National Republican., 1886-09-16
DISCUSSING rRonIn1r1oN.
To tho Fools who Think Themselves
Wise and to the Wise VINO Know
ThnmaolNea Ennla.

wise and to the Wise VINO Know
Themselves Fools.
EDITOR NATIONAL REPUBLICAN: Tue
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN,, in the right spirit
for public journal whose chief aim Is the
public welfare, has invited TO its columns
communications pro and con as to "prohi-
bition,n that is to say, the enactment OF
laws, state and national, absolutely prohib.
iting traffic in alcoholic beverages. The
questions involved, both socially and polit.
ically, are grave and serious, alike to the
fools who think themselves wise and to the
wise who know themselves fools. Unfor.
tunately for both classes I'm the future, [
fear the first have become, under the shall
low universal, intellectual, educational
smatteriDgs OF the day, as numerous as the
leaves In forest, and, in their self conceit,
S0lon and Solomon were only unenlight-
ened pagans, the Ten Commandments old.
foRyish, and the pages Of past human ex-
periences beneath their consideration, while
the last are so few they think Il in VAN to
make known what they know OF folly, It's
fruits, and its ultimate results. 1t wis
this reflection that, on reading IN the Re.
PUBLICAN Of the sth September the commu-
nication signed "Civlllzatlonn caused me
to eXclnim: "The sane fool has undertaken
to reason with lunacyn But bs this all as
1t may, II is certein that governments
state and federal-here In the United States
were never intended to be the mere instru
ments Of the capriclous will OF popular
majorities-mere majority machines. On
the contrary, IL was the constant declara-
tlon Of Thomas jefferson that the true
Junction OF government was TO protect
minofities against mqiorities; that maiori-
ties always possessed the numbers and the
physical power to protect themselves, but
that minorities always required protection.
Upon this conception the government OF
the United states under the constitution as
1t was, In each and every deplrtment-ex-
ecutive, legislative, and judiclal-was con-
structed In abnegation Of the majority IDEA.
Hence we have witnessed repeatedly mi
nority Presidents In respect to the popular
vote, aud majofities in the Congress repre-
seDtipg popular minorlties. In regard to
the judiciary, the popular idea enters
scarcely at all. II is true that the recent
civil war, accompanied by popular cries
and resulting in clear invaslons OF the
provisions and principles OF the original
compact OF union between the states, has
greatly weakened its conservative and
protective forces In regard to the senti-
ments, rights, and interests of mtnorities
and as consequence the land Is now filed
with popular movements not only as regards
"prohibition" In respect to alcoholic
beverages, but also in respect to numerous
other matters involving not only the rights
Of minorities, but individual rights and
personal privileges, the tendency of each
and all OF which Is unqueationably to COM
munism, socially speaking, aud to Cesar
Ism, politically speaking. With as much GER
tainty as that the abolition and free soil
movements of former day portended the
civil war that followed, 30 now the prohibit
ton, labor, woman suffrage, educational,
and other popular movements daily pro.
crossing upon the idea that majority has
all rights as well as all power must terminate
In internecine strife and finally in Cnsarism
as the necessity Of order. 1t is undeniably
the fact that millions Of citizens entertain
the majority idea In government to such
an extent as to consider no private personal
right as an absolute right, but simply as
something merely permisslve 30 long only
MS majority may not care to prohibit It.
These who really know enough to know
themselves to be fools had better profit
quickly by their knowledge of folly and its
terrible crimes and suffering and act ac-
cordingly, or otherwise the fools who be-
lieve themselves wise will soon engender
the most bloody and disastrous work here
In the United States that the world has wit
messed since the agonies that swept with
popular-majority fury throughout France
In 11S9-'90. It Idle to reason With lunacy.
FACT, NOT REASON,