LECTURE XIV.

SOME SUPPOSED DANGERS.

FOLLY and madness may destroy any human institution. Mere local spasms and convulsions will be suppressed by the greater strength of the larger and more sober portions of the country. The majority must be disaffected in order that any attempted revolutions shall achieve success. Foreign hostility or injustice would readily unite our people in foreign war. If we were feeble we might be ruined. But we are strong and have the ability to take care of ourselves, and to inspire an enemy with prudence.

The spoliation of private property is a possible danger. Democracy, it is said, tends to crush the wealthy and intelligent classes. The redistribution of property and legal extortion from the wealthy have great attractions for the desperately poor. Universal suffrage has placed power in the hands of the poor. Organized and united poverty could outvote wealth, and dictate the laws, and thus bring about the tyranny of the majority. Wealth and intelligence are vigilant and powerful; vastly more powerful in proportion to numbers than ignorance and poverty. If, while they can make the choice, the alternative is presented between suffering the injustice of the mob and reposing in the tranquillity of a monarchy or a dictatorship, doubtless the latter would be preferred.

If so, then the hopes of the poor depend upon even-handed justice; if they should abuse their power and persist in its abuse, they would in the end lose their liberties, or some part of them. The rights of property must be respected, else intelligence and wealth will combine for self-preservation. Such a combination in this country would sooner or later triumph over the anarchy, confusion, and distractions of the mob. Knowledge is power, and knowledge combined with wealth,

wealth embracing in this country every man who has a house and lot, or some accumulation as the result of his industry and economy, would restore peace and good order, though liberty might be largely sacrificed. Wealth itself can do much to avert any such evil by its fairness in bearing its just share of the burdens of government. This is one of the lessons wealth must learn. Where universal suffrage abounds, wealth cannot afford to oppress the poor in order to increase itself. The hopes of the rich also depend upon even-handed justice. Against the happening of any convulsions arising from the attempt of the poor to extort from the rich, and from the rich oppressing the poor, we have, in addition to the interests of both classes, the American respect for law and justice. Poverty is hard, but it is the school of virtue for large masses of the people, and there is little reason to suppose that any convulsions will rise to proportions above a riot. Americans usually suppress riots with promptness. When the exigency requires it, authority to use powder and ball is generally given, and in such cases no blank cartridges are used, and the conflict is short and the ascendency of authority rapid and complete. There seems to be a real kindness in the very cruelty of instant vigor. Every convulsion ought to teach both government and people practical wisdom. If it have its origin in a wrong done by the people's government, the instruction of the people must lead to the correction of the wrong. The only common ground that all men and classes of men can stand together upon is that of fair play and no cheating. The individual might practise otherwise for himself if he had the opportunity, but in state affairs only a few have the opportunity, and the masses seldom can agree upon any other thing than that which equal justice requires. From the necessity of the case the strength which is found in union can only be obtained by conforming to the terms which make union possible.

But if a republic depends upon virtue we need not despair. The great mass of our people are virtuous to a degree never surpassed in any great country in any age. This is an age of inquiry, free discussion, and criticism; the dogmas of theologians may have lost something of respect and force, but

practical and personal righteousness in daily life was never so abounding. Witness the vast circulation of religious and devotional books and publications; witness the churches, schools, societies for the diffusion of knowledge, the promotion of temperance, the relief of suffering, the care of the unfortunate, the help of the poor. Witness also that private benevolence which seeks happiness in doing good. Independently of taxation every man and woman, whose means afford the privilege, unites with others in various organized efforts to help the unfortunate. We are apt to lose sight of the good in contemplation of the bad, forgetting that the good is the rule and the bad the exception, and that the exceptional always more strongly arrests attention. There is little reason to fear that the party of wickedness and lawlessness will ever outnumber the party of virtue, decency, and order. Bad men may deceive, mistakes may be made, but the evil will be temporary, and will be reformed in obedience to the right feeling of the greater numbers of our people.

