Politics for young Americans

Front matter

Chap.. Copyright No.

Shelf..I.ll2 I

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Contents

PAGE

Introduction 7

CHAPTEK

Appendix

I. Constitution of the United States of America . , . . 175

II. Questions on the Constitution . . . . . . .186

III. Declaration of Independence ....... 191

IV. Washington's Farewell Address . 195

Index 206

Introduction

An American citizen ought to perform the duties of citizenship intelligently, and not ignorantly ; and to do this it is advisable that he should understand the principles on which our government is established. This is the more necessary because the right cause is sometimes in the minority, and it is of great importance that its adherents should be able to give clear and convincing reasons for their course, for thus only can a minority hope to become a majority and thus have authority from the mass of voters to carry out that policy which they believe to be right and wise for the country. In a free state every real political contest concerns the principles and policies on which the government should be carried on ; and you have only to read any great debate in Congress to see of what extreme importance to the preservation of free government, by right and wise policies, is the ability to comprehend for yourself and to expose clearly to others the fundamental principles of our government.

To the citizen of a free state, politics concerns itself in the largest sense with the liberty and the prosperity of the people, which are sure to be affected by bad laws — and bad laws are often adopted with the best motives, and

8 INTRODUCTION

urged and supported by men who are as truly patriotic and benevolent as they are ignorant or shortsighted.

It is one of the great merits of our political system in the United States that, though it appears at first view complicated, it is in fact sufficiently simple to be understood by all the citizens. In what follows I mean to explain the general principles on which free government rests, and the manner in which those principles are applied in our own country; and I shall try to do this in such a way that, with a little attention and study, readers and students will, I hope, be able to understand all that is needful.

At the foundation of all government is Society, and of this it is expedient that I should first tell you something.

OF SOCIETY

1. We find all mankind to possess certain qualities, faculties, and desires, which move and rule them, whether they are savages or call themselves civilized, and whether they are black, brown, yellow, or white.

2. One of the principal and most important qualities of mankind is gregariousness. This means that men have a propensity to gather in flocks or herds ; a propensity also of many animals, as sheep, cattle, horses, blackbirds, elephants, and some monkeys. This desire for the society of their kind leads animals to go in droves, and makes isolation hateful to them ; and in like manner collects savage men into tribes, and civilized men into nations, which are only larger and more highly organized tribes.

3. But as man has received from God qualities, faculties, and desires which the beasts have not, men are able to do something more and higher than the beasts ; and the rudest tribe of savages has rules for the conduct of its members which the most highly developed society of apes or blackbirds or elephants of which we know is without.

4. Animals have, 1, desire to live ; 2, desire for sufficient food ; 3, desire to propagate their kind and to protect their young ; and, 4, desire to avoid pain, and to live, therefore, in the circumstances for which their nature best fits them : in other words, to be comfortable. When you see more of men, you will discover that some men are very much like

IO POLITICS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS

animals, and have no aspirations or desires which can not be properly ranged under the above heads. Such a person you ought not to be.

5. Besides the desires which we have in common with beasts, and which are necessary to us in order to preserve our species from extinction, God has given us other desires, and faculties which, if we wish, we may use for their fulfillment. These higher qualities of our lives are not needed for the mere preservation of life. Some of those which by general consent are regarded as the highest, lead inevitably to the lessening of many of our pleasures, and not unfrequently to the surrender of an individual's comfort, happiness, and even life, to increase, as he believes, the welfare of his fellow men. Looking at these higher motives, desires, and aspirations, and at the degree in which they interfere with the happiness or comfort of the body alone, it is reasonable to believe, what Jesus taught, that men have something immortal, destined to live on after the body perishes, and capable, after its release from the body, of still greater development and higher enjoyments. This something we call the Soul.

6. Take notice that the soul of man should not obey the law of living, but the law of duty, which means self-sacrifice. We see this spirit of self-sacrifice and duty notably shown where a people is engaged in what it believes to be a just war. In such a case we see the best citizens cast aside the mere law of living, and obey the much higher and nobler law of duty. Instead of remaining at home, pursuing their usual callings in comfort, with their families about them, and their wealth increasing, we see them breaking up the careers they had planned, leaving their families and comfortable homes to face unaccustomed hardships and dangers, or to perish of disease or die on the field

SOCIETY 1 1

of battle. They do and suffer thus, not to benefit themselves, or to gratify the desires or passions which men have in common with the beasts, but out of what we all feel to be a nobler, an elevating, and, as we say, patriotic wish to protect their country. A tiger would be incapable of such motives : if he fought, it would be from greed for food, from a desire for a more comfortable lodgment, out of jealousy, or in self-defense, supplemented eventually by rage.

