nor the accident of birth, but on CAPACITY. The day for that organization is far distant. The new church will perhaps usher it in, or usher in something better. In the mean time government must be organized with such materials as we have at hand, and do the best it can with the race as they are, and as they gradually become. With all we can do, the wail of sorrow, from the heart of the true man, over the sad doom of the poorer and more numerous classes, must yet longer be heard. Their friends are few and without influence; or, if they have influence, they lose it the moment they attempt to befriend them.

Nevertheless, that were a detestable philosophy that left us nothing but to wail over incurable evils. Shame on the statesman, on the philanthropist, that can do nothing but sigh and weep! Something can be done. He blasphemes God, who utterly despairs. The division into towns, or small communities, as in our New England states, though it in some measure favors the horizontal division, is not without its beneficial effects. It serves many valuable municipal purposes; and by creating a large number of small offices, and bringing the people frequently together for town affairs, in which almost every citizen takes part, has a happy effect in cultivating the intelligence and independent spirit of the people. The division of the state into small districts for the choice of one branch of the legislature, and into larger, for the choice of the other, and giving to the members of the separate branches a different term of service, are not without use, and in some of the states answer an important purpose.

But for the present our main reliance must be on the federal government. The legislation which operates the most to the disadvantage of the poorer and more numerous classes is that which concerns currency and finance. The state legislation on currency and finance is determined almost solely by the general policy of the federal government. Abstract the laws relative to the banking and credit system, together with the protective policy, and not much legislation would be left specially injurious to the poorer and more numerous classes. The paper system, which has proved so ruinous to the country, will not long survive in the states its abandonment by the general government. The protective policy, which taxes the southern planter and northern laborer for the especial benefit of the capital invested in manufactures, depends entirely on the federal

government, which will not be permitted to continue it. With these two systems will fall most of the measures, bearing with oppressive weight on the poorer classes. The laborer will be lightened of his burdens; he will retain in his own hands a larger proportion of the proceeds of his labor; and gradually emerge from his unfriendly condition to one in which he will have more independence, and consequently more weight in the affairs of his town, and more power to protect himself in the state. In the meantime, improvements will continue to be made in the science of legislation. The state most favorably circumstanced will take the lead. Its example will influence other states; and gradually, by being on the alert, by availing ourselves of every favorable opportunity, we may hope the state governments will ultimately come to be as wisely constituted for their internal purposes, as the federal government now is for its sphere of action.

We have gone, thus elaborately, into this subject of constitutional government, because it is important in itself, and one almost generally neglected by our politicians, and also, because we have wished to give our own views, which have in some instances been misapprehended by our political friends, more fully and at greater length than we have heretofore done. From the fact, that we have objected to an unlimited democracy, we have been supposed to be unfriendly to democratic governments. But we contend earnestly for the popular form of government; we only object to an unlimited government, whatever its form. We are in favor of limiting the sovereign power, wherever that power be lodged; that is, we demand CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT; and constitutional government exists for us as a mere name, unless there be in the organization of society a power which can effectually preserve the constitution, whenever the government is disposed to violate it. This power we call the negative or veto power of the state. The constitution of this power we hold to be the main problem in the organization of government and we are unable to conceive of any safeguard for the liberty of minorities or of individuals without it. This is the extent of our antidemocracy. For this we have called aloud, for its impor tance seems to us hardly suspected by the mass of the people, and overlooked by the majority of leading politicians,-we were about to say, of all parties. But we will not say so. The Republican party, the old state rights party of '98, are

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beginning to see its importance more clearly than heretofore, and promise, unless we greatly misread the signs of the times, to come into power and place in 1844, on true constitutional ground. The trafficking politicians and "spoilsmen," of which that party, as well as others, has its share, will of course reject the doctrines we have set forth, as they ever do all doctrines which go to secure a wise and just administration of government. All this portion of the Republican or any other party want, is the power to plunder the people, to reward themselves and partisans for their patriotic services. But we trust their counsels will not prevail, that the sound portion of the party will for once count for something, and succeed in placing the gov ernment on the constitutional track. If so, the doctrines we have humbly set forth will come into power, and with them the country will be safe; and the experiment of the American people to establish a wise and just government, operating always naturally and without violence, in favor of individual liberty and the common good, will not prove a splendid failure. At any rate, if this very imperfect essay tend to awaken the attention of the people, and turn it to the paramount importance of CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT, our purpose will have been accomplished.

DEMOCRACY AND LIBERTY.

[From the Democratic Review for April, 1843.]

