Winchester journal. [volume] (Winchester, Indiana) 1862-1863, 1863-09-18

Il
being, and toll, and die, for his pleas
ure and upon every department of
the State, upon every phase of soci-
ETY. is stamped the Internal dogma
that the government is instituted for
the benefit of the governor, in utter
disregard of the welfare of the gov
erned. The people are nothing
the magistrate is everything. The
sovereign is unduly exalted, and vir
tually deifed; and to that end the
people are as unduly degraded, and
virtually dehumanized. The people
accept this hard necessity, because
they are thoroughly schooled in the
maxims of despotism, and brutalized
by power. The government could
not otherwise exist. 1t demands
that the intellect of the people shall
be crushed, and their humanity i'm
molated, as its only means of self
preservation; and its authority is
shaken just so far as it fails in this
demand.
But in the United States, the peo-
pie are their own masters. The
government exists and is carried on
solely for them. 1t derives all its
powers from the governed If NAL
administration takes place, the peo-
pie have no one to blame but them
selves, because they choose their
rulers, and confer upon them the
powers thus abused Every polit-
cal grievance we have ever endured
as nation, has proceeded from the
people, the fountain OF power, and
the guilty instruments of mischief;
and if, to-day, injustice stalks abroad
under the sanction or connivance of
law, and the rights of any man are
trampled down, we may be sure that
the people have decreed it, and that
the vicious principle thus accepted
and legalized, is eating out the life
and sapping the very foundations Of
our institutions.
As the strength of despotism de-
pends upon the universal ignorance
and degradation of the people, so the
strength of a democracy depends
upon the freest intellectual activity,
and the utmost enlightenment of ev-
cry citizen. The people of the Uni
ted States, under their constitution,
form a great political partnership, in
which each voter is authorized to act
for the Firm, and is responsible in
proportion to the power thus com
mitted to his hands. Politically, ev-
cry man is here made his brother s
keeper / am the trustee, the custo-
dian, of every one Of you; your IN
terest, your welfare, are placed in my
keeping, and my responsibility must
be measured by the magnitude Of the
trust. So does every citizen Of the
Republic act for all, DpN so is his ac-
countability multiplied and COM
pounded, by the numbers to be af-
tected by his deeds as such Politi-
cal action is therefore the highest
form of moral action | have men
toned the act of voting Every
man should regard itas invested with
peculiar solemnity. Rightly appre-
hended, the ballot is no more fit
for play thing than gunpowder or
steam. 1t should never be cast, save
in the fear of God, and under the
conviction that to trife with it, is to
trife with the gravest moral duty,
and with all that is sacred in the idea
of country, or priceless in our insti
tutions. We cannot remember too
well, or repeat too often that the
knowledge and virtue of the people,
make up the life blood of our free
dom; for the mere form, without the
power of democracy, is OF no more
value than the form without the pow
er of godliness. Our politicians
sometimes tell us that the voice of
the people is the voice of God. We
delight to hear it. 1t salutes our
ears as the notes Of sweetest music.
But if the people are besotted with
! ignorance and become the tools of
graceless charlatans and mercenary
demagogues, the voice of the people
will be the voice Of the devil, and
not the voice of God. A single 10
norant or unpatriotic citizen, is a
blotch upon our country, an ugly
pimple upon the body polite, which
may spread itself over the surface or
send its gangrene through the entire
system. Our Government is a large
and complicated machine, OF which
each citizen is an appointed engineer,
and if unframed in the qualifications
of his trust, he so far clogs the ma
chinery, and mars the harmonious
action of the whole. Sir, | submit,
that to neglect the political educa-
tiOn of the people in a republic, is
conduct so unreasonable, so inner
emily absurd, so utterly suicidal, that
in the ordinary concerns Of life, and
as to matters of far less moment, it
would be counted little short Of in
sanity. 1t is a practical commenta-
ry upon the philosophy OF Dogbcrry,
wherein he declares that the art of
healing is difficult, the art of gov
ernment is easy, the understanding
of arithmetic comes by study; while
/ the understanding of society comes
by instinct Matchmaking requires
long apprenticeship, but there
needs none for the making Of insti
tutions. To manage shop proper
+ ly requires teaching; but the man