Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1863-09-16
The American Democracy.


The following admirable and eloquent
vindication of the true nature of Ameri-
can Society, is from a recent article in the
IVel0 York Erening Post:
In the best democratic societies there
are, of course, remains of old tradition
airy wrongs, like slavery in this country,
which will prove the source of discomfort
and conflict; in the best democratic soci-
eties, too. there ale multitudes, some of
native and others of foreign origin, who
are not yet educated up the level of their
own institutions, and who furnish the apt
materials for mobs; and in the best dem
ocratic societies there will be politicians
who are determined rogues bending all
their selfish powers to the corruption of
sentiment and legislation; but the entire
tendency of such societies, like that of
| healthful body, Is to bring all these dis
| turbing elements to the surface and then
slough them off Freedom implies inves-
/ tigation, it implies agitation, it implies
struggle, until whatever Is incompatible
with its own buOyant and progressive spir-
/ it is discovered and cast out. Its incess-
ant activity, its external turbulence seem
/ tC the stranger like discord or the utter
absence of well-regulated control, when
they are in reality but the wholesome
: process of publication, but the effects,
more or less animated-convulsive it may
be at times-by which we put away the
evils that obstruct the influx of better
life. Thus the public order, which in
more despotic nations is reached only by
a stupid, irreflective sentiment of loyalty,
by slavish terror of power, by state craft
and hypocritical diplomacy, and by the
systematic degradation of the masses, is
here the result of conscious thought. of
reasonable conviction, of genuine in
ward respect for the rights of others, and
of a deep-seated sentiment that the indi-
vidual man, in obeying the general will,
succumb 10 no foreign or uniriendly pow
er, but merely accepts will which is lik
ley to be wiser than his own. or which ii
not wiser in the long run, is the best for
the time.
We do not, then, feel at all Inundated
because civil war exists in this country,
knowing as we do that it originated in
the anomaly of slavery, of which we are
in fair way of getting rid; we do not
feel Inundated, except on local grounds, |
because a terrible riot has disgraced the |
metropolis, seeing how necessary it was
that certain political testers should come |
to a head, and how effectually they were |
dispersed; and we are not all frightened |
therefore, by those portentous prophecies /
of calamity and ruin which come to us
from London and the South, because we
know the stuff of which our societies are
composed. We know that since the slave
holders have forcibly extruded themselves
from the political pale, there is no class
among us which is not honestly and earn
estly devoted to the public good. Our
farmers, our merchants, our mechanics,
our workingmen, feel to the inmost fibres
of their being, that the public veal is the
private veal. Those who are not anima-
ted by that great truth are the exceptions
not the rule; those who here sympathize
with secession do it clandestinely rather
than openly; those who encourage the
mob are ashamed to appear outside of
their garrets and holes; and the greater
part of them are temporarily deceived,
and will come right; while the mighty 4
heart of the people is unmistakably loyal
loyal to the constitution, loyal to the
laws, loyal to liberty and to order, loyal
to our democratic organization, and only
in the name of those great principles can
any be seduced for a moment into an at
titude of antagonism to this prevailing ,
devotion. |,
Here, then, is a capital fact which our
foreign maligners and southern prophets
Of evil fail to see. They do see that we
in this country are more than n simple
government or polity, that we are a great,
living and unitary society, which having {
set itself to work to do justice to t
all its members, to organize itself in strict l
with thefundamental truth of $
human brotherhood, is cordially approved l
md upheld by all who belong to it. Of /
course, we have done our work as yet i'm !
we are still struggling with S
the old diseases of the social system; we {
lbound in vice and crimes; we give way {
% an accursed lust of gold; we indulge a
n hideous prejudices of race and color; r
We listen too willingly to the blandish- I
nents of political scamps; but, because t
We are making so grand an attempt, be S
.ause we acknowledge the rights of all /
avs, and open to mankind the amplest L
lses of the benefcences of Providence, S
We must win the love of the whole peo- S
de as we propitiate the blessing of God. b
For the first time in human history a ma i
ion is formed on the broadest principles t
If justice to all men, livingly adopts in .
Is policy the noblest sentiments of Chris G
ian truth, and it is impossible to think a
hat the gates of hell. shall ever prevail C
.gainst form so full of the divinest in 2
piration.