7. A creature believing himself to possess an immortal part, or soul, destined to survive the body, would reasonably seek to prepare this immortal part for the conditions under which it is to exist. And as the future life is, as we are taught, to be lived without the help of the body, it is evident that training the soul or spirit consists in increasing by cultivation our capacity for those enjoyments which do not depend upon the body. To curb the body, therefore, and keep it under control, to restrain the lower passions — those which we have in common with the beasts — and to weed out of ourselves envy, greed, spite, covetousness, jealousy, hypocrisy, ill-temper — all tending to disregard for the rights of others — would appear, aside from the commands and instructions of religion, to be the reasonable and prudent course of every one who believes himself to have an immortal part, or soul.

8. But God has so made the world, and so formed mankind, that they naturally and inevitably respect and esteem most highly those who most consistently act upon this theory of life. The whole world is combined to honor Washington ; and it is equally unanimous in execrating a merely vulgar and selfish trader or politician.

9. Now I wish you to remember, as a fundamental truth in American politics, that the course of life which is thus calculated to fit your immortal part for the future and spiritual life is also that course which will make you a good citizen of the United States.

10. To be a good citizen means not merely that you shall give such prudent obedience to the laws as will keep you out of jail. It means that you shall in all parts of your life live moderately and virtuously ; that you shall "love your neighbor as yourself," and therefore do him no wrong ; that you shall pursue your aims in life with such moderation as to avoid interfering with the happiness of others ; that you shall endeavor by your actions, whenever occasion serves, to benefit your fellow men ; for selfishness breeds selfishness, covetousness corrupts those who behold it, and liberty can be maintained only among a people who practice self-sacrifice, and to whom a virtuous life seems more important than mere selfish success.

ii. To be a good man is your first duty as an American ; but you ought also, if possible, to be a wise citizen, and to that end you should understand what are the proper powers and the proper limitations of government ; what can not, usefully, as well as what can, be done by law. For some of the most foolish and injurious laws on our statute books have been enacted by good men with a sincere desire to increase the happiness of their fellow beings. We come then, next, to the consideration of Liberty and the Province of Law.

II Of Liberty, And The Province Of Law

12. You enjoy liberty when you may say and do whatever pleases you and does not injure other persons. If every human being were endowed with infallible judgment as to the effect of his acts on others, and strength of pur-

LIBERTY, AND THE PROVINCE OF LAW 1 3

pose to avoid everything that could injure his fellows, laws would be needless.

13. But as the judgment of men is fallible and their strength varies, and as all men do not think alike, it has been found necessary in almost all societies, however rudely organized, to declare what shall be held injurious ; and not only this, but to declare penalties for such injurious acts. Bear in mind, however, that political laws can cover only a part and not the whole duty of man ; and that there is no lower or meaner rogue than he who studies the law merely to keep out of its clutches.

14. Necessarily and wisely, in a free country like ours, the lawmaking powers are distributed, some to the general or Federal Government, some to the States, and yet others to cities and counties. We have thus a great number of legislative bodies ; and while this is necessary, because it would be impossible for one body, as the Federal Congress, to regulate the minor and local affairs of States, counties, and cities, it has yet in our day aided in the creation of an evil, in the very great multiplication of laws. This has become a curse to the people, and has a tendency to bring into contempt, not only the laws, but those who make them. This evil is so strongly felt by the citizens that in most of the States it has been ordained that the legislature shall meet, not annually, but only once in two years.

15. But, considering the propensity of men to multiply laws, and, often with good intentions, to legislate upon subjects which do not come properly within the limits of law, it is proper to tell you this: Lazvs should be few in number and simple in structure ; they sliould rigidly avoid granting special privileges or immunities to individuals, but should be general in their application ; and they ought never to interfere with the liberty of men to move about peaceably from place to place ; to discuss freely public affairs and questions ; to engage in whatever honest occupation pleases the7n ; to produce whatever seems to them most suitable ; and to exchange what they have produced where they please, and for what they most desire. These limitations of the lawmaking power no doubt seem to you so simple and so evidently just that you wonder that they need to be specified; but, in fact, there is in every legislative body a constant propensity to overstep these limits, — a tendency which the united efforts of the wisest men in any State, or in the whole country, cannot entirely resist. It is too commonly believed that additional laws are necessary for the reform of abuses ; but it is a fact, noticed by many eminent statesmen, that ALMOST ALL MODERN REFORMS OF ABUSES, in

Europe and also in this country, have been effected,

NOT BY ENACTING NEW LAWS, BUT BY REPEALING OLD ONES.

