The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1895-08-02

code OF laws Tor tne HrSt iiHie oiii'.
Christianity assembled the throne OF
the Caesars is the declaration that con
science should be free. - Penn and the
ouakers in Pennsylvania made this
corner stone of their polity.. and New
Jersey and Virginia followed, In
Maryland Lord Baltimore and his
Catholics had planted system OF the
broadcast religious liberation, disregard
ing the historic policy OF their church
through centuries, and setting prece-
dent which the See of Rome only IN
very recent years. if at all, has seen the
wisdom of following. In the Carollh-
as the John Locke constitution, cum
bersome and impracticable as 1T prov
ed in other respects, had provided Tor
complete religious liberty. The Hug
uenot and Swiss settlements OF South
Carolina perpetuated the idea, ana IN
North Carolina the earliest laws EN-
braced it. though afterward there
was a line of discrimination on
that of Christianity. All over
the country in fact, except IN New
Hampshire with her discrimination as
to Office holding against Catholics, ana
in Connecticut where at first all clVll
power had been vested in the church,
the great truth had prevailed that no
man has any right of control over the
beliefs of other men.
Washineton's third ideal OF the
rights of human nature, the ideal OF the
| Christian world as distinguished from
the Pagan world. that the state exists
for man and not man for the state, was
reaching its first realization from the
Revolution. The ancient republics
really oppressive aristocracies, knew
nothing of it. Some of the republics
of the middle ages approached II with
in the limits of their walled towns. and
for themselves, but as ID great human
principle that comprehends IN Its
scope duties as well as rights. SO as to
assure the rights of other men, the
mediaeval republics had barely con
ception of it. In the evolution under
the colonial system. this theory OF com
bined right ana duty had taken the
definite shape on which our local IN
stitutions to this day rest. The basic
idea was that the nearer the functions
of government can be brought to the
people the better, that the inhabitants
of a given district could act more in
diligently with reference to their own
affairs than any other and therefore
should be given the power. ms Is
the Gothic arch of our institutions,
We can trace it clear back to the
primative local assemblies of our
Germanic ancestors. 1t existed also
in some degree among the ancient
Britons until overcome by kingly pre-
rogatiye. 1t renewed itself almost as
a race instinct in the settlements OF
the new world. and more as GROWN
out of necessities than from royal char
ters. more from the rcasonings of men
placed where they had TO deal with
fundamental principles than from all
other causes combined, came the unit
ing of isolated communities INTO lar
ger governments, and still later the va
rious confederacies OF different colo
MES for the Indian wars and other pur- /
poses of mutual protection, each win /
carefully limited powers and as care
fully recognized responsibilities WIN |
regard to their larger relations which /
the principle OF local |
government in way that formed the /
basis for our federal and state systems.
The Puritans in Massachusetts had |
for years had the purest of democracy /
for their government. Virginia,
though colony of Cavaliers. had as |
early as l656 laid down the doctorine |
that il was hard and unagreeable to /
reason that any person shall pay equal !
taxes and yet have no votes IN cleo
ton. Connecticut, TO whose people |
and institutions. we owe so much of the |
settlement and development of Yer
mont. had constitution that present
ed in clearer form than the world had !
before seen system of representative |
which furnished the mod
el for our federal system: and IN the |
formative period of that states history |
is traced the work of two of my ances-
tors Gov John Haynes and Rev. John |
Davenport.
In short there had been grown on
American soil the safe foundations for
the free institutions that ushered in
new era for humanity. 1t was growth |
of generations each making itself litter
by its training in local self govern
ment for the final government of a I
great nation on the same principles.
The Spanish American colonies under
the centralized system that Spain i'm
posed on them had had none of this
training, and though they have had
among their statesmen some of the
wisest and highest hearted men the
world has ever known, men who proved
their sincerity, even ahead of us, by
decreeing the abolition of slavery as
soon as they achieved their own liber
ty. the experiment of self-govern
ment has been a comparative failure
with them because they entered up
on it as inexperienced as babes, and
they are only now beginning, after the
costly and bloody school of three quar-
tiers of century of revolution and an
archy. to learn the necessary lessons.
The bottom distinction is one which |
would describe as courtesy of opinion,
which is not at all in the true view in
consistent with steadfastness and earn
estness of opinion. AS DR.. Holmes so
we'll expressed it.
: Deal meekly. gently with the hopes
that guide
The lowliest brother straying by thy
side,
If right, they bid thee fear for thine
own
If wrong the verdict is with God
alone.
1t had come to be bred in the bone
of the American, III a century and
half of local government, to understand
that in all conflicts of ideas the truth
and right might be trusted to prevail
under free discussion and comparison
of views. When he found himself in a
on any question. he was will
ing to wait another trial by votes. con
fident that he would win sooner or la
ter, or if he could not finally that he
ought not to. The Spanish American,
al mr. +pni hot /