But it is said that the great strain will come, when our population shall have so increased that the masses cannot procure necessary food and clothing. That is a distant day, but there is no doubt that the time will come when our popu lation will press upon the means of subsistence and be limited by it. Our population is destined to be great. In a hundred years it has grown from three to, say, sixty millions. We have, say, fifteen hundred millions of acres of land, good and poor, and some of it very poor. If three acres could be made to feed and clothe one person we could subsist five hundred millions of people - not ten times our present number. War, pestilence, and famine, in other ages and countries, have reduced the number who eat to the supply of food to be eaten. Poverty of the food supply provokes war, pestilence, and famine. In America the conditions opposed to the waste of human life from any of these causes are powerful. Our isolation as well as our strength and martial qualities protect us from foreign wars; our strength and respect for law protect us from domestic strife. Our sanitary regulations, undertaken by the national, state, and municipal authorities, protect us in a high degree from pestilence and infectious diseases,

wealth embracing in this country every man who has a house and lot, or some accumulation as the result of his industry and economy, would restore peace and good order, though liberty might be largely sacrificed. Wealth itself can do much to avert any such evil by its fairness in bearing its just share of the burdens of government. This is one of the lessons wealth must learn. Where universal suffrage abounds, wealth cannot afford to oppress the poor in order to increase itself. The hopes of the rich also depend upon even-handed justice. Against the happening of any convulsions arising from the attempt of the poor to extort from the rich, and from the rich oppressing the poor, we have, in addition to the interests of both classes, the American respect for law and justice. Poverty is hard, but it is the school of virtue for large masses of the people, and there is little reason to suppose that any convulsions will rise to proportions above a riot. Americans usually suppress riots with promptness. When the exigency requires it, authority to use powder and ball is generally given, and in such cases no blank cartridges are used, and the conflict is short and the ascendency of authority rapid and complete. There seems to be a real kindness in the very cruelty of instant vigor. Every convulsion ought to teach both government and people practical wisdom. If it have its origin in a wrong done by the people's government, the instruction of the people must lead to the correction of the wrong. The only common ground that all men and classes of men can stand together upon is that of fair play and no cheating. The individual might practise otherwise for himself if he had the opportunity, but in state affairs only a few have the opportunity, and the masses seldom can agree upon any other thing than that which equal justice requires. From the necessity of the case the strength which is found in union can only be obtained by conforming to the terms which make union possible.

But if a republic depends upon virtue we need not despair. The great mass of our people are virtuous to a degree never surpassed in any great country in any age. This is an age of inquiry, free discussion, and criticism; the dogmas of theologians may have lost something of respect and force, but

practical and personal righteousness in daily life was never so abounding. Witness the vast circulation of religious and devotional books and publications; witness the churches, schools, societies for the diffusion of knowledge, the promotion of temperance, the relief of suffering, the care of the unfortunate, the help of the poor. Witness also that private benevolence which seeks happiness in doing good. Independently of taxation every man and woman, whose means afford the privilege, unites with others in various organized efforts to help the unfortunate. We are apt to lose sight of the good in contemplation of the bad, forgetting that the good is the rule and the bad the exception, and that the exceptional always more strongly arrests attention. There is little reason to fear that the party of wickedness and lawlessness will ever outnumber the party of virtue, decency, and order. Bad men may deceive, mistakes may be made, but the evil will be temporary, and will be reformed in obedience to the right feeling of the greater numbers of our people.

But it is said that the great strain will come, when our population shall have so increased that the masses cannot procure necessary food and clothing. That is a distant day, but there is no doubt that the time will come when our population will press upon the means of subsistence and be limited by it. Our population is destined to be great. In a hundred years it has grown from three to, say, sixty millions. We have, say, fifteen hundred millions of acres of land, good and poor, and some of it very poor. If three acres could be made to feed and clothe one person we could subsist five hundred millions of people not ten times our present number. War, pestilence, and famine, in other ages and countries, have reduced the number who eat to the supply of food to be eaten. Poverty of the food supply provokes war, pestilence, and famine. In America the conditions opposed to the waste of human life from any of these causes are powerful. Our isolation as well as our strength and martial qualities protect us from foreign wars; our strength and respect for law protect us from domestic strife. Our sanitary regulations, undertaken by the national, state, and municipal authorities, protect us in a high degree from pestilence and infectious diseases,