The Topeka state journal., 1897-02-20
LIONIzED.
Continued from First Page.)

government derives ITS just pOW0l7
from the consent of the governed, Where
laws are good or bad, according as we
make them so, the science of govern
ment must concern every lover OF i nIo
country To my mind. it is one OF the
most honorable of sciences, the scleilce
of government. There is nOtnlLB new
about the science of government II
were to quote to you a rev sentences,
well known ana we'll understood by all
of you 1 would say all that can pe seld
upon the fundamental principles Whlch
underlie our form OF governments put
the trouble is that we do not always ap
ply those principles when we come to
decide upon the methods of govern
ment and upon legislation. 1 want to
take the deepest and most fundamental
principle with which you have to do,
and 1 want; If I can, to help you to some
rules of universal application in mat
ters of legislation.
II a man learns to measure by netes
and bounds single farm, he has learn
ed a rule that enables him to measure
all farms of all sizes. If a man learns
TO weigh one pound of sugar, he has
learned a rule that enables him to weigh
any number of pounds of any kind of
material. If person can measure one
yard in length, he understands how to
measure all distances. Now, l want to
give you the rules, a few of thsm, which
ara as simple and as plain ana as uni
versal in the study of questions of gov
ernment as are the pound, or the yard
stick or the chain.
The first principle is that ali men are
created equal. You tell me that that is
ancient. 1t is, but my friends. upon
that principle rests our form of govern
ment Every vicious law violates that
principle; every good law carries it out.
Show me person who denies the prin-
clpfe OF equality before the law, and
will show you a person who has yet to
learn the genius Of our institutions;
show me a person, whether he be
private citizen. or a public servant, who
does not believe in the absolute equality
of all citizens before the law, and l will
show you a person who can help his
country by leaving it, That principle of
equality does not mean what some peo-
pie would have you think it means.
When We speak of equality before the
law, we do not mean equality of pos
sessions. There are those who attempt
to confuse those terms; there are those
who attempt to put all advocates of
equality before the law in the position
of advocates of equality of possession.
We do not mean, as Jackson has well
said. that under any just form of gov
ernment, all people can be equal in tai
ents or in worldly possessions.
We believe as Jackson said, that gov
ernment must protect the people in the
enjoyment of property, whether they
own little or much. What we mean by
equality is simply this: That wherever
the government comes into contact
with the citizen, wherever the citizen
touches government. then all citizens,
whether they be rich or poor, must
stand upon a footing of exact equality,
tween citizens by the legislative, by the
executive or by the judicial branch of
the government. l say that the princi-
pie is fundamental, and out of ii grow
all the other principles of government.
If all men are created equal, then no
citizen has natural right to injure an
other citizen. I repeat it. If all men
are created equal. then citizen has
natural right to injure another citizen.
He who wants to injure another citizen
is not a good citizen. 1 care not what his
position in society or wealth. CAP
plause.)
If no citizen has a natural right to
injure another citizen, this government
which derives its just powers from the
consent of the governed, which is in
6tituted among men to secure to them
their inalienable rights, then good gov
ernment must neither enable nor per-
init one citizen to injure another. This
grows out of the first proposition, and
when have stated to you that govern
ment must avoid acts of affirmative in
justice, and then prevent injustice, I
have stated to you the whole scope of
government. Jackson, in the famous
message in which he vetoed the bank
charter, said that there are no neces-
sary evils in government. Evils, he
said, exist only in its abuses. If Jackson
had never said anything he said enough
in that simple statement to entitle him
to high place among the statesmen of
our country. There are no necessary
evils in government; the evils exist only
in its abuses But I want to remind
you that no man since history began,
ever raised his hand against an abuse
of government, but what he was ac-
cused of being an anarchist by men who
were prohting by the abuse. Great
applause)
1t is one Of the strange things, and
yet so common, that it ceases to be
strange, that the temptation brought to
government to depart from the strict
line of justice. almost universally comes
from those who have by nature an ad-
s0f fell
It is almost universally the rule that
special legislation is desired by those
who are already possessed of advan-
tageS over their fellows, which advan-
tage they seek to make greater. In this
same message Jackson said, that while
1t was the duty of government to pro-
tect all citizens in the enjoyment of life
and property, that when the govern
ment stepped in to exaggerate the in
equalities which it found to make the
rich richer and the potent more power
full, that then the humber members of
society who have no opportunity of Sc
curing like favOrs for themselves, have
a right to complain of the injustice of
their government. My friends, 1 be-
lieve that Jackson draws distinctly the
line between what is proper and what
is improper. Here is a man, who in
mental ability, is five times as great
As his neighbOr. He is able to make SO
q day, while his neighbor makes 81 It
Is the duty of a just government to
protect the man who makes SO in the
enjoyment of the rewards of his toll just
as much as it is the duty of just gov
ernment to protect the man who makes
81 in the enjoyment OF the rewards of
his toll. But the trouble is that the
man who can make so, not satisfied
with having five times the advantage of
his neighbor, wants the government to
take from the man who makes 81 81
and give 1t to the man who makes $1O.
30 that he would have $11 and the other
man 81.
Now, my friends, I use that iIlustra-
tion. It is legislation that is Intended
TO make the rich richer and the potent
more powerful, and the humber men,
bers of society have the right to enter
their complaint against it. Whenever
any act of legislation is proposed, there
k-s