St. Paul daily globe., 1886-02-19
PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT.
Synopsis OF an Eloquent Lecture by
Judge EIandreau.


Last evening Judge Flandreau delivered
lecture on Republican Governments be-
fore the young men of the Unity club. at
the club room in Unity church. In open
| ing his remarks he gave a description of
government and especially of republican
government, and painted out how naturally
! superstition and religious ideas worked
their way into almost all forms of govern
ment, and how natural it was for crowned
heads to claim their authority as of divine
origin.
He then traced out the source of the right
TO govern, and found that II depended only
| upon the consent of the governed. and in this
| connection referred to the Kansas-Nebraska
troubles. He said the most potential element
| in the policies of all nations was force. and
| then turned his attention TO what is called a
| republican form of government and declared
! that the fundamental groundwork of such a
government was based on the will and con-
sent of the people. Ii is framed by the people
to regulate and restricts their powers The
| judge followed this with many other elements
/ and conditions that entered into a republi-
can government and declared that the recog-
nized characteristics of a republican gov
ernment is its division into three distinct and
/ Independent departments, the executive. leg
! islative and judicial. He regarded the suff-
rage qualification as the most difficult
I anu uellcale question IN n republic and
maintained that republics must necessarily
| be free and liberal governments. and conse-
quently are asylums for political adventures
and cranks. He doubted the wisdom of al
| lowing such TO come i'm on equal terms, but
doubted If it were possible TO keep them out.
1 While we prohibit the Orientals we allow Eu-
/ rope to food our shores with paupers, crim-
inals and political crooks, who hardly arrive
/ here before they begin an attack on our in
stitutions. There seems 10 be no remedy
principally in consequence of the cowardice
| of our American statesmen. He thought
that when tins vicious germ begins to blossom
| in this land there will be sufficient patriotism
/ 10 suppress it with the only argument ap-
| plicable-grape and canister He thought
that as a republic must be governed by its
! people, the fundamental effort should be
made to teach them how TO do IL well, and
FAVORED JEFFERsoN's PLAN
of having the whole country divided up into
districts. Then come the congressional and
/ judicial districts the state and the United
States. This division and distribution rend-
| ers ii more difficult TO centralize the power of
| the government. He favored a separation
and Independence of each jurisdiction, and
was opposed To any outside Interference in
the state. He thought the danger that men,
| aced our government is the usurpation of
power by that branch of the government
| in which resides the physical force The
| states have surrendered the right to mann
! tain standing armies, and placed the sword in
| the hands of the general government The
| welfare OF the nation depends on the lust ad-
mnistratiOn of the general government and
its not meddiing with matters that have not
been entrusted to it. He pointed out how
! some statesmen had argued in favor of the
| general government taking charge of the
| telegraph service of the country and the pub
! lie schools, all of which was wrong and tended
TO a Capitalization of power. The speaker
glanced AT the first men of the nation and the
time in which they lived and then English
ancestry, and said that he did not wish TO be
! understood as saying that republican institu-
tions cannot produce great and good men,
| but he did say that 10 be intimately asso-
ciated with the politics of republic is not
elevating in its tendencies and that it is every
| year becoming more and more demoraiiziug
! He rejoiced that we had no legalized aris-
| tocracy In this country, and expressed the
opinion that a republic based on universal
| suffrage and which opens its gates iudiscrim-
| inately TO all cOmers from all countries must
| degenerate in its governing elements; vet
| he saw some redeeming features in this
| rough-and-tumble democracy. among which
! was the tendency to engender a spirit of pa
| triotism in its people. He then spoke of the
| wisdom OF separating church and state. He
thought the mountains and woods and vast
plains expanded mems views and enlarged
their ideas. No man can be great unless he
is free, and no man ever enjoyed the superla-
tive degree of freedom until he has COM
]
PLAIN AND MOUNTAIN SOLITUDE
Speaking of titles and nobility, he said he
| knew Of nothing more utterly demoralizing
| upon high and low than legally established
social caste. The English people are the
| freest people on earth in all that
pertains TO their consciences, persons
and estates. yet socially every
man and woman of them below the ROYAL
family, are the veriest social slaves. Each
class meanly todies to the class above it, and
brutally snubs all below il. There is not a
loyal cOmmoner in England who would not
feel himself elevated into the seventh heaven
by the slightest notice from a British noble,
and kick from royalty would be more es-
teemed than a legacy or 100000. Our revo-
utonary fathers knew all about the degrad-
ing influence OF these social castles They
were determined TO remove the possibility OF
their ever ca eepin2 into our system, and they
accordingly put it into the fundamental law
OF the land that nothing of the kind should
be tolerated here. He regretted that the fun
dementM principles of our government were
not better known and more studied