Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-02-27
Town Meetings or Elections;

Substance Of q Discourse Deligered IN Cha7l-
ton, last Sunday, by Rer. Il. Holmes.
And whatsoever ye do in word or deed do all in the
name OF the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God and tc
Father by llim.-Cok HI;l H..
There are one or two great days for all our
towns and cities. l mean days of election.
We in the country speak of these as town
meeting days. On these days town officers
are chosen, town business attended to, and
then again we vote for county and state officers,
elect members of congress, and pass upon
national questions.
Moral as well as political and financial
questions will arise in the town meeting. You
can no more keep them out of the freeman's
meeting than you can keep them out of socie-
ty generally. You can no more Danish them
from politics than you can Danish them from
legislation. People have had, and may have
again, to vote in respect to a religious ques-
ton. Sometimes there is much complaint
that moral question has been let into poll
tics. Why, it comes in of itself and of neces-
sity. A domestic question may arise to be
determined by suffrage. The same questions
will meet them at the town meeting which
occur in common life, and which may puzzle
the brain of the monarch on his throne. We
cannot have the scepter and skirk the respon-
sibility and the veXations. If we rule over all
DeTocqueville, the great French political
philosopher, discovered that the town is the
foundation of our government-that the whole
structure takes its form from it. That was
compliment to his sagacity. There are town
politics. The town discusses policy or the
art Of government, and decides upon its own
affairs. The town has parties, but when once
the vote is reached the minority must submit
to the constitutional majority constitutionally
expressed. They may agitate and secure a
contrary vote at another time if they can.
Towns are combined for county purposes
countless districts for state purposes, or those
still more general than the county; and states
for national Objects Each combination does
all it can, and only leaves the more general
to the larger combination. Everywhere the
greater number of votes constitutes the pri-
mary authority. At stated times, frequently,
as rule, and perhaps we may say perpetual
ly, the towns express themselves, embody
their wishes and will upon not only local town
matters, but also upon state and national
matters. Periodically everything must be re-
turned to the people for their decision. They
choose.
MS town is of Puritan origin. The Puritans
JUST before landing, rejecting that they were
"l1hout government, drew up and signed a
compact on board the Mayfower, by which
tuey were atterward governed on shore. 1t
was t1e germ of the town. The support of
preaching was originally included. But, in
course OF time, difference of faith arose, the
standing order" prosecuted somewhat. there
was reaction, and within the memory Of some
OF you, the 1.-THE was abated Liberty gained,
discipline lost-when measures arose toward
the matter OF regular, compulsory support /;
still it remained true through colonial periods,
the period of the confederation. and while the
establishment of the present form of limited
States government was progressing, and is
now true that the Puritan town was and is the