Ill

OF GOVERNMENTS

1 6. Governments may be said to be necessary evils, their necessity arising out of the selfishness and stupidity of mankind.

17. They are of different kinds : Despotisms, where the will of one man is the law ; oligarchies, where a few make the laws for those subordinate to them ; and free or popular governments, where the laws are made by the people, or by persons they select for that purpose.

18. In reading history, you will discover that the less intelligent and more selfish a nation was, the more despotic was its government, and the more arbitrary and vexatious

GOVERNMENTS 1 5

its laws ; and that as the general average of virtue and intelligence in a nation increased, in the same degree its government and laws became milder and more just. It is equally true that a nation which has enjoyed an excellent government may, by the corruption of its morals, and the consequent increase of selfishness and ignorance, lose this, and have imposed on it a worse, and even the worst, form of government. Thus I wish you to believe that it is only by maintaining, and even elevating, the standard of virtue and real intelligence among our people that we can preserve our free institutions.

19. Hence the importance that you should be a good citizen, in the largest sense ; for the example of each tells upon all who surround him. If you should be dishonest, unscrupulous, regardless of others' rights, covetous of wealth or distinction to the injury of others, envious, in any way base, your course would help to demoralize and debauch the unthinking and weak, which means the larger part of those who surround you. The success of bad men, temporary though it be, is a serious injury to the community, because to the younger and the thoughtless this success appears to condone the moral misconduct. This is why good men and women abhor the bad public example of a successful political demagogue, a corrupt or incompetent man in office, or one who aims at great power or possessions without regard to the public welfare or the rights of others. For this reason, to give a conspicuous example, Napoleon III. drew upon himself in an especial manner, during his reign over France, the bitter dislike of thoughtful men and women in all countries, and the disgraceful and humiliating close of his career was welcomed as the righteous ending of a vulgar and merely selfish life. Such bad examples are contagious, and demoralize the weaker part of society, who hunger for success, and think they see success crown evil deeds. Thus public opinion is degraded, vice becomes less odious, and virtue and self-restraint seem less important. On the other hand the example of probity, of faithfulness to duty and to principle, even in the lowest citizen, is valuable and important because it wins general respect, not merely for the man, but for those virtues of which his life is an example.

IV Of The Primary And Necessary Functions Of Government

20. The primary and necessary functions of any government are to maintain the peace and to administer justice, which means to protect the orderly and law-abiding part of the people in the enjoyment of life and property and against the attacks of the disorderly and lawbreaking. Necessarily it has also to collect from the people, in the manner most equal and least oppressive, the money needed to pay the officers charged with these duties.

21. Where the average of virtue, intelligence, and self-restraint is high among a people, their government needs to interfere but little in their affairs. Where this average is low, government always interferes more, by means of police, armies, and vexatious regulations. This arises from the fact that peace, order, and the security of life and property are regarded as the most precious and necessary possessions by every people, and to secure these, men and nations are generally ready to give up a large measure of political liberty, and to suffer many other and minor evils, such as high taxation. On this plea the French people

PRIMARY FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT \J

were induced to accept Napoleon as the " savior of society," and the common excuse for a despotism is that it is necessary to maintain order ; which nevertheless it does not maintain, except temporarily, and at the monstrous cost of increasing the ignorance and helplessness and diminishing the virtue and public spirit of the nation, and thus in the end increasing tremendously the causes of disorder. Napoleon III. held France by the throat for eighteen years, and all the meaner sort of mankind glorified him as the wisest of rulers ; but eighteen years of liberty, even with the greatest presumable amount of disorder, would not have left France so poor, debt ridden, and humiliated as it was at the overthrow of Napoleon. Further, it is important for you to bear in mind that while the despotic rule of Napoleon III. brought upon France three costly wars in eighteen years, the French republic has kept the peace since 1871 — a much longer period; and this, though it has had to contend with many internal difficulties, left to it as an evil inheritance by the preceding despotism. A republic is the most peaceably inclined form of government. The mass of the people never willingly enter on, or cordially support, an aggressive war; though for the defense of their rights, if these are attacked from without, history shows by many examples that no people is so formidable as a free nation.

