Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1881-01-14

other half century the present power Of cor.
pcrafions to tax the public. and We snail
have q moneyed aristocracy in this country
such as the world has never seen, and with All
the attendant pheDomina of veniai legislators
and corruption in. high places which has
caused the downfall Of all republics in has-
tory
How, then, can any reflecting mind, any
patriot. contemplate. without anxious con-
Germ. the tendency of the legislation Of tins
country TO create such rapid accumulation OF
property in the hands Of the few at the ex-
pense of the many?
.sThe freest Government" says Webster.
.'can not long endure where the tendency OF
the laws is to create such rapid accumulation
Of property in a few hands. and to render
the masses of the people poor and depend
emit"
Universal suffrage and great landed es-
tates cannet long exist together, for euher
the owners of the estates must restrict the
right af suffrage, or that right of suffrage
will in the end, divide their estates.
Is il not time we paused in our career and
reviewed our principles:
FREEHoLps.
Der institutions were founded upon equality
or rather grew cut of equality-that condition
of comparative equality. as 10 property, that
characterized the early settlers of New Eng
land They brought with them no great
capitals and, fortunately for humanity. there
was nothing here 'oductive, to tempt invest
ments If one millionaire had come over in
the Mayfower he would have blasted the
prospects of a continent for ours. then,
would have been government not TO protect
labor but capital. Capital would have shaped
it, Our ancestors came here all upon an
equality as to property. or rather as to poverty.
But the lands were all open and free to them.
They entered into possession and established
the town system, the hundred acre lot system,
the district school system; and upon this
foundation they builded their free and
Christian republic. All were tillers of the
soil farmers-n0t tenant farmers but free
holders, having absolute domination over their
acres, recognizing no man as lord or master.
no power between them and the God they
worshipped. They were lords and sovereigns
themselves. and if we are a nation of sover-
egns to-day, it is only so far as we are
nation of freeholders. When these sover-
eigns got together to form a government
what kind of government could they form!
Only that under which all were equals, all
were sovereigns. They could not have form
ed any other if they had tried. 1t was this
necessary act of parceling out the land into
small free-holds, saws Webster. ''that fixed
the future frame and form of their govern
ment."
Our New England ancestors not only began
their system of government under condition
of comparative equality as to property, but
all their laws were of a nature to favor and
perpetuate that equality. This is undoubtedly
the true principle of legislation. Any system
of legislation therefore that tends to destroy
tls xba
holds and centralize the ownership Of land in
the hands of the few, not only destroys the
prosperity and independence of the people.
but strikes at the very foundation of our re-
public. There is nothing in this country so
sacred as the freehold. 1t was the imme
date parent of our free-schOol system and
constitutes the essential condition of its ex-
stence, for in a country of great landed es-
tates the district school system is as impossi-
BILE as it is unknown.
At the foundation of our free system there
fore lies the principal of EQUALITY and it is
only upon that principle it can be preserved :;
for it can rest in the love of all only as it rests
in the interests of all. Move it from this basis of
equality and our temple Of liberty falls, and
then who shall raise up its stately columns
again? 1t was only by the happy concurrence
OF the most fortunate circumstances, our Con-
stitu,on was framed and adopted. No other
people, no other country, no other age was
equal to the work. How far beyond the pow
ers of the American people to-day is such an
achievement? We should know. since we are
not able to supply its one little defect in rela-
ton to counting the electoral votes. The
wisdom and patriotism of Congress is unequal
to the task though urged to it by every con-
sideration Of public safe.y. No, if our exper-
iment of free government shall fail from the
earth, it will be the knell of popular liberty
the world over and for all time.
Cicero, in one Of his orations. is led off
into a panegyric upon the Roman Constitution.
How apt are his words. when applied to our
immaculate charter, that browning glory eff
the Revolution that masterpiece of human
invention, at once the wonder and hope of
the world the Constitution under which we
live! for, says the great orator, 80 wonderful
system and discipline of government which
We have received from our fathers only
let us preserve it,
HARRIS NJ. PLAISTED.