Having decided that government is a compact, its operation, if consistent, must be to effect the greatest good to the greatest number. Hence it is evident that the rule of the majority is the clearest expression of the cherished principle. To say that this rule is an imperative necessity, is harsh and unsatisfactory; but to say that to pursue some determinate plan for a general happiness among the contradictory interests, opinions, and feelings of society-this rule of action is the most admirable, and most in harmony with those great general laws which bind together both the physical and moral world—then we shed light upon the reason of the rule, for that the principle grows out of the very nature of the best form of political existence.

The rule of the majority is the only one calculated to secure the happiness of the whole, for there is rarely an exception in an intelligent community where the majority is not competent to take the best possible care of its own interests; and the minority, having the full benefits of the prevailing laws, will be found, on examination, rather to sacrifice opinions and feelings than things of vital importance. In the practical working of this principle in our government, it is noticeable that however the people may be agitated upon any question—however, for the moment, the minority may feel aggrieved the majority never becomes permanently fixed; for in the constant changes of our rulers, every possible opportunity is afforded to correct errors or soften opposition, and the clamorous minority of to-day in a few short months finds itself triumphantly borne along on the breeze of popular favor. The keen and searching inquisition under which every scheme of public policy passes in a republican government, before it becomes a law," may be said to test its value and practicability before it has a vital application. A universal agreement of opinion would soon degenerate into apathy, and apathy would pave the way for the foot of the oppressor. The opposition, therefore, of the minority is just as essential for the full understanding of our rights, as is the approbation of the majority necessary to give them legal force. The clash, in fine, of the minority and

66

the majority, so far from marring the great design of civil institutions, contributes directly to advance it.

In its every-day workings, we find society insensibly separates into three divisions-the very rich, the people made comfortable by daily industry, and the poor. Now the majority must ever be found among those who are successful laborers, and it will never yield to the assumptions of the wealthy, nor to the unreasonable desires of the very poor. Here then we find the rock against which vainly beat the pretensions of the parvenu, and the distinctions among those who would even demolish society for personal gain. And it will be found, that notwithstanding the public mind is occasionally clouded by threatening storms, or suffers from absolute outbreak, the solid interests of all are carefully guarded; for this conservative majority is constantly recruited from the ranks of those who, but a short time previously, were among the poor; whilst the pretensious rich, in the vicissitudes that attend the holding of property when no exclusive privileges are granted, sink out of sight before they can do any material injury by the misapplied use of their wealth.

It is remarkable that a government of the majority has constantly set limitations upon the exercise of its own authority. The ruler, therefore, of a republic is constantly surrounding himself with restraints; while the ruler of a monarchy, a single individual, is constantly extending the gratification of his powers, and thus affords the best illustration of the fitness of the majority to rule. Constitutions, however, when majorities govern, are after all only written checks and limitations upon the actions of men, and are created by their powers without reference to the fact, whether they shall in the future fall into the party in the majority or in the minority. This conduct, so magnanimous, has its moral effect upon the minds of men, for it is rarely that a faction attempts to violate the fundamental law; or if ventured upon, it quickly retraces its steps. There are always in every majority a large number of persons who will not sacrifice to party what belongs to the country, and these individuals are ever ready to abandon an oppressive majority, and by

geing over to the minority, restore the balances of the written con stitution.

In the history of our government it will be found that repeated attempts have been made by the legislatures of our States to violate their respective constitutions, and even that of the Federal Government. Every instance has proved abortive. So many people have instantly resented such an attempt, and abandoned the presumptuous party in power, as to render it incapable of doing injury, and the sober second thought of these revolutionists themselves, has caused them finally to seek redress only through the legitimate channels of the laws.

In the Federal Government the advantage afforded the minority is permanent. Much as the States may differ in relative size or population, they are equal in the Senate. The veto of the Executive operates as a check in favor of the minority, for its immediate effect is always to defeat the will of the majority of the legislature. Another class of checks grows out of the distribution of the government into departments, thereby separating interests which are common to all its parts from those which are exclusively local. Another very important security against excessive accumulation of power is the confinement of the Federal Government to the exercise of such powers as are expressly given to it by the constitution, and the retention of the remaining portion of sovereignty in the hands of the State Government.

Such are a few of the most prominent instances of the radical importance and effective character of the checks or limitations which our majority constantly imposes upon the exercise of its own authority. They are yet more strongly illustrated in the formation of the constitutions of the new States, which, though founded upon the principle of universal suffrage, yet judiciously impose limitations upor the power of the majority, wherever believed to be necessary for the public weal.

Yet all these checks and limitations, however wisely contrived, skilfully arranged, and harmoniously operative, are mere machinery.

Notwithstanding the wisdom of its arrangement, and the applicability of its construction, the instrument requires a judicious and energetic hand to wield it. Indeed, its very complexity and delicacy make the proper handling of it an impossibility to the ignorant. Neither our own, nor any other free government, could flourish or exist, unless controlled by checks and restraints exterior to, but necessary to the well-working of its machinery. The real safety of our governmentits true security against oppression on the part of the majority, or rebellion from the minority-is no mere contrivance, no balancing of class against class, no reliance in selfish interests. It is something stronger, safer, wiser than any or all of these: it is the uprightness and wisdom of an educated and Christian nation insuring the justice of the majority's decision, and the acquiescence of the remainder in their judgment. This, therefore, requires wisdom in our statesmen; it is this makes our country peaceful, happy, and prosperous, and prevents the wanton abuse of the constituted forms of government by a victorious majority. It is these moral checks which remove any apprehension on the part of the minority, and obviate any vindictive or illegal action, or even a passive resistance to measures honestly intended to promote the well-being of the whole community, however much they may fail to meet the views of a part. Such measures must be maintained or opposed, not from sinister or selfish motives, but from the unfeigned conviction that their retention or alteration will be for the good of the greatest number.

mere name.

Such is the course of every true citizen whose patriotism is not a A contrary action on a question pregnant with such mighty results, is certain to lead eventually to anarchy and revolution. From parallel scenes of civil discord-the oppression of the weak, the tyranny of the many-there is a certain and dread alternative, an alternative destroying every hope of liberty, blighting the virtues of the soul and the powers of intellect, enthralling man in all the darkness of mental slavery, but an alternative in which relief may still be found-an irremediable, a hopeless despotism.

FREEDOM FROM FOREIGN INFLUENCE.

"Our virtues

Live in the interpretation of the times."
SHAKSPEARE.

Ir is a preposterous assumption that any single class of our citizens are exempted from their civil responsibilities by reason of the religion which they may happen to profess. We are not able to understand why all the members of our vast commonwealth are not equally bound and equally interested in the preservation of the general safety. We cannot comprehend the rule by which one man must offer all his resources for the public good, while another, because of a different religious profession, may remit every exertion on the same behalf, as to him alone seems equitable or agreeable. American citizens should permit no religious creed to teach them forgetfulness of their common country. They should spurn alliance with every cause which leads them to forego their love for the equal rights of all men. If they cannot stand together upon the broad platform of liberty for the whole human race, there is no hope left that humanity shall be benefited.

Strange times, indeed, have we fallen upon, that demand of us a demonstration, to any portion of the American population, of the necessity of the duty of their most zealous support of the free system of government under which they live. Mighty revolutions must assuredly have been wrought in public sentiment, when American citizens are discovered to be forgetful of their obligations to the sacred cause of republican truth, and wilfully derelict to the high duty they owe to the country whose sufficient protection they are proud everywhere to claim. No domestic influence, germinating here on the blessed home-soil, could ever have been potent to pro