I heartily accept the motto, -- "That gover is best which
gover"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly
and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which
also I believe, -- "That gover is best which governs not at
all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of
gover which they will have. Gover is at best but an
expedient; but most govers are usually, and all govers are
sometimes, inexpedient. The objes which have been brought
against a standing army, and they are many ay, and deserve
to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing
gover. The standing army is only an arm of the standing
gover. The gover itself, which is only the mode which the
people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be
abused and perverted before the people act through it. Witness
the present Mexi war, the work of paratively a few individuals
using the standing gover as their tool; for, iset, the
people would not have seo this measure.
This Ameri gover -- what is it but a tradition, though a
ret one, endeav to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity,
but eastant losing some of its iy? It has not the
vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man bend
it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people
themselves. But it is not the less necessary for this; for the
people must have some plicated maery or other, and hear its
din, to satisfy that idea of gover which they have.
Govers show thus how successfully men be imposed on, even
impose on themselves, for their own advantage. It is excellent, we
must all allow. Yet this gover never of itself furthered any
enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way.
It does not keep the try free. It does not settle the West. It
does not educate. The character i in the Ameri people has
done all that has been aplished; and it would have done somewhat
more, if the gover had not sometimes got in its way. For
gover is an expedient by which men would fain succeed in
letting one another alone; and, as has been said, when it is most
expedient, the governed are most let alone by it. Trade and
erce, if they were not made of India rubber, would never manage
to bounce over the obstacles which legislators are tinually
putting in their way; and, if oo judge these men wholly by
the effects of their as, and not partly by their iions,
they would deserve to be classed and punished with those mischievous
persons who put obstrus on the railroads.
But, to speak practically and as a citizen, uhose who
call themselves no-gover men, I ask for, not at ono
gover, but at once a better gover. Let every man make
known what kind of gover would and his respect, and that
will be oep toward obtaining it.
After all, the practical reason why, when the power is on
the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long
period tio rule, is not because they are most likely to be
in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but
because they are physically the stro. But a gover in
which the majority rule in all cases ot be based on justice,
even as far as men uand it. there not be a gover in