The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1877-08-04
STRENGTH AND EFFICIENCY.

STRENGTH AND EFFICIENCY
The ultimate purpose of government
Is the safety Of the people Since gov
ernmenls have been organized among
men, many plans have been tried and
between tho personal ambition and
greed ofrulers, and the license Of the
masses, every principle Of both mon-
arehy and republoanism has been put
10 the seyerest tests Personal govern
menls have Ia some shape existed since
the first Republloanism Is ~ yet but
a partially worked out experiment In
England, France, Germany Italy, Aus
tria and even Russia the license OF the
masses has surged in helpless frenzy
against the granite walls Of personal
authority The successes won by the
people In all such struggles have only
been partial, and tho reforms growing
out Of such success have ever been par
tia and unsuccessful. When the
baronago and peopIeo England wrested
the great bill of rights from John,
a substantial advance was made,
but IL took the blended pow
or of the people and tho aristoc'
acy to accomplish this, Later
in the history OF that government,
when the people painted for unbridled
liberty, the baronOge and the throne
combined and proved too much for
them, but the safety of the instituN
tons of England in that trying crisis
rested with the conservative policy OF
her victorious sovereign and the class
which stood nearest the throne, Their
success did not degenerate into license,
and to-day perhaps they have the most
firmly established, successful and hes
nign government on earth, To the
perfect blending Of authority liberty
and toleration to the oneness of the
three governing powers, the throne, the
arstocracy and the people, is due the
proud success of the plan.
We are the descendants of the Eng,
lish Their IDEAS Of government, OF It's
duties and responsibilities, have in
many notable instances served us n
good purpose he license of the masses
has often formed itself in riotous antag>
onism to legal authority, but a few days
only in each instance, has been neces'
sary to restore the lost equilibrium, and
reason has returned TO her governing
task. BY the activity of this respect
for constitutional authority for that it
is and nothing else, we have been en-
abled to carry our great experiment to
whore we have, and not to any real or
iancicd perfection in the system we
have adopted itself, do we owe our
safety so far,
The recent brief but bloody contest
between mob license and the govern
mental power constitutes by lar tue
most dangerous test to the strength Of
our system, the stability aud power of
our government which has yet been APPS
piled That we have escaped in this
instance, is due more to our good luck
than our power to grNpple with high
handed lawlessness in active rebellion
against the government, AT the bot~
tom of this safety was unquestionably
the doubts which fingered in the
minds Of the rioters themselves rs
to the correctness of their policy
So it is, at last, to this deeply implant-
ed respect for law, which is the birth
right OF the Anglo Saxon that we owe
our safety, and not to the bayonets OF
either the state or national governs
ments, But the time will come when
it will be unsafe to rely upon this sens
timental regard for law. The many at
tacks made will gradually wear out the
and then we will be COM
PEELED to rely upon the bayonet alone
That is II dangerous and unsafe expert
ment, The true policy is to keep alive
this inherent respect for law, from
which our present safety dates, and
unite to that the guarded and restricted
strength of military power