OUR Democratic brethren are upon the whole a fine set of fellows, and rarely fail to take whatever turns up with great good humor; otherwise we should expect to lose our ears, if not our head, for the many severe things we intend in the course of our essay to say to them and about them. We shali try them severely; for we intend to run athwart many of their fondly cherished prejudices, and to controvert not a few of their favorite axioms; but we trust they will be able to survive the trial, and to come forth as pure and as bright as they have from that which the Whigs gave them in 1840. Mentioning this 1810, we must say that it marks an epoch in bur political and social doctrines. The famous election

of that year wrought a much greater revolution in us than in the government; and we confess, here on the threshold, that since then we have pretty much ceased to speak of, or to confide in, the "intelligence of the people." The people, the sovereign people, the sovereigns, as our friend Governor Hubbard calls them, during that campaign presented but a sorry sight. Truth had no beauty, sound argument no weight, patriotism no influence. They who had devoted their lives to the cause of their country, of truth, justice, liberty, humanity, were looked upon as enemies of the people, and were unable to make themselves heard amid the maddened and maddening hurrahs of the drunken mob that went for "Tippecanoe, and Tyler too." It was a sorry sight, to see the poor fellows rolling huge balls, and dragging log cabins at the bidding of the demagogues, who were surprised to find how easily the enthusiasm of the people could be excited by hard cider and doggerel rhymes. And we confess that we could hardly forbear exclaiming, in vexation and contempt, "Well, after all, nature will out; the poor devils, if we but let them alone, will make cattle of themselves, and why should we waste our time and substance in trying to hinder them from making themselves cattle?"

An instructive year, that 1840, to all who have sense enough to read it aright. What happened then may happen again, if not in the same form, in some other form equally foolish, and equally pernicious; and, therefore, if we wish to secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of freedom and good government, we must secure stronger guaranties than popular suffrage and popular virtue and intelligence. We for one frankly confess,-and we care not who knows it, that what we saw during the presidential election of 1840, shook, nay, gave to the winds, all our remaining confidence in the popular democratic doctrines-not measures -of the day; and we confess, furthermore, that we have seen nothing in the conduct of either party since, that has tended to restore it. During the extra session of congress in the summer of 1841, the Democratic delegations in both houses behaved nobly, and acquitted themselves like men; they won the victory for their country, as well as lasting honor and gratitude for themselves from the wise and good everywhere; but our friends seem to have been more successful in gaining the victory than in securing its fruits. The rapid and overwhelming successes which have followed in the state elections, seem to have intoxicated the whole

Democratic party, and unless God sends us some sudden and severe rebuke, there is great danger that we shall go into power again in 1845, without having been in the least in structed by defeat, or purified by adversity. Adversity is easy to bear; it is prosperity that tries the man. But enough of this.

From the fact that popular suffrage, and popular virtue and intelligence, have proved, and are likely to prove, insufficient to secure the blessings of freedom and good government, it must not be inferred that popular suffrage is an evil, and should therefore be abandoned; much less that popular forms of government have proved a failure, and that we should therefore go back to aristocracy or to monarchy. We draw for ourselves no such inference. We have lost no confidence in nor love for popular institutions. The struggle for democratic forms of government has, moreover, been too long and too severe, has enlisted too many of the wise and the good, and been consecrated by too many prayers, sufferings, and sacrifices, to permit us, even if our confidence of ultimate success were altogether less than it really is, to think even for one moment of ceasing to continue it. Humanity never does, and never should, retrace her steps. Her course is onward through the ages. In this career, we have left aristocracy and monarchy behind us; and there let them remain, now and for ever. We may encounter both hunger and thirst in the wilderness; let us trust that the God of our fathers will rain manna upon us, and make water gush from the rock, if need be, rather than like the foolish Israelites sigh to return to the "flesh pots of Egypt," for we can return to them only by returning to the slavery from which we have just escaped. No: our faces are forward; the promised land is before us; and let the command run along our ranks, Forward, march !

We assure our democratic brethren, then, in the Old World as well as in the New, that if we have words of rebuke for them, we have no words of consolation or of hope for their enemies. Thank God, we are neither traitors nor deserters; we stand by our colors, and will live or die, fighting for the good old cause, the CAUSE OF THE PEOPLE. But if our general made an unsuccessful attack yesterday, and was repulsed with heavy loss, and all in consequence of not choosing the best position, or of not taking the necessary precautions for covering his troops from the enemy's batteries, we hope we may in the council held to-day, without any derelic