22. It is only where the people have public spirit enough to resent wrong, and to give vigorous and instant support to the officers of justice, that governments can be efficient; and it is true that no government will be just, economical, or efficient unless the general opinion of the people demands that it shall be so. Rulers are only men : the possession of power easily demoralizes the best and wisest of men ; and no ruler will long be just, efficient,

NORD. — 2 honest, or respectable, or will long keep within constitutional bounds, who does not feel and fear the force of public indignation ; nor will rogues fear the laws, unless they are assured that the mass of citizens will vigorously demand the prompt enforcement of the laws.

23. Good laws are useless unless they are vigorously and promptly enforced. Where punishment follows surely and quickly on the crime, crimes tend to become rare. Where trial and punishment are delayed or uncertain, crimes tend to increase, not only in frequency but in degree. We see this in some of our great cities, where crime flourishes and criminals become audacious, because influences of various kinds create delay in trial and failure of justice. There is a story, of the days of the notorious Tweed Ring in New York, of a burglar who was caught in the act of entering a house. He was seized before he had actually forced an entrance, and pleaded to the judge that therefore he had not really committed a breach of the law. Having what in low political and thieves' slang is called a " pull," he was discharged, whereupon he demanded the return of his kit of false keys and jimmies, on the ground that these were "the tools of his trade."

24. Back of all laws and all authority must lie a belief that in the last resort every citizen will defend his own rights. You cannot put a corporal's guard at every man's door. The thief or robber at bottom never fears the law and the government nearly so much as he does the right arm and courage of the man he seeks to injure. This is shown wherever, in our own country, any even inconsiderable body of citizens have suffered themselves to be robbed, whether on the highway or by combinations of demagogues. Train and stage robberies are still not uncommon in the far West, and seem to increase in fre-

PRIMARY FUNCTIONS OF . GOVERNMENT 1 9

quency ; and this is because these robbers have found that they need not fear resistance from the passengers, but have only to deal with the stage driver or the few train men ; while if they are caught they have before them a long trial, with the hope of escaping justice in the end. A few quick and sure shots from the passengers would do much to put a stop to this odious form of crime ; but the certainty of prompt and severe punishment by law would do more.

25. In Mexico, when railroads were first introduced, attacks on trains of various kinds were for a time very common. President Diaz, a very able ruler, who knew the extreme importance of swift and sure justice for crime, advised the Mexican Congress to enact a law by which any one caught injuring or attacking a railroad train should be shot at once and on the immediate scene of his crime. This law he vigorously enforced, with the result that attacks on railroad trains are to-day very rare in Mexico.

26. In Montana, in the early days of its settlement, and before a territorial government was established, its people, a large proportion of whom were excellent citizens, lay for a considerable time subject to a powerful and well organized robber band, whose members openly defied law and justice, and became so audacious that they even rode into shops, in open day, and demanded tribute from shopkeepers. The citizens, in fear for their lives, dreaded to resist. But a number of courageous men at last formed themselves into a force, called " The Vigilantes of Montana," determined to put an end summarily to this organized band of robbers. They took their lives in their hands, for the robbers were unhesitating murderers. One day a courageous shopkeeper shot dead a robber chief who rode into his store to demand tribute, and that bold act, arousing the citizens, caused the speedyextirpation of the robbers, many of whom were caught and summarily hanged, while others were shot, and the remainder driven out of the Territory with notice that if thereafter they were found anywhere in Montana they would be shot "on sight." Thus law and order were successfully reestablished ; but only by the united action of the good citizens.

27. It is only where the mass of the people resent the violation of law and order, and are prompt in coming to the help of the officers to enforce the laws and put down wrongdoers, that free government is secure. Where the people are careless, and submit readily to wrong, the law soon falls into disrepute, rights are invaded, and disorders are encouraged. Hence, in a free community the citizens can not delegate to police or other law officers the whole duty of maintaining peace and order ; they must hold themselves ready at all times to assist by their countenance, and if need be by their personal efforts, the officers whom they have charged with the execution of the laws. This does not imply the obligation or the right of citizens to take the law into their own hands unless the established authorities permanently fail of their duty ; the citizens must promptly insist on the proper officers doing their duty, and if need be help them, acting under their authority.

