The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1883-06-30

liberty and the pursuit of happiness, they
had the right to alter, or, if necessary.
abolish it. And finally all these principles
were to be incorporated into written con-
stitution, which was to become chart for
the guidance of the rulers and a bulwark
of the privileges, rights and liberties of the
people.
The system proved by our fathers, in
compliance with these principles, was in
their day and still is, in our time, known
as the American idea of government. 1t
is in fact peculiarly our own. At the pres
ent day it is difficult to realize HOW Pc
CULIARLY it is our own; to fully appreciate
how novel and absolutely interested 1t was,
when first established, and what wonder
full example of American lucidity 1t pre-
sents. In certain sense, no doubt it may
be said to be the product of all the ages,
for ideas can only be evolved from ante
cedent conditions of thought, and it was
unquestionably then that our fathers came to
their task with all the experiences Of the
past fully spread out before them. And
that past had taught them much. Eng
land had made important strides towards
popular government Magma charta, trial
by jury, and representation of the people
in parliament had been fought for and OBJ
tanned. But the contests which had termi-
mated in the establishment of these great
bulwarks of liberty, were after all, only
forcible protests against the unreasonable
demands of the royal prerogative and not
a yearning for the great principle of the
sovereignty of the people. France had
begun to show signs of uneasiness; rest
lessness of the people indicated that vol
canic forces were at work, but it was not
after the American example had lit up the
heavens that, "brute despair of trampled
centuries,
.'Leaped up with one hoarse yell and snapped its
bonds"
and even then it,
"Groped for night with horny callous hand
And stared around for God with bloodshot eyes" ="
The Amphyctionic and Achaic leagues, the
ancient republics of Greece and Rome, the
considerations of medieval and modern
Europe or even the anomalous government
of Oliver Cromwell recognized no such
principles as those which constitute this
American idea. 1t may be that some phil
anthropc friend of the people, some vision
ary statesman dreaming of an Utopia, has
longed for these ideal possibilities; perhaps,
as hidden causes they may have stirred the
depths Of some people, groaning under the
lash of tyranny, and made them toss and turn
like a child sick with fever; but to the
American fathers, it was reserved to be the
first, firmly to grasp them, clearly to annun-
ciate them and finally to toincorporate them as
corner stones in practical system of govren-
ment. Let us not be deferred in our COM
mendations by the fears Of overstatement.
| accept the criticism which condemns the
fashion of denouncing the degeneracy of
the moderns and be-smears the past with
indiscriminate eulogy.
am not blind to that human tendency
which leads us to compare the present, the
miserable present, which offers us such a
bundle of vanished hopes, with the past, in
which are buried and out of sight the
failures Of our fathers so that we turn in
heaviness of spirit from our own hard lot
to the Olden times, with its heroes and its
giants; and [ do not forget that these vain
comparings are not altogether the preroga-
tive of those whose withered limbs and en-
feebled pulses emphasize the memories of
earlier days, when life was young and
bounding blood and strong arms made earth
seem "a thing of beauty and a joy forever"
But guarding ourselves from such tenden-
cies, when we contemplate the task set be-
fore our fathers, and have fully appreciated
the difficulties that confronted them and
the unexplored regions into which their
doctrines led them, and in the light Of the
present day realize how strong they battled
and how well, we are lost in admiration for
that breadth of vision, that deep insight
into political science, and that noble civil
courage which enabled them to produce the
most remarkable political development of
the age. Their work was the wonder of
their day, and it is the wonder of this
1t was and is yet the most significant Amer
icanism of our history; an Americanism
which has leapt over the seas, shaken mon
archs ON their thrones, toppled over some
of the governments of Europe, liberalized
others, impressed its influence on all, and
implanted ideas which may yet be the
power to break the bonds of tyranny and
restore down-trodden millions to enjoyment
of true liberty.
But the length to which these remarks
have been already extended admonishes me
that [ must cease, even before the threshold
has been crossed. Enough, however, has
appeared, even in this very imperfect dis
cussion, to open up glimpse of the boun-
tiful inheritance of our people. With such
a territory, penetrated as it is by noble
rivers, boundless in extent, teeming with
fertility and rich in the treasures of the
mine, with government based upon such
principles of liberty, and with society in
which every member makes his position for
himself, we may surely be permitted to in
dulge in little honest pride. But it is
not in the contemplation of the one or the
other or of all these things that we should
exhaust our complacency; but when we re-
gard those great national characteristics,
those inner sources of power, which have
stimulated our people even to the present
day, let our enthusiasm be unbounded.
Our fathers found great work for them to
do; they have done it; done it nobly, not
in the conventional methods of their day, but
after their own fashion. Their inheritance
was splendid only in opening the door for
splendid possibilities, and their genius has
led them through it to the creation of that
noble fabric of national prosperity and
honor by which we are surrounded.
Must we degenerate Must the final
history of the United States be a repetition
of that ofttold tale of national life, first
poverty with virtue, then riches with pro-
figacy, and finally efeminacy and ruin.
We cannot lift the veil that separates us
from the future, but earnestly believe
that as long as home shall remain the cen
ter of the social system and the abode of
love and virtue; as long as the cornerstone
of political morality shall be the principle
that all government is for the benefit of
the ruled and not the ruler; as long as
American lucidity shall stimulate a pure