Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1895-11-28

liberty OF permitting union Of the
lhree great branches Of executive,
Legislative and judicial powers in the
same. hands. No political truth, =
said he, is df greater political value
or is stamped with the authority OF
more enlightened patrons of liberty
than that on which this objection is
founded. The accumulation of all
powers, legislative, executive, and
Judiciary In the same hands, whethef
OF one or few or many, and whether
hereditary, self-appointed, or elective,
may Justly be pronounced the very
definition Of tyranny. The preservation
have been accepted and assimilated. And
new ideas cannot enter where tho indi-
vidual mind is not free, but is chained
fast to a rigid code that contains no
vital principle OF growth and adapta-
tion. to change, and is fed upon tho
husks OF creeds outworn. Applause. /
We are told that Omar. the lieutenant
Of Mahomet, ordering the Alexandrian
Libraries to be burned, justified the
destruction by saying; If what they
taught was not in the Koran, it could
not DO true, and therefore would mis-
lead, and should be destroyed; and
the Koran did contain it, then all other
books were auperhuous and only dan
gerous. " Minds fed upon such creeds
are indeed "old bottles, and when the
wine OF new thoughts is poured into
them, the bursting of the bottles will
follow, and the wine is wasted on the
ground, and this Is the truth of his
tory We read to-day. Applause.
When the power that makes the laws.
and the power that applies the laws,
"a cor la, h. La.
useless, for despotism reigns, and the
hope of freedom dying out, the mental
faculties become enfeebled, and the
whole community withers and decays
Thus despotism creates only ignorance
and servility, and ignorance and ser.
Witty in turn perpetuate despotism. .
OF liberty requires that the great
departments of power should be sepa.
rate and distinct. y There can be no
liberty" said Montesquieu. "where
the legislative and executive powers
are united in the same perton or body
of magistrates. You will, | believe,
agree with me in holding the rapid
growth and development of the United
States to be the most remarkable page
IN the history of civilized mankind.
Applause. The echoes of the savage
war wboop, the crack of the rife. the
sound of the settlers axe, and crash of
the falling timber had scarcely died
away when, behold, continental civil
ization presented itself One flag
waving from the Atlantic to the Pacific
shores, and from the frozen ocean and
the Canadian line 10 the Cuffs of Cali
fornia and Mexico, over the homes of
nearly 10000, 600 Of self-governing,
vigorous, and intelligent people, san
guine of the future, and animated with
the best results of the worlds progress
in the scale of civilization. Yot little
more than century has rolled by since,
breathless bleeding, clad in ragged
homespun, but radiant with solemn
triumph
Tough. poor, content, ungoysrnably bold,
war Ia each breast, and freedom on each brow
their ancestors emerging from an une-
quail contest, gath ered themselves to-
gether as family of Republics, united
under single independent government,
stepped into the family of nations, and
calmly took their place at the council
table of the worlds powers. ZAP
plause. This marvellous progress can
only be adequately accounted for by
the freedom permitted to the units of
that population, to each individual citi-
to EN- Joy the admitted right to accom-
plish his own manhood, to be fully
himself; to select the suitable occupa-
tion for which instinctively he felt
himself to be competent, and upon
which he embarked with the energy
born of hope and confidence. Sanguine
temporaments were not depressed and
chilled by the narrower and colder
aphorisms of older and more calculat,
ing prudence nor was humble birth an
invidious bar, nor did they feel the
calling letters of military CONSUMPTION,
nor the weight OF plutoeratic inc
quality; but, with energies unre-
strained, self conscious, self-reliant,
self determined, and morally RESPONSE
bic, they pressed forward, each in his
own field Of enterprise, to gather the
liaryests of his own Industry, and en-
joy them beneath his own vine and fig
tree, with none to make him afraid. y
Applause. The main springs of these
active eXertions were interchangeable
persistence, sincere conviction, on.
thusiasm, and hope, which are all, and
are only, Individual qualities and char
acteristics of the social unit, the free
man. And with these substracted, and
tho sense of personal responsibility dis
regarded, no substitute can be found.
In tho plan Of those who founded
American society, the right of man to
self-development was held to be essen
tial, primordial, and inviolable with
the single limitation that he should
not infringe the rights of others The
government he was expected to sup
port was not intended to enrich or sup
port him, but its powers limited and
delegated in trust, and always termina-
ble.-were never to be exercised to
create unequal privileges or trammel
his lawful efforts to contract and labor
for his self-Hdvancement. He was to
DO protected against violence and in
justice from without and within, and
to contribute equally 10 the common
defence and general welfare of the COM
munity of which no was an integral
part. And this is the central idea, the
domi mating purpose and intent of tho
governmental systems of the English
speaking peoplesa Applause. No
proclamation of their liberties, from
Magma Charta ON this side of the At
lantic TO tho colonial declaration of in
dependence on the other side, or the
written constitution that followed il,
was a mere recital of measures or a dry
catalogue of statutes, but each and all
were vitalized by the eternal principles
that make and keep mon free. and were
laid down with stern and clear signifi-
canoe not for day, but for all time
principles of daily life and action, to
which the changing forms and condi-
tions of society as it progressed would
be adjusted and guarded at every point,
and shining like golden thread
through every sentence was the liberty
Of the individual Applause. !. Well