Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1872-07-10
The Limitations of Government.

NIX W LIZARD uEllNtlC u a ElADLh dAAA az
st Adams. on the Fourth of July, on the
limitations Of government. We print below
portions of the address which appeared in
the St Adams Messenger
Before emancipation it was not easy to
make the Fourth Of July a national anniver-
sarv. except as il was turned into day of
thoughtless Jubilee and national glorifcatIon.
The great Declaration itself was an argument
against slavery, in all its forms, and the
States of the Mon which based their in
dusuIcs upon enforced labor found 1t an an
nually recurring menace to the institution
which denied in practice every fundamental
principle upon which the revolt of the colo
MICS was justified. But we are, let Us hope,
far enough away from the era in which the
country continually gave the lie to the truth
Of the Declaration, once more 10 treat this
"a national anniversary. Through the
pains of civil war the devil Of slavery has
been cast out, and throughout the wide eX-
tent Of our territory the day may now be
celebrated. without the shame OF that re-
pr0ach bringing the color to the face Of any
lover Of biz country, OF the assertions Of the
Declarat iOn arOusiDg the hostility or the
hate Of any American.
But chattel servltude is not the only enemy
Of freedom and equal rights. The Declara-
ton Of independence was not prepared as
protest OF an argument against African
slavery. Many of the slgneTs Of that wonder
ful statement Of the rights of people were
themselves Shareholders. Mr. Jefferson was
witt his battery of fundamental truths, open
ing fire upon the expressions Of England, and
rossibly he even did not notice that other
derpotlsms were within range OF his shot.
lie builded better, perhaps than he knew,
and the friends Of every kind Of unjust re-
etraint upon the liberty of the Individual have
f0urf the Declaration full Of weapons per
Tetually assailing their pet usurpations.
With slavery abolished we may not IN
prOftablY, on such an occasion as this, CON
slider, in a national spirit and as affecting
the whole people, whether there Is not yet
for us matter not only for instruction but
for the most serious admOnitiOn and warning
in the fundamental principles Of the Declare
ton of Independence
have already said that Mr. jefferson :
Declaration was protest against the usurpa-
tons Of a government In that light read
again this grand statement Of a truth as old
a. the race:
We hold these truths to be self evident,
that all men are created equal that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain IN
alienable rights that among these are life,
Iibel and the pursuit Of happiness. That
70 secure these rights governments are insti-
tuted among men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed.
am not so much considering what govern
lucnt NAV constitutiOnally do what il
NAV rightlully do The grant Of power in
a constitution cannot make right what was
before wrong, and can take away no mans
natural rights Shareholders and their
friends used to say it could, but no man
who believes in such thing as an ,ludAena5le
right ever consented to that doctrine. Even
courts, who follow, sometimes blindlY, pre-
sedents and written contracts, hold that IN
considerable agreements are void, and con-
that takes away any ones right is /
and all the more when one /
as a minority protested vainly against it, or /
as al infant or a woman was unable to pro !
test at all
But if government has no excuse for ex !
isting, or, | may say, no right to exist
except to keep me from encroaching upon !
my neighbOr rights or my neighbor from en-
upon my rights. 1t clearly hasno au-
thority when it transcends those limits. As I
the LAWYERS say sometimes Of the courts. it /
has no jurisdiction Of the subject matter, !
and it's judgments are unauthorized, and
their enforcement il Just the tyranny against
which the men Of the revolution protested
and rebelled.
Natural rights are perpetual and OF per
uetual obligation IN the language of the
Declaration an ahend5le, even by ourselves,
and belonging to every person coming into
the word. Howe er we accommodate our
selves 10 existing institutions OF become so
far accustomed usurpatIOns as only
feebIy - protest against them, even if we
protest at all, no government OF one man
or Of a majority, or of constitution can,
by any prescription, or by any lapse Of time
make wrong right any more than II can
make lie the truth. We may change the
names Of things but we cannot change their
nature or their essential elements. Our
right to the enjoyment Of life and liberty,
limited only by the equal right Of every
o.her person, is natural and unalienable, and
has not been because it cannot be surrendered:
and the only function of government is to
&c that we have that right. This Is equal
rights This is exact Justice. This Is the
great principle of the Declaration Of nde
pendence This is the lesson Of this day, if
the recurrence of the anniversary brings with
any lesson.
But if governments ought to be thus
limited they are not. The wisdom Of the
multitude is seldom greater than the wisdom
of the wisest man in that multitude, and if
government by the multitude, OF democratic
government. is better than the government Of
one. or Of a few, it e because in the former
the sclfshness Of the IudIv dual Is resisted
and restrained by an equal selhshness and an
equal opportunity to exercise 1t, IN every
other Individual The natural tendency of
any government Is toward usurpatIOn. In
dividuals, when organized into political
society and making and administering laws
by persons selected from themselves, are not
made over into new beings They are like
other men. Government is to ttem a ma
chine, and they much less frequently con-
slider what they may rightfully do with it,
than what can possibly be done with it.
The old saying " the world is governed too
much, is generally accepted as truth, just
as we accept as true the confession that we
are all miserable sinners yet the excuses of
government. like the excuses of individuals.
are repeated every day. And republican
governments or democratic governments are
not free from IL csc excuses. The old idea that
the king can do no wrong is scarcely more
dangerously fatal TO liberty than the popular
notion that the majority can do no wrong. The
majority has no more natural right to have
It's viii law than the king has Natural
right is older than kings, and older than
majorities and ought to be stronger than
either OF both. Tie decision Of the majority
settles no rights, however it may be decisive
as to the persons who may WELD the pow
ers OF government We recognize this when
we place the limitation of constitution
upon the 1naJorlt ys-lndt Is, Wnen We limit
ourselves. -althCugh these constitutions are
only imperfect efforts TO express our idea
that governments may not do anything and
everything. We say in our organic laws
that speech shall be free, the press shall be
free, religion shall be free, man shall be
free, but these-except the last-are only
partial assertions of mans freedom even
against the majority. But what need Of even
these limitations except as recognition of
the fact that no government can safely be
trusted to respect these rights ? And if
nrr.rrnr MT Il 49,