ganized to convict! Legislative halls guarded by armed men, and civil administrations stricken down yet all under the broad aegis of a free Constitution! Why not then be a Democrat, when its principles are those on which rest the best hopes of the world -civil and religious liberty-and the emancipation of the masses.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY.

COMPLETE RECONCILIATION MUST COME-CENTRALIZATION MEANS DESPOTISM-DEMOCRACY ALONE CAN DESTROY SOCIALISMEVERETT'S SPEECH AT GETTYSBURG-ENGLAND'S WARS OF THE ROSES-CIVIL WAR OF THE 17TH CENTURY--THE FRENCH REVOLUTION-DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES MUST TRIUMPH-WHILE FREE GOVERNMENTS LIVE DEMOCRACY CANNOT DIE-NOW IS THE TIME-YOUNG MEN RALLY TO THE STANDARD.

THE Democracy believes that complete reconciliation must take place — that their principles will finally triumph in the administration of our public affairs, they have no doubt. The progress our country has made under the benign influence of Democratic ideas, notwithstanding their interruption by the events occurring during the greatest civil war known in history, foreshadows this.

No other policy will preserve the Union, and the liberties of the people at the same time, and we believe both will be our heritage. The limits to which this principle of co-equal sovereign States, bound together in one national government, under a Constitution of granted powers, can be extended, is scarcely conceiveable. Each attending to its local concerns, and domestic affairs, free from inter

ference by the central or supreme government, brings the power to govern the people home to their own firesides.

If dissatisfaction arises, it can be remedied by themselves without disturbing the peace of the whole. It is emphatically the principle of local selfgovernment in the States. They are alone responsible for their bad laws. They reap the blessings of good ones, while the great mass of the people of the United States, now numbering over fifty millions, can go on with their enterprises, developing the . country, and building up the great West, founding States, each possessing this same right to pass such laws as to them may seem best. As the country becomes enlarged and population increases, the application of these principles becomes still more necessary. Then why not adopt them as the rule of our political action? Why demand a stronger government, as the Republicans do, when this is absolutely the stronger of the two. Centralization must mean despotism. A government, to reach out to the verge of a mighty empire, must of necessity be centralized, powerful, and not depend upon the masses but the military, for enforcing its requirements, or else its duties must be few and simple, and only concern national affairs, easily enforced, and felt as little as possible by the citizens of the country. This the Democracy want-any other form will be a failure. Our present form of government is, therefore, the best ever devised by man; especially is it so, for the

circumstances under which we find the country placed. A climate ranging from the rigorous winters of the extreme North, to almost the tropics of the South, has a variety of productions of the soil, and diversified interests to consider. No legislation could, under these manifold conditions, be generally acceptable. We must have legislation by smaller districts. The whole people could not be sufficiently represented in one great national assembly Therefore, of necessity, the great mass of our laws, in order to be satisfactory, must be remitted to the people in the States.

When Congress has regulated commerce with other nations, established a uniform rule of naturalization and bankruptcy, coined money, and regulated the value thereof, declared war in case of necessity, established post offices and post roads, and exercised a few other powers, it has not only enough to do to occupy all its time, but has exhausted all its powers granted under the Constitution. If these powers be wisely exercised, in such a manner as to bear with equal weight upon all, in no spirit of sectional superiority, there is no limit to the power of expansion under our system. Whatever makes men love their government, makes it strong-especially is this true in a free government like ours. If this system be adhered to, and the North, and the South, and the East, and the West be made to love, respect and obey it, because of the blessings it brings to them, what may not the next

hundred years in America witness? With a soil naturally productive in all sections of the country, mineral wealth stored away beneath it in abundance; lakes, rivers, and railroads affording abundant facilities to interchange products and manufactures with each other; the wants of one section supplied by another, creating activity in trade, incentives to enterprise, stimilants to progress, where are to be found brighter prospects for a nation, if we are true to the principles on which our government is founded, than here in this heaven-favored land. But in order to continue our national prosperity, and enjoy the full fruition of our hopes, we must bury our sectional prejudices, and enforce the benign principles so patriotically announced by Washington, when he took public leave of his countrymen.

This reconciliation cannot be brought about by force. It is alike impossible that the bitter passions of the war period can long be continued, or that force and oppression, or denunciation should bring about reconciliation. A beneficent providence has so constituted our natures, that a violent degree of passion exercised in one direction, is sooner or later followed by a re-action in the opposite direction. If this were not so, and as Everett said, upon the brow of cemetery hill, at Gettysburg, where but a few months before had been turned back the rebel armies, and their success become impossible, "were hatred always returned by equal and still stronger