The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1903-11-25
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| q false SuD0rdlndtlon anu lalSe lusuo'
ordination are both to be banished. The
salvation OF the peoples is in q divine hu-
man society which at last shall realize the
whole purpose of Jesus Christ. 1t has
not yet been seen; but Ito this bear all
the prophets witness'-a society feeling
all its common responsibilities, and each
for all" fulfilling every relation-this, and
because it is "ideaI,"' is the tinality. In
it democracy and Christianity would
meet, and Righteousness wed peace,
To conquer this ideal into actuality is
the task and travail of ttime-to doubt
that it can be is to surrender the cause OF
mankind.
There is now in some quarters sickly
and sentimental dissent from the goa. 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 ls ordinarily tracea-
bic to a selfish and absentee spirit. 1t
assumes to distrust what love of ease dis
likes, and what comfortable and compia-
cent apathy would postpone. It's invest,
ments are all in the present, as it is, and
it will take no stock in the future as 1T
should be. 1t interprets the major con-
siderations of life by the minor: The Of
fense of the cross is not ceased" But 1T
is crucifxion that leads to resurrection.
Away with this droning and whining pes
sinism!
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 G cd of all?
If not, then all falls apart and society
few preferred creditors is q fatuity and
a dream, and the Nazarene was dreamer.
But that way lies the madness of anarchy.
Any government is, at a given time,
strong, as the ratio is of it's people Tor
parts wEo 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
Both of these. Neither goes we'll or far,
or can stand fast, alone. These balanced
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 a definition I will stand
that true democracy is government in
which every whole man, anG because a
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
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 Dem,
d'etre, when it for a moment neglects to
geek this fitness Of its merits. Represen-
tation is of these fit merits. The proxy
is valid only in this. The ballot af6rms
the Importance of each integer. Its quail
iied intelligence and its unmo,ested 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
of manhood; less, it were tyrannized;
seduce, to intimidate or to suppress it is
| to violate democracy. Democracy alone
causes the rights of minority to fear a
majority. Fer all and by all this recog-
milton Of man declares that because every
man should count one he shall! No other
method OF government declares this, or
attempts to realize it. Resting its case
upon 1.-THE right assessment of what con-
stitutes human value" it implies that
rights and duties are strictly correelatlive
and reciprocal. 1t studies its rules in the
daylight of its principles. Our Supreme
Court is governed by this overriding equi-
| ty. Democracy is its test and its dictum.
1t is the ultimate national refuge of the
people. It gives the higher law.
The distributlve assignment of govern
ment is the radical end Of democracy, not
| descending to man, but ascending with
him. 1t is not paternal, but fraternal.
one mere tribe or clan - 1shmaeiitish!-
rises toward the comprehension of man
right. The history of this growth of hu-
man institutions, making and remahng
| themselves, discovers that they move with
the instinct Of generic human life. The
impulse strengthens as if by hydrostatic
pressure That great democrat, Lincoln;
that splendid representative OF the fine
old aristocratlc family of man, said well,
applications, "They who deny freedom
to others deserve it not for themselves,
and under the rule of just God cannot
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. an1 has the
right to stand I'm. in his Maker 8 image,
to show what he can use. It's formative
proposition is that e. 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, hes
in its enabling and ennobling $50 far as
circumstances CAM eacn unltary being to
nve the fullest possible life.
All "liberty" has social limitations, and
it's problem is to reduce these limitations
to the lowest terms necessary to and con-
sistent with it's own utmost diffusion.
Freedom also is law.
1t is not the commercial, the strategic,
bearings of the Monroe doctrine, that
makes it strong in our American hearts
| and determination, but it's immense moral
meaning that democracy shall not have It's
providential arena narrowed, nor its scope
! thwartcd by the imposition of another
theory of the people. America (noble
America) is the vantage ground and the
bulwark of popular free, government, and
ENDANGERED. eT Hae. s we viii viii 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
| best wars of time, we rose up to lift Cuba
from under the bloody heel Of the line, OF
Philip II. and Of Alya. The peoples day
advances.
I come, therefore, to assert that which
| have tried to approach, and this it is:
That the aim of a true democracy IS IN
the most complete accord with the nims
Of The gospel. Both are emancipatiye.
Their implications are mutual. They alike
sand or fall upon the proposition of the
universal spiritual rights OF all men as men:
Zach breaks down all middle wall OF