The Washington bee., 1891-02-21

ing that magistracy of the law, under the
law, and for the law But if it is true, and
| affirm it to be true in common with the
general judgment of our people, that this
is the greatest seat of human rule in the
estimate of what should accompany our
comparison of civilization in all its DEM
onstratiCns, what does it all rest upon?
If these are not empty words, what makes
this the greatest seat of rule in the world,
in the opinions at least Of the American
people? Other nations might not take the
same view we do; but we have made up
our minds on this subject, and the point
for US is to find out from what sources
this Astounding exultation in our feeling
is fed and on what foundation this tower
ing eXaltatiOn of the place rests.
There are great rulers in the world and
they are rulers over great nations. The
Gar has great possessions under his
dominion on two continents, which he
bestrides like Colossus. The patriarchs
and the priests all recognize him, and all
d,,vout followers recognize him also, as the
head of the church. The splendor, the
personal authority, and the greatness of
the nation in population, all make him a
great ruler, and the great mass of that
people listen to what comes from his lips
almost, if not quite, as the voice of god.
Then there is great nation, civilized
and educated as much as ours, the Ger
man empire, where the young soldier
rides at the head of an army that Europe
cannot resist. He has for his subjects the
educated, the enlightened, law-abiding
population of that great nation. he, too,
is a great ruler. All the surrounding
nations depend upon his military arma-
ment-depend upon his authority and his
voice for the regulation of their own
resistance or their own cooperation.
Then there is our mother country, with
her vast possessions surrounding the
whole globe with the presence of her
power, with the queen and empress and
her authority over a free people, with her
25O,000,000 of subjects in India and her
great and energetic population In the isles
at home and in the distant colonies. Arts,
worship, power, skill, intellect, religion
these pervade the vast communities over
whom the queen of England presides.
She, too, is a great ruler, and IN the eye
of all who have observed her personal con-
duct of affairs we find that even we yield
homage to her virtues as woman which
we deny to her power as queen.
Outside of our system of civilization we
600, 900 subjects, kept in order, kept in
peace, kept in industry, kept in wisdom,
on moral maxims and pious relations of
ancestry. This, too, is great nation. 1t
has outliyed many of the experiments
niat Younger nations have tried or are
Tying. 1t is in vain, by prejudice of race
tr.S of religion or of any custom, to deny
or ! the Chinese nation is a great and
tina, erfuI nation, and that its ruler ascted
BY conscience ana ssb4gs paSbity, is az
important in his relation to the cireum-
stances of that great population as are the
European soverelgns to whom L have
referred.
Why is it, then, that this ruler of ours
that we speak of as occupying seat by
law and through law, has this pre- emf
nence? On what does it rest? We may
speak of our wealth, but other nations are
rich We may speak of our power, but
other nations are powerful. Wemay speak
of our population and of our magnificent
territory, powerful in arms and in its fer
tile breadth; but other nations have fertile
soil, other nations have the arts of civiliza-
ton, and they have industries and ambi-
tions and growth and independence and
expectations beyond even their present
condition. What is it, then? In this
nation all its forms of authority, wherever
exercised, either in the great place of
president or in all lesser places, rest upon
the consent of the people. This consent
is not merely what is fixed in the cOnstl-
! tuition as once for all in building up
structure of government or by remote
and perpetual plebiscite, but upon the
everyday and constant exercise of the
consent of the people. What is the legal
and what is the essential form of this con-
sent of the people? 1t is in nothing else
but in the suffrage, the suffrage, the
exposition of consent.
When, therefore, we are drawn away
from great subjects, economical or COM
mercial, to look at the very fabric and
daily working of this great arrangement
of our power, We need make no excuse.
Farms and merchandise are, of course,
of great importance to a nation full of
farms and full of commerce; but the stu
alton of the suffrage is the one upon
which the very fabric of our government
rests. 1t is worth while to understand
how it is that "the very least who share
in our suffrage interest and concern the
greatest" in the country, because it is a
government by consent, and their consent
is given through the suffrage.
Mr.. President, this matter of designat-
ing the ruler of great nation by the
suffrage at recurring periods, is great
conception. 1t depends for its preserva-
ton, first, on the opinions of the country |
being kept alive upon this subject, and |
also on there being an energy of law that |
shall throw its protection over the least |
that may exercise the suffrage. This
matter of comforting power under this |
great conception is a wonderful trans |
action. 1t is not judicial proceeding; it |
is not determining of a right that one |
or another person in the country has. 1t
is an act Of power and will, by which,
when no one has the right, the right is to |
be derived from the will of the people |
that confers it.
When a matter of great value and of
great desire is to be attributed and no |
one has right to it, there are but three |
ways known to human affairs by which |
that power can confer its authority. One |
10 hUyf &c hxyl Lot Nd 10 xy |