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��THE RATIONALE OF FREE GOVERNMENT.
��THE RATIONALE OF FREE GOVERN3IENT.
��BY C. C. LORD.
��Among the many patriotic addresses that have come to our notice since the dawn of our national centennial era, there is one that affords a sentiment of inestimable value to the rising genera- tion. A certain speaker said, in sub- stance: "The people of the American colonies did not rebel against society." It is another way of saying social organ- ization was not ignored in the scheme of American independence. Indulging more elaborate expression, it means the attri- butes of culture, refinement and wisdom, in both their personal and symbolic char- acters, were intentionally endowed with their legitimate social prominence. The founders of American liberty meant that the wisest, noblest and best should exe- cute the functions of authority and be surrounded by the proper insignia of law- ful and chaste government. In this re- spect the founders of our liberty were not rebellious against the traditions of their fathers. Yet the fathers of our country had in potential intellectual re- serve at least, if not in lull, actual, men- tal expression, a distinctive idea of human government, for the maintenance of which they risked " their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor." It was the idea of elective, individual representa- tion in government. Observe the em- phasis. An individual interest may be represented in the governing social com- pact by proxy, but without election. In the hope of securing election, our fathers cast their fortunes upon the tide of war.
Though a successful fulfillment of the ends of government demands virtue, the founders of our republic assumed that the people were virtuous enough to effect it. Though the execution of the func- tions of government requires wisdom, the framers of our political system al- lowed that the masses were wise enough to maintain it. Yet, though virtue and
��wisdom were accredited with a potential residence in the common breast of hu- manity, it was the practical assertion of the fathers of our country that neither of these two qualities could express them- selves without the developing processes implied in combined intellectual and moral culture ; the collective and indi- vidual elective force could be exerted only in the channels afforded by a prac- tical comprehension of the " wisdom of this world." Hence arose the public free schools, so many times avowed to be the peculiar safeguard of our national in- stitutions.
The foregoing brief review of fundamen- tal principles asserts the rational absurd- ity of interpreting our political system to be in any sense a protest against the rational unity of the national social com- pact. It rather declares the acknowl- edged privilege of the individual to bear allegiance to the scepter of American constitutional liberty. Because the gov- ernment is the structure of one's own co- parcenary erection, his pride in and de- votion to its integrity is only the more natural and legitimate expression of that true citizenship which is ever the test of disinterested loyalty. Shall a man re- fuse to cherish the wife he has freely taken to his bosom, or neglect to inspire by correct example the children he has begotten from his own loins?
An expression -of true loyalty, how- ever, implies more than a mere passive obedience to law in the execution of the functions of the common citizen. It means that abhorrence of usurped privi- leges that will cause a man to blush at the thought of prostituting his manhood at the threshold of mercenary political favor. True American citizenship is like the apostolic " gift of God " that " cannot be purchased with money." Happy will it be for the American nation
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