The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1867-09-05
Notes ON tho Situation.-No. IA.
BY HON. d. II. HILL, on GEORGIA.

duty, we must do moro than simply res
cue the country from impending evils
The causes which produced those evils
must be understood and corrected. The
people must see how and by what means
and for what purpose they have been
so solery afflicted. If this benot done
then, though we may arrest the revolu-
ton for time and defeat the. treason
able iniquity of these Military bills, yet
in some other form these same evils
will come again. This is the peoples
government. All the evils which have
befallcn us have been accomplished
through tie people, and the final, the
complete, the permanent remedy must
come from the people. He will be en-
titled to be called the father of his coun-
try, far above Washington, who shall
be able to lay bare to popular compre-
hension the agencies by which the peo-
pie of America have been made to cut
each others throats, destroy their COM
mon prosperity and blight the hopes
of their own children. My pen is not
sufficient for the task, and these notes
are already too extended to undertake
it now. But I shall &lude to these
agencies here, and in the future may
return to the subject.
These agencies seem to be many, but
there are really two, and from these all
the others spring.
l. Demagogueism or thirst for office,
including all the appliances for crafty
ing it.
2. Fanaticism or the bigotry of ex-
treme opinions, (which has existed in
all sections and has been developed on
various-even antagonistic--subjects.
Ignorance, credulity and want ofvirtue
among the people have been the food
for both agencies.
One of the most learned and pro-
found judges of men and governments
SAYS: "In the birth of nations, the
chief men make the institutions, but in
the sequel the institutions make the
chief men," This single sentence en-
braces all the philosophy Of the rise
and fall of free institutions in the Uni
ted States.
The chief men of that day made the
Constitution-State and Federal. They
were patriots, and were made great and
prominent by leading their country to
independence. OF course as long as
these men lasted they were the chosen
administrators of the institutions they
had formed. They could have no 9th
err desire or higher ambition than to
make those institutions promote the
good of the people. And, therefore,
no result could follow but that which
did follow The American people
rushed to prosperity with the rapidity
and to an extent which was and must
remain the marvel ofhuman experience
But these fathers of the republic pass
ed away, and so next did the genera
ton which was born in their day and
taught by their immediate examples and
influences. After this, new rulers had
to be chosen and the necessity ofchoo-
sing was frequent, according to our in-
stitu.ions. Every man was equally en-
titled to be chosen. The people were
the choosers, and to please the people
was the way to be chosen. Aspirants
soon discovered that the majority Of th'
people were more easily pleased by flat
terry than by reason, by promises THAI
by admonitions. All men had passions
and prejudices, but all men did not hav
enlightened consciences or informed
judgments. Therefore passion ant
prejudice formed the more inviting, be
cause the more available field for thos
who sought office. Then means wer
adopted to combine and make effective
the efforts of these office seekers. Par
ties were formed and caucuses invent
ed. Subjects were proposed and issues
presented which could excite the mos
passion and operate upon the larges
amount Of prejudice. Plato rms wcr
built, not TO expound the Constitution
3 but to please the greatest number A
sectional prejudices were the mos
powerful. so subjects and issues tina
, were most sectional were preferred. l
was in this way that slavery was brough
into politics, and it is, and always ha
been, my firm conviction that South
ern proslavery political agltat0rS wer
more efficient in the destruction of sla
very than the Northern fanatics. Th
agitation was settled and unsettled, ant
again settled and again unsettled, jus
as often as manipulating party leader
thought the question of settling or un
settling could be made available as :
party issue in a Presidential contest.
BY. this process honest men, who ac'
ed from convictions founded on prime
, pie, were gradually excluded from th
l. public councils, and the public Offices
!, State and Federal, were filled with mel
g party managers, prejudice-engenderel
= and passion-panderers. We have m:
ny men who are notorious, but not or