other is demagogue
ranting about the tyranny of capitalists and
usurers, and asking why anybody should
be permitted to drink champagne and to ride
in carriage, while thousands of honest
folks are in want of necessaries. Which of
the two candidates is likely to be PREFER
ed by working man who hears his children
cry for more bread? | seriously apprehcnd
that you will, in some such season of adver-
sity as / have described, do things which
will prevent prosperity from returning; that
you will act like people who should, ina
year OF scarcity, 'devour all the seed corn,
and thus make the next year, a year, not OF
scarcity, but of absolute famine. There
will be, l fear, spoliation. The spoliation
will increase the distress. The distress will
produce fresh spoliation. There is nothing
to stop YOU Your constitution is all sail
and no anchor. As | said before when
a society has entered on this downward prog
ress, either civilization or liberty must per-
ish. Either some Caesar or Napoleon will
seize the reins of government with a strong
hand, or Your republic will be as fearfully
plundered and laid waste by barbarians IN
the twentieth century as the Roman En-
pire was in the tifth;-with this difference,
that the Huns and Vandals, who ravaged
the Roman Empire, came from without. and
that your Huns and Vandals have been en-
gendered within your country by your own
institutions"