The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1903-12-18

WuNA III Nhe hiHN HtefhNt OF ENhE loyalty
Of creature 10 Creator all neighbors love
all neighbors AZ one family Of the highest
Love, vertical and lateral, IL its law-the
perfect law Of liberty"
Therefore, / hold both that Christianity
intends democracy, and that only in lie
reality can democracy thrive or endure.
Other foundation II cannot lay III the
Son Of Man SHALL make the peoples free
they shall be free indeed, and not other
wise. His autonomy is theirs. His yaiu.
alton exalts them. His rights secure
theirs. In Him, who ia all IN ALL they are
complete.
A republic Is a democracy convenience
ing rs self-rule BY representatives who are
its agents. These are but trustees and
accountable TO the peoples in
telliRent will Other, they are defauters.
Believing that under God man shall not
fail, / believe utterly in democracy as the
final experiment Of time, up 90 which all
others have led II this idea is bankrupted
all goes down. Only as it reasons deeply
as to the source of its rights and the
scope of its duties shall it avert failure
and cataclysm. God, OF the deluge!
/ believe in democracy because I hold
that man is not a mechanism but me.
chanic-that every individual soul Of the
race Is sacred, that the probation Of man
kind lies in the full consent 70 human
equality before God, and 10 all the equities
which that involves. Here stands '.he lasf
bulWark against tyranny. This must be
the method, If there be any, before which
q false subordination and a false insub-
ordination are both to be banished The
salvation Of the peoples is in divine hu-
man society which at last shall realize the
whole purpose Of Jesus Christ. IL has
not yet been seen; but TO this bear all
the prophets witness society feeling
all its common responsibilities, and each
for all' fulfilling every relation-this, and
because 1t Is ideal" is the fnality. In
1t democracy and Christianity would
meet, and righteousness wed peace!
To conquer this ideal into actually 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 sickly
and sentimental dissent from the goal of
democracy, and a cowardly whispered
preference against the substantive claim
of man as man. This reluctancy from the
burden of the problem and disregard of
the good of the manv Is ordinarily tracea-
bic to a selfish and absentee spirit. 1t
assumes to distrust what love OF ease dis
likes, and what comfortable and compla-
cent apathy would postpone. It's invest
ments are all in the present, as it is, and
It viii take no stock in the future as it
should be. 1t interprets the major con-
slderations of life by the minor. "The Of
tense of the cross is not ceased" But it
IS crucihXion that leads to resurrection.
Away with this droning and whining pes
simism!
And, on the other hand, there are those
who applaud democracy without reckoning
its principles and its foundations. Be
tween it and absolutism 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
reciprocities and its emancipations? Will
man see the basilar doctrine of the in
herent value and birthright of each several
soul-value to itself, to all others and to
the one God of all?
If not, then all falls apart and a society
not made up of bulk of subservients and
a few preferred creditors is a faulty and
dream, and the NaZarene was a dreamer.
| But that way lies the madness of anarchy.
! ANY government is, at a given time,
strong, as the ratio is of its people Tor
! parts) who believe in it and are ready to
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.
| VI Noll oNttn0 4u5bt dlOuUs 4HeSG DdlduCEO
centrifugal and centripetal forces main
tain the orbit. All the phases and hopes
OF genuine and rational democracy are
! reducible to the balance of this double
idea The duality is critical.
by this as definition / will stand
that true democracy is a government in
which every whole man, ana because a
man, counts one. Persons are the units
and government of, by and for these is
the sum Of all its parts It's spirit is as
great as the number of spirits that share
it, and as good as the number of good
spirits that share it. It's division exactly
equals the dividend, and the quotient il
one.
Division of labor" which is made t.
mean you labor and / divide" is not
democracy. Since. in this long division
of authority and responsibility" every
man should be fitted to count one. Dem
ocracy menaces itself, denies its raisor
d'etre,. when it for a moment neglects t.
seek this fitness of its merits. Represen
tatlon Is of these fit merits. The proxy
is valid only in this The ballot a1firmi
the Importance of each integer. Its qual
flied intelligence and its unm0lested free
dom Is its safety, that always it shall b
counted as one, and never more or less
LESS or more is the suppression somewhere
OF manhood; less, it were tyrannized
more, 1T were tyrannlcal. 10 corrupt, tt
seduce. to intimidate or to suppress it i
to violate democracy. Democracy alon,
causes the rights of a minority to fear
majority For all and by all this recog
milton OF man declares that because ever,
man should count one he shall! No othe
method of government declares this, o
attempts to realize it. Resting its cas-
upon the right assessment of what con
stitutes human value" it implies tina
rights and duties are strictly correlativ
and reciprocal 1t studies ITS rules in tn
cay nrfE % T7 9rbn T Pb 0 S@prem
ty. Democracy is its test and its dictum
1t is the ultimate national refuge of tn
Dennle. Il niYes the hichar law