The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1911-10-21
'AME ER|CAN DEMOCRACY
Address by Archbishop ireland at the
Banquet of the Army of the Ten
nessee, Council Bluffs, Iowa.,
Evening of October II.


port of the solution to be given to it,
was the problem which confronted the
delegates of Americas newly-born
states as in the year 1887 they assem-
bled in convention with the intent of
founding government under which
the liberties won in well-fought battles
were to be made secure, while at the
same time social order, the all-essen-
tial condition of the nations peace and
prosperity, should be guarded from
the perils of weakness or annihilation.
Democracy-the government of the
people, for the people, by the people
won the hearts of the delegates, who
also recognized in democracy the chos-
en- idol of the victors of Saratoga and
Yorktown-and democracy they re-
solved to enthrone as the queen of the
new world. But here the difficulties
of the problem thickened. How can
the people rule without oft and oft
putting the social organism in jeopardy
of life and walfare? The people, a
scattered mass of dissociated units,
must in some manner concrete the
several individual wills, and in order
that those wills tend to wise forms,
thought and study must precede legis-
lation, all the more imperatively so,
when the questions to be decided bear
upon special themes with which the
every day popular mind is unfamiliar,
which only expert and peculiarly train
ed talent should strive to take in
hand. Clearly, government by direct
and immediate act of the people is
impossible: the attempt were the con-
secration of riot and anarchy. And
yet what is democracy, if not gov
ernment by the people? A govern
ment, then, by the people America
should haye-but through agencies, so
created in their origin that of the
peoples sovereignty no doubt was
tenab1e-so constituted in their own
elements of power and durability as to
be fit to perform prudentiy and eff
ciently the tasks with which they
would be entrusted.
American Democracy.
The constitutional convention of
1887 wrought out the organization Of
democracy under which America has
since grown and thriven, until today
she stands amid her sister-nations
equal to the best in strength and pros
perity, superior to all others in the
social and civil freedom which her
flag betokens and guards. AS the ma
4 h.
states: government in America is
democracy in it's truest and sweetest
meaning-so organized, however, in
it's legislative, executive and judicial
departments as to gather into work
able spheres the calm thought and the
sane action of the people, which alone
make for the general, welfare and
alone give the expression of the peo-
pies ultimate will and ambition.
American democracy governs
through representatives put in place
by the immediate, or, in few cases,
by the mediate vote of the people.
The commission comes from the peo-
pie, and, with the sole exception Of
the Federal Supreme Court, is limited
to brief period of years, In this
manner the vital principles of demo-
cracy, the sovereignty of the people,
is abundantly safeguarded, While,
however, in place, the representatives
chosen by the people, are the masters
of the power entrusted to them, re-
sponsible only to their own con-
sciences for what they decree, for
what they do-this temporary inde-
pendence being requisite in order that
they think and act in due leisure and
with due fearlessness OF outward con-
troll. Where, however, fragrant unfit
ness develops, the remedy is at hand
Impeachment at the bar Of legally
constituted courts. All this is popular
sovereignty so organized that liberty
and order walk hand in hand, that
liberty there is without license or an
archy, and order without loss of lib
erty to the people, without reign OF
despotism outside of and above the
people.
Did the trainers Of organized DEM
ocracy In America give us form Of
government SO supremely perfect, SO
supremely unassailable to the shafts
Of human ignorance and passion, that
always and ever it must work out in
labsolute righteousness, for the truest
and best interests of the people this
it were too much to say, too much to
expect. Nothing is perfect, nothing
is sure to give sought-for results
4 whnrn man arc the workers No
American democracy in the form it re-
ceived from the trainers Of our con-
stitutions, federal or state, will not be,
i'm all that proceeds from it, always
and ever, what we should wish 1t to be
absolutely free from fault or mis-
take But neither will this be the
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