I heartily accept the motto,—“That government is best which governsleast;” and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly andsystematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also Ibelieve—“That government is best which governs not atall;” and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind ofgovernment which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient;but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes,inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standingarmy, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also atlast be brought against a standing government. The standing army is onlyan arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is onlythe mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equallyliable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it.Witness the present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a fewindividuals using the standing government as their tool; for, in theoutset, the people would not have consented to this measure.
This American government,—what is it but a tradition, though arecent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, buteach instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality andforce of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will. Itis a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves; and, if ever they shoulduse it in earnest as a real one against each other, it will surely split.But it is not the less necessary for this; for the people must have somecomplicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea ofgovernment which they have. Governments show thus how successfully men canbe imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage. It isexcellent, we must all allow; yet this government never of itselffurthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of itsway. It does not keep the country free. It does not settlethe West. It does not educate. The character inherent in theAmerican people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would havedone somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.For government is an expedient, by which men would fain succeed in lettingone another alone; and, as has been said, when it is most expedient, thegoverned are most let alone by it. Trade and commerce, if they were notmade of India rubber, would never manage to bounce over obstacles whichlegislators are continually putting in their way; and, if one were to judgethese men wholly by the effects of their actions, and not partly by theirintentions, they would deserve to be classed and punished with thosemischievous persons who put obstructions on the railroads.
But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who callthemselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, butat once a better government. Let every man make known what kind ofgovernment would command his respect, and that will be one step towardobtaining it.
After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the handsof the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue,to rule, is not because they are most likely to be in the right, norbecause this seems fairest to the minority, but because they arephysically the strongest. But a government in which the majority rule inall cases can not be based on justice, even as far as men understand it.Can there not be a government in which the majorities do not virtuallydecide right and wrong, but conscience?—in which majorities