V

OF SOME OTHER FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT

28. The primary and necessary functions of government are, as I told you in the last section, to maintain the peace and execute justice between the different members

SOME OTHER FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT 21

of society. Under this head come the maintenance of the army, navy, and police, and the conduct of official intercourse with foreign nations, and in our country with Indian tribes — whom we have treated as foreign nations, bv which course we have retarded their advance into civilization, and caused endless Indian wars and constant corruption.

29. But all civilized governments are charged with yet other duties, which, it has been found, they can perform, if not in a better, yet in a more uniform and convenient manner, than private citizens, and. which are also incidentally of political importance. These duties are : the maintenance of the post office — by which intercourse by letters, and the dissemination of printed information, are made uniformly easy and cheap all over the country ; the public or free education of youth ; the maintenance of a lighthouse system ; the protection and improvement of harbors ; the making of scientific observations which need to be conducted systematically during a great number of years in order to be valuable ; the survey of lands, and the recording of deeds, which are the tokens of ownership in land ; the care of the public health, the prevention or abolition of nuisances, and quarantine or the keeping out of infectious diseases ; the care of roads and bridges ; and some others.

30. Some of these matters we leave to the Federal Government ; others are assigned to the States ; and others yet are deputed by these to the city and county governments.

31. I wish you to remember that private enterprise would perform some of these offices or duties as well as and perhaps better than the public authorities. Thus, in some of our great cities it has been proved in actual practice that the inhabitants of a block or square, joining together independently of the city authorities, were able to keep their street area clean at little cost, where the authorities had persistently and vexatiously failed of this.

32. In the early days of California and Nevada it was a common practice of the people to send important letters, not through the post office, but by Wells-Fargo's express. This private company exacted not only the governmental stamp but an additional payment. The miners readily paid this because they found that the express company did convey their letters more rapidly and securely than the post office at that time, and they were willing to pay an extra rate for their security. In like manner, during many years, in some of our great cities, private companies undertook to deliver local letters more promptly than the post office, and these were at one time largely patronized by those who wanted a quick delivery. But over the whole country it is doubtful if the mails would be delivered with the same general uniformity of speed and regularity and cheapness by private persons as by the government ; and this is the legitimate excuse for the existence of the post office.

33. The fact that we assign to the government some duties, therefore, which private citizens might perform in a better manner than the government, does not prove that the government ought to extend such operations and intrude into the great field of private enterprise. And yet, you must know, there is a constant tendency toward such extension. Thus it is asserted by many persons that the Federal Government ought to own and carry on the telegraph lines, and even the railroads. Various reasons lead men to this belief — such as abuse of power by corporations ; impatience under delays or inconveniences ; disap-

SOME OTHER FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT 23

pointed business rivalries ; hopes of gain by selling out at a large price to the government ; a liking for grand operations, such as governments alone can carry on ; and a vague belief that the government can really transact business better than private persons, which is not true, as a long experience shows.

34. I give you here the main reasons why a government should be strictly confined to its proper functions, and why we should oppose all attempts to impose upon it other duties which lie outside of these: 1st. It would have to increase very greatly its staff of servants, which increases the patronage, which means the power of bribery possessed by the rulers, and their means of corrupting the people, and thus encroaching upon our liberties. 2d. It would greatly increase the amount of money to be handled by the government, and thus make the possession of power tempting to bad men, which is another means toward the corruption of the people. 3d. It would make the people dependent, and deprive them of incentives to ingenuity and enterprise, and lead them to look to some power outside of themselves for the management of their daily lives. All these are serious evils ; and if we had to choose, it would be far wiser to turn the post office, roads, lighthouses, the public education, and all other matters of that kind over to private enterprise, than to allow the government to assume still other functions, such as owning and managing telegraphs and railroads.

35. It is of the utmost importance to the perpetuity of free government that the people should be left to do for themselves whatever they can, without the interference of the government. Free government is not, at any given time, the most convenient, as I shall show you farther on ; but it has this transcendent merit, that under it alone can abuses be cured without revolution or the disorganization of society. For instance, the people have been for some years agitated about the abuse of power by railroads and other great corporations. We shall remedy this class of evils, slowly no doubt, but surely, by laws, and without revolution ; but in a despotic government the railroad question would perhaps upset the government, and would at any rate become mixed up with the question of the existence of the government itself. We in the United States may not, at any time, have all the physical conveniences which we might have for a while if the government did everything for us ; but we have the means of peaceful progress, the certainty that we shall slowly but surely solve all the difficulties which press upon all civilized nations alike, and solve them without revolution — which means without permanent injury to society.