The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1876-01-18
GLOBE, MORNING,

battlements of empire with shock more
potent than the earthquakes, it does not
contain the immutablitv. 1t is thing of
parts, of more or less, of one thing or
another, according to the pleasure of the
people we have added to it and taken
from it. Should God improve the ten com
mandments thus, they would lie a wreck
The amendabiity of the constitution shows
its central vItiosity. SO far as the constitu-
ton is not an educating force, lever up
beaving the masses to the level of its own
wisdom, it is little more than waif aiOat
on the tide of popular opinion, and it can
in no wise be accounted as containing any
guaranty Of perpetuty TO the union.
The ballot box is sometimes said to be
the foundation on which our national SUI
perstructure is laid. The ballot box is
mighty our American king, the shrine of
our homage, and our mystic oracle an
nouncing the peoples will 1t is an engine
of power more to be dreaded by despots
than any amount of unreasoning force.
But in its best estate it can be but an ex-
preston of the popular franchise D., Their
mometer let down among the people at
stated times to test the popular tempera-
ture. 1t is not rock but a buoy, and can
have nothing to do with the foundations of
the republic.
Returning to my inquiry, you answer
"The people, This answer corresponds
with that in the celebrated lines of Sir
William Jones lines
"what constitutes state?
Not high raised battlement and laborcd
mound,
| Thick wall or moated gate;
Not cities proud, with spires and turrets
| crowned;
Not bays and broad armed ports,
| Where, laughing at the gale, rich navics ride;
| Not starred and spangled courts,
Where low bred bsseness watts perfume TO
pride.
| No, men hlgh-mlnded men
| Men who their duties know,
And know their rights, and knowing dare main
Present the long armed blow,
And crush the tyrant, while they rend the
These constitute state.'
We claim that we are the nation we are
by being the people we are. We rest on
Ourselves rs equals, having certain inalien-
able rights. The people, then, being the
foundation on which our national security
rests, let us examine that foundation and
note some Of its defects, that we may pro
vide o remedy. When we note the great
increase and the hetcrogeneousness of tho
population, the dangerous extending of the
elective franchise to the uneducated masses
the assault now being made on popular
education, the corruption, the strain Of
party strife at elections, the million live,
sacrificed in our civil war; when we re
member all these things, does it not seen
that the foundations OF our government ar,
in peculiar dangers
But more than ANYTHING else does GU
perpetuity depend on the kind of peopl
we are. only so far as people are unde
the restraint of christian principles AM
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