A DISCOURSE
ON THE
IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY
OF
POLITICAL SCIENCE,
AS A
BRANCH OF ACADEMIC EDUCATION
IN THE UNITED STATES.
Read before the Literary Societies of Randolph-Macon College,
June 16, 1840.
BY BEVERLEY TUCKER,
Professor of Law and the Philosophy of Government in the University
of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia.
RICHMOND:
PRINTED BY PETER D. BERNARD.
1840.
Randolph-Macon College, Va., June 16th, 1840.
Dear Sir:
As a Committee of the Franklin Literary Society, we beg' leave to
tender to you its warmest and most sincere thanks for the able and truly
eloquent Address which you have just delivered before the two Literary
Societies of this Institution; and also to request a copy of the same for
publication. By complying with this request, you will increase the obli¬
gations which we already owe for the eminent services so kindly rendered
us:
With the best wishes of the Society, and ourselves individually, for
your future success and welfare,
We remain, dear sir,
Yours, most respectfully,
JAS. F. DOWDELL, )
4 JAS. L. PIERCE, y Committee,
m DAVID CLOPTON, )
To Judge Beverley TuckejS
Randolph-Macon College, June 17, 1840.
Gentlemen:
It gives me pleasure to comply with the very flattering request of
the Societies represented byyou. In doing this, permit me to acknowledge
the sense of my own unworthiness of their compliment, and yet more of
the handsome terms in which you have so kindly conveyed it. To have
been permitted to aid in your ministrations at the altar erected here in
honor of my brother, and his distinguished and wise and virtuous friend
Mr. Macon, and to inscribe one line on the tablet placed to their memory,
has afforded me a pleasure which none but myself can appreciate. For
this pleasure I am gratefully your debtor.
In conclusion, I beg you to accept my acknowledgments for my kind
and courteous reception at this once familiar spot, where now all seems
strange to me, and for those attentions which have made my short sojourn
among you so delightful.
I am, gentlemen,
With sincere regard,
Your obd't serv't,
B. TUCKER.
To Messrs. Jas. F. Dowdell, Jas. L. Pierce, >
and David Clopton, Committee, fyc. $
DISCOURSE.
I beg you to believe, gentlemen, that I do not use the language
of empty compliment, when I avow the pleasure with which I
appear before you. In saying this I do not merely intend to ex¬
press my grateful sense of the honor you have done me. You
need not be told that I know how to prize a compliment which
assigns me a place among the wise, the learned, the eloquent and
distinguished men, who have heretofore performed the task to
which I am now called. But I have a source of pleasure in pre¬
senting myself before 3rou, which is all my own:—a higher, ho¬
lier, and a purer, because a sadder source.
It is impossible to look on the changes which every day makes
in all we see; on the march of intellect, the discoveries of
science, the inventions of art, the development of resources not
suspected, and the employment of agents not before known to
exist, without a wish to look forward to the future, and to antici¬
pate the results of some yet hidden wonder, with which we shall
make our children familiar. We find ourselves speculating on
the thoughts with which the men of the last century would look
upon the altered state of things in every part of the world, where
science and civilization shed their light, and then we think that
we too shall presently go down to the tomb, and sleep in uncon¬
scious ignorance of other changes and new discoveries, in which
so much that now interests us shall be swept away and forgotten.
The name of Franklin was rendered famous by his discoveries
in electricity; but the instruments of his science were the toys
of our childhood. The cloud-cleaving bolt of the thunderer be.
came a plaything, and now has almost lost its interest, in the dis-
6
covery of the marvellous powers of a kindred agent, in which we
almost fancy that we detect the mystery of life itself. How have
the resources of the world, even in our own time, been multi¬
plied bjr steam! But what is steam compared with the unwea¬
ried, spontaneous, and self renewing power, which now the mag¬
net promises to exert in the service of man 1 And who shall as¬
sign bounds to the researches of the human mind ; and who shall
estimate the resources now locked up in the great store-house of
nature % We know that the race may be indefinitely multiplied ;
and we know the power of mind acting on mind, and developing
all the faculties, by that reciprocation of thought which makes
the knowledge and power of all, the knowledge and power of
each. See what has been achieved! The lightning of heaven
has been brought down to earth, and made to do the work of a
harmless drudge; and the cold bosom of the stream has been
kindled into flame, and made the source of light and heat. Is
there no alchemy by which stones shall be made bread, and the
means of subsistence multiplied in proportion to the progressive
increase of the human race ? None can say that this may not
be so. None can say that there is a mystery in physical science
which man shall not successfully explore, nor an agent in nature
so unmanageable, nor a substance so inert that it shall not be¬
come the docile and energetic servant of his will.
What destiny awaits him who can tell ? He was made a little
lower than the angels. Is he, even here on earth, to renounce
this subordination, and take an equal place by the side of these
winged ministers of their maker's pleasure 1
Who can think of these things, and not sadden at the thought
that all this may be so, but not for him ? He may catch the en¬
thusiasm of science, and eagerly watch the progress of those in¬
vestigations which promise such glorious discoveries; but in the-
moment when anticipations are most cheering, and hope is
brightest, there is a voice that whispers,
" Gaze on, while yet thy gladdened eye may see:
A morrow conies, when they are not for thee;
But creeping things shall revel in their spoil.
And fit thy clay tq fertilize the soil."
7
So true it is, "As a flower of the field man flourisheth, and the
wind passeth over it and it is gone; and the place thereof shall
know it no more."
What then % Shall we murmur that such is to be our fate,
when in other moods we exult in our high destiny, and boast
ourselves of the advantages which so eminently distinguish this
generation from all that have gone before it % And is there not
besides a graver, and perhaps a sager frame of mind, in which
we doubt whether this sort of distinction is indeed a thing
to rejoice in ? In the midst of this age of wonders, and in the
feverish excitement of this hurried march of mind, does not a
sigh at times escape us, when we think of the untaught wisdom,
the simple virtues, and the quiet enjoyments of those who al¬
ready sleep in the tomb that is opening to receive us %
Man shall multiply till the earth swarms with the race. Will
the individual man be happier then than now 1 He shall find
new sources of enjoyment, till all of splendor and luxury and de¬
light that art can now supply shall seem mean, insipid and tame.
Will his pleasures be sweeter, his sleep calmer, his sum of en¬
joyment greater, and his measure of suffering less than now 1
He shall mount up on the wings of science, and the stars shall
teach him their mysteries: he shall plunge into the depths of
ocean, and draw from thence the secrets of the abyss; and won¬
der shall cease, and mystery shall be no more. Will he be deeper
read in that wisdom which gives peace to the soul, and guides it
safely amid the temptations which beset prosperity, and in a mo¬
ment plunge it in stains " eternity shall not efface V And he who
sleeps in that peace which God denies not to the humblest crea¬
ture, who, knowing nothing else, knows himself as he is, and his
maker as his redeemer, and meekly submits to his dispensations,
and confidingly rejoices in his promises:—should such a one be
awakened from the tomb, to witness the glories of that intellec¬
tual millenium, which the votaries of science anticipate, would
he find cause to regret that his Creator had been pleased to ap¬
point his time on earth in a day of comparative darkness and ig¬
norance % Would he not find the truth of that which has been
true since the days of Solomon ? There was then nothing new
8
under the sun; nor is there now; nor will there ever be: for all
that was, and is, and shall be,—all is vanity: all is vanity and
vexation of spirit.
Gentlemen—twenty-five years ago, I stood among the inhabi¬
tants of this place, a