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It would seem, too, most natural that a stranger who had determined to cast his lot with ours, should throw all his sympathies into the same channel with our own,--should closely scrutinize our habits, our principles, our institutions,--and show himself behind no other citizen in transfusing the spirit of his new nationality into his own individual feelings and thoughts. He must remember that ours is a government of the people; of that large community he counts but. one. All public affairs rest, for their maintenance and security, upon the popular will. If the people are frivolous, thoughtless, guided by any less serious motive than the single one offered by a sober and deliberate judgment, then the general interest must suffer accordingly. As one of the people—as a citizen among his fellow-citizens-our naturalized friend cannot fail to perceive that whatever is done by the popular voice, directly affects himself. Hence he is interested in all our laws, our customs, our habits of thought, and our institutions. He cannot remove himself away from our midst, and deliberately declare that whatever may transpire, is all the same to him. He cannot conscientiously hold himself aloof, and say that he cares neither for this nor that law. As a citizen, he must care for every public transaction that bears upon the general welfare. Having once adopted certain responsibilities-invested at the time of his acquiring citizenship--it is out of his power, so long as he remains a citizen, to lay them aside on any pretence whatever.

The sooner, too, he enters with his whole soul into the spirit of our American life, the sooner he will learn to love the new possession that has become his own. It will be easier for him, then, to note and understand the practical working of many things that before were little better than enigmas. As his interest increases, his affection will deepen. As he feels his own share of the common responsibility enlarge, he will likewise find the confidence of his new fellow-citizens abounding. Instead of being suspiciously pushed aside or overlooked, he will find himself openly welcomed, whilst thousands of generous hearts respond to the anxious beatings of his own.

But let the naturalized citizen keep back these spontaneous im

pulses of his better nature; let him say to himself, "I will enjoy the full protection of their laws, but never will I subscribe to their spirit or principle," and matters immediately assume a very different aspect. Adopting such a course, he cuts himself off from his own rights, and forfeits every further claim, either to the protection or the respect of all true Americans.

If such a one league with others similarly disposed, and place himself at the direction of any man, or body of men, to compass measures that are calculated to subvert the fair and open workings of our political system; if this new organization, stretching from city to city, and from State to State, bind together its cords, and weave over and over its network of conspiracy, till it is thought that no human power, social or political, can break it in sunder; if these men attack, stealthily, our common-school system, determined, by cajolery, by supplication, by art, or, finally, by force, to overthrow this bulwark of liberty,— we are necessarily compelled to look about us in absolute dismay, hardly prepared for a demonstration of such magnitude and power, and perfectly at a loss to understand what may be the object aimed at. But the reaction will inevitably arrive. It must come, where all men are free; nor can it long be delayed, where the people are the watchful and jealous guardians of their own liberties. It is but the fulfilment of the old law, that "they who sow the wind shall, in due time, reap the whirlwind."

This it is that has called into life the active and repellent spirit of Americanism which is to-day sweeping, with the power and majesty of a tempest, over the length and breadth of our land. Such unnatural and underhanded demonstrations were the only ones that could summon forth this giant resistance to the enemies of American liberty. The naturalized citizen should read the lesson carefully, and ponder it with diligence; for it teaches him but too emphatically what is the deep meaning of those principles which Americans profess, and how completely ingrained they are in every true American heart.

THE RIGHT OF THE MAJORITY TO RULE.

"And sovereign Law, the world's collected will,

O'er thrones and globes elate,

Sits empress-crowning good, repressing ill."

MAN was created for society: the necessity of laws for governing his relations to his fellows is, therefore, co-existent with his nature. No community ever existed, however savage or degraded, which did not acknowledge some of the elements of government. The products of the chase the earth-hole used as a habitation-even the rude knife and spear, have their acknowledged owners, and any infringement of these rights, results in personal conflict. A little reflection leads us to the conclusion, that we have no individual rights which can be separated from our relations towards others; for if selfishness could swallow up the whole being, then self-government was the original law, and man, in the enjoyment of the purposes of his existence, should live alone, and exterminate those about him; yet this is not the case. The practical effect of such an assumption would result in destruction of the individual; he would be outlawed even by savages, as quickly as he would be arrested and imprisoned among civilized people. A desire then for government grows out of the necessity of our being: it is an appetite as positive as that for food.

The time necessarily occupied by the individual members of every community, in procuring subsistence, suggests, as a matter of economy and expediency, the delegation of the management of government to one or many; and upon this necessity arise, not only the first forms of organized society, but, from the manner in which this authority is delegated, springs every possible form of government.

Numberless absurd theories, sanctioned by "great names," have

been proposed to account for the first formation of government. Some declare it to be of Divine origin, and consequently a compact between the people and divinely appointed rulers. Opposed to this proposition, are those who believe it to be simply an agreement among the people themselves.

To say that government exists by Divine power, is true in the general sense of all things existing by the same cause; but we are not to stop at the threshold of inquiry by such a misapplication of a truism. We are to consider how far that same Divine Authority decreed that man should be left to choose and fashion his political relations. The advocates of the Divine origin of government have always been the idolatrous worshippers of absolutism, and no outrage has ever been committed by tyrants upon the people, that has not had the profane endorsement-Divinely chosen rulers can do no wrong. But the wisdom of those fathers of our country who established the American Republic rejected such a theory, finding no Divine sanction for oppression and wrong, and therefore set vigorously to work to extend the blessings of rational freedom, and to build up fortresses against encroaching power.

In the history of nations and individuals which have passed away, the idea that the only legitimate end of government is the public good, was confined to the breast of the philosopher, or announced at the sacrifice of life by the patriot and reformer. The organized power of the oppressor was more than equal to the undiscipled assertors of so great a truth; but in our day, the example the American people have set of the beauty of the practical workings of this truth, has already had the effect to make its adoption almost universal, not only among reflecting minds, but among the governed of the great bulk of every enlightened population. To the people the importance of cherishing this idea, that government is an implied contract, and not a Divine right, can hardly be estimated. Its simple conception is the beginning of political wisdom: a clear and comprehensive idea of it in the mind of each individual, is one of the best safeguards of our own free institutions.

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

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