The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1903-06-26

B democracies are despotisms. These
are a thousand times more dreadful
than the concentration of all power in
the hands of single tyrant.
In the next place, our government is
good because it is practical It is not.
the sick offspring of closet philoso-
ply. 1t did not rise, vaporous and
evanescent, from the brains of Rous-
seau and Goodwin, like a mist from the
ocean. 1t is the production of men of
business, of experience and of wisdom.
Its power is the power of the nation;
it's will is the will of the people.
The fact of change of
rulers, however, proves that the gov
eminent is manageable, that it can in
all cases be made to comply with the
public will. tits, too, an equal govern
ment. 1t rejects principalities and
powers. It demolishes all the artifi-
cial distinctions which pride and ambi-
ton create. It is encountered with no
lazy load of hereditary aristoc-
cacy. It clothes no one with the
attributes of God; it sinks no one to
level with brutes. \
"All countries and ages produce war
riors. but rare are the instances in
which men sit down coolly at the
close of their labors to enjoy the fruits
of them. Having destroyed one des-
potism, nations generally create an
other; having rejected the dominion
of one tyrant, they make another for
themselves.
ITO perpetuate the government we
must cherish the love of it. One chief
pillar in the republican fabric is the
spirit of patriotism. But patriotism
hath, in these days, become a good
| deal questionable. It hath been so
often counterfeited that even the gen.
uine coin doth not pass without suspi-
cion. If one proclaim himself pa
.triot, this uncharita BILE, misjudging
world is pretty likely to set him down
! for knave, and it is pretty likely to
be right in this opinion. The rage for
being patriots hath really so much of
| the ridiculous in it that it is difficult
to treat it seriously. The preaching of
politics hath become trade, and there
! are many who leave all other trades to
follow it.
sour duty as citizens is not a soli-
tary one. It is connected with all the
| duties that belong to US as men.
Americans, you are the most priv
LEGGED people that the sun shines on.
The salutary influences of your eli
mate are inferior to the salutary in
fuenees of your laws. Your soil, rich
to the proverb, is less rich than your
constitution. Your rivers, large as the
oceans of the old world, are less copi-
Gus than the streams of social happi-
ness that flow around you. Your air
is not purer than your civil liberty, and
your hills, though high as heaven and
deep as the foundations of the earth,
are less exalted and less firmly founded
than that benign and everlasting re-
ligion which blesses you and shall bless
your offspring. ..-
"Amidst these profuse blessings of
nature and of Providence, beware!
Standing in this place sacred to truth,
dare not undertake to assure YOU
that your liberties and your happiness
may be. lost. Men are subject to
mems misfortunes. If an angel should
be winged from Heaven, on an errand
of mercy to our country, the first ac-
cents that would glow on his lips
would be beware! be cautious! you
have everything to lose; you have
nothing to gain. We live under the
only government. that ever existed
which was framed by the unrestrained
and deliberate consultations of the
people,. Miracles do not cluster. That
which has happened but once in 5000
years cannot be expected to happen
often. Such a government, once gone,
might leaye.a void, to be filed for ages
with luton, tumult riot and des.
potisn. Z =. q. WEsrIAKE