Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1903-11-14

bulwark against tyranny. This must be
the method, if there be any, before which
! a false subordination and a false insub-
salvation of the peoples is in a divine hui
man society which at last shall realize the
whole purpose of Jesus Christ. 1t has
not yet been seen; but ''to this bear all
the prophets witness society feeling
all its common responsibilities, and leach
because it is ideal" is the iinality. In
it democracy and Christianity would
meet, and righteousness wed peace!
TO conquer this ideal into actuality is
the task and travail of time-to doubt
that it can be is to surrender the cause Of
mankind.
There is now in some quarters a sckly
and sentimental dissent from the goal Of
democracy, and cowardly whispered
preference against the substantive claim
Of man as man. This re.uctancy from the
burden of the problem and disregard of
the good of the manv Is ordinarily tracca-
bic to selfish and absentee spirit. It
likes, and what comfortable and compla-
cent apathy. would postpone. Its invest
| ments are all in the present, as it is, and
it will take no stock in the future as it
should be. It interprets the major con-
alterations of life by the minor; The Of,
|
- crucifiXion that leads to resurrection.
Away with this droning and whining pes
| simiSmt
| And, on the other hand, there are those
who applaud democracy without reckoning
its principles and its foundations. Be-
tween 1T and abso.utism there is, in times
long run, no logical half way. Can man
learn that democracy brings no one down.,
but every one up? Can man learn its
! rsciprocities and it's emancipatons? Will
man see the basilar doctrine of the in
herent value and birthright of each several
soui-valIe to itself, to al others and to
Ii not. then all falls apart and society
not made up of bulk of subserviepts and
| few preferred creditors is faulty and
Q dream. and the Nazarene was dreamer.
But that way lies the madness of anarchy.
Any government is, at given time,
strong, as the; ratio is of its people Tor
back that belief. Ultimately it is as
strong as it has principles worthy to be
believed in. The bottom idea of dem
ocracy is the utmost diffusion of two
things: .(a) authority. (b) responsibility.
Both of these. Neither goes well or far.
or can stand fast, alone. These balanced
tain the orbit. All the phases and hopes
OF a genuine and rational democracy are
| reducibie to the balance OF this double
idea. The duality is critical.
BY this as definition [ will stand
that true democracy is government in
which every whole man, anu because
man, counts one. Persons are the units,
and government of, by and for these is
the sum of all its parts. Its spirit is as
great as the number of spirits that share
it,. and as good as the number OF good
spirits that share it. Its division exactly
equals the dividend, and the quotient is
| one.
Division Of, labor which is made to
democracy. Since. in this long division
of authority and responsibility every
man should be fitted to count one. DEM
o:racy menaces itself, denies its raison
d'etre,, when it for a; moment neglects to
tation is of these fit merits. The proxy
is valid only in this. The ballot affirms
the Importance of each integer. It's quail
! lied intelligence and its unmoiested free
| dom is its safety, that always it shall be
counted as one, and never more or less.
Less or more is the suppression somewhere
more, it were tyrannical. To corrupt, to
seduce, to intimidate or to suppress it is
to violate democracy. Democracy alone
causes the rights of a minority to fear
majority. For all and by all this recog-
milton of man declares that because every
method of government declares this, or
attempts to realize it. Resting its ease
upon 1.-THE right assessment of what con-
stitutes human value" it implies that
rights and duties are strictly corraiative
and reciprocal. 1t studies its rules in the
DAYLIGHT OF its principles. Our Supreme
Court is governed by this overruling equi-
tty. Democracy is its test and its dictam.
1t is the ultimate national refuge of the
people. 1t gives the higher law.
The distributlve assignment of govern
ment is the radical ED of democracy, not
descending to man, but ascending with
him. 1t is not paternal, but fraternal.
Human ethics rising from loyalty to
! one mere tribe or clan - Ishmae.itish!-
rises toward the comprehension of man
right. The history of this growth Of hu-
man institutions, making and remaking
themselves, discovers that they move with
the instinct of a generic human life. The
pressure. That great democrat, Lincoln;
that splendid representative of the fine
old aristocratlc family of man, said we'll,
in 1856, what has the broadcast possible
applications. '"They who deny freedom
to- Others deserve it not for themselves,
long retain it,. The paramount doctrine
of equal rights is that each soul has di-
vine. right, a kingly and knightly right,
to all the liberty he can use. and has the
right to stand I'm. in his Makers image,
to show. what he can use. Its formative
proposition. is that a just society lies in
the good Of all its elements. and that this
good lies in the removing; by pick or
powder. of all avoidable hindrances to
the affirmation of social personality, lies
! in its enabling and ennobling $50 far as
circumstances CAM eacn unitary being to
nve the fullest possible life.
All elderly" has social limitations. and
it's problem is to reduce these limitations
to the lowest terms necessary to and con-
sistent with its own utmost diffusion.
| Freedom also is law.
1t is not the commercial, the strategic,
bearings OF the Monroe. doctrine. that
and determination, but its immense moral
meaning that democracy shall not have its
providential arena narrowed, nor its scope
| thwarted by the imposition az another
| theory of the people. America mobile
America) is the vantage ground and the
bulwark of popular free government, and
| to maintain this high theory of man I'M
| endangered. we will fight if need be
| Though God forbid the need) if all the
seas are to run red! 1t was this tremen-
dous instinct in which, in one of the no.
| blest wars of time, we rose up to lift Cuba
from under the bloody heel of the line of
| Philip II. and of A,va. The peoples day
| advances.
I come, therefore, to assert that which
| have tried to approach, and this it is:
That the aim of true democracy is in
the most complete accord with the aims
! of the gospel. Both are emancipative.
stand or fall upon the proposition of the
universal spiritual rights of all men as men,
zach breaks down all middle wall of
partition" and unlooses ''the woke OF