The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1873-09-11
SPEECH OF
HON. WILLIAM ALLEN,

with deafening. applause, which was
continued several minutes.
Mr.. ALIENS SPEECH.
Friends and FelLo10- Citizens, La
dies and Gentlemen There is at this
time bat one political question before
the people of the State and the peo-
pie of the Union. All other poIiti-
cal questions are subordinate to that
one and merged in it; and that ques-
ton is whether it will be possible for
the people of America to purge the
great principle of popular represen-
tation from that pollution which now
contaminates it, and whether it Will
be possible for them in coming time
to keep that principle free from future
contamination.
The principle of representation was
| unknown TO what were called the
popular governments of antiquity.
! In the most renowned of those gov
ernments-the Athenian Republic
whose territorial limits embraced q
space but little larger than one of the
large counties of Ohio, the voting
population varying from 5000 to 13,-
! 600 men, resided in the capital city
itself or in its immediate vicinity.
There was no difficulty whatever,
therefore, in the people acting for
themselves en- n1GSSe, without the in
tervening agency of representative or
proxy. They were called together at
an appointed time, and Obedient to
such call came together. The entire
mass arranged themselves as you are
arranged tonight, in front of broad
or fat rock which protruded from the
side of kill, and from which rock
the statesmen and orators of the time
addressed the whole body of the peo-
pie. There, and there alone, was the
severn power of the country. Be-
hind that people was no power. They
were the sovereign people, and they
were the sovereign people acting,
each man for himself, in his own
proper person. They declared what
should be and what should not be
law; they declared whether they
would commit their country to the
perils of war on neighboring powers,
or whether they would remain at
peace; they declared whether this
man should be promoted to executive
power, or that man banished into ex-
lie. There was no use of interven-
ing agency = of the representative
principle. So, too, in the Roman or
ganization the entire mass of voting
people awere called upon the great
square of the forum, and there adj
dressed by the orators and statesmen,
and their decision was final and para
mount even to the decision of the
Senate.
So true was this case that even af-
ter the right of suffrage had been ex-
tended to some of the circumiacent
States of Italy, the mass of citizens in
those States who desired to cast their
ballots, were required to go, not by
representation, not by proxy, but in
their own proper persons to the
capitol.
The representative principle arose
and began to show itself with the up
rising of the great middle class in the
States of southern and western Eu-
rope. 1t commenced being developed
as the great intervening class began
to develop itseIf-the class that stood
between the hereditary barons and
the hereditary serfs. As that class
increased in numbers and wealth and
intelligence, they manifested dispo-
sition to exert some influence in the
government of their country. 1t was
then and there for the first time in the
world that the idea of representation
made its appearance. Gradually and
silently that idea has developed itself
in these European States up to this
hour, without, however, having OBJ
tanned absolute maturity.
1t is imperfect in all the European
States-because the fragments of the
old government are still lying scatter
ed around obstructing its passage. 1t
could not be developed fully and en-
tirely until the great idea of the SOW
ereignty of the people was first de-
veloped, and therefore it is that this
great idea Of popular representation
was not developed until after our
revolution, after the adoption by the |
States of State constitutions,a and finally |
the Constitution of the United States. |
The idea of representation, mark you, |
was founded upon preceding idea !
an idea more fundamental in itself. |
1t was founded upon the idoa of nn-
eonditianal and absolute sovereignty !
of the people. The people were scat
tered over q vast territory. 1t was |
impossible for them to manifest their
sovereign power, in other words,
their sovereign will, in the enactment
of laws except it was by the intro
duction of the representative princi-
pie. The masses of the people could
not, in the nature of things, assemble
at the State capitals to pass State
laws, and much less at the capital of
the Union to pass Federal laws.
The sovereignty of the people be-
ing a principle which followed them
wherever they went, necessarily be-
came territorially expanded as the
mass of the people enlarged the area
upon which they lived. Hence it was,
that the representative principle per-
vaded their entire country and went,
co-extensiYe, wherever the idea of the
sovereignty of the people vent
Therefore it is, that this is the whole
basis of our system, notwithstanding
what is said about constitutions,
which are, too often, nothing more
than barren expressions of the for
mer will of the people. The will of
the people at the moment depends
upon the purity of the representative
principle. (Applause.1 -,
said that this principle of repre-
sentation was co-extensive with the
sovereignty of the people.
You know by your own experience
that 1T pervades the Federal organiza-
ton; it pervades the State organiza-
ton; it pervades the county, town
ship and school districts, as well as
of municipal charac-
ter, embracing the large cities and ex-
tending down to the smallest villages.
Now mark you this-and I want to
impress this idea particularly upon
you-I have said that the principle of
sovereignty of the people was ulti-
mate and unrestrained; no earthly
power is found behind the masses of
the people. The government rests
upon your will, guided by your own
reason and patriotism. [Applause.
But what is this great power of popu-
lar sovereignty worth without it can
express itself in daily, hourly admin
istration of the government. What
would it avail in the United States
with, perhaps forty-two million peo-
pie covering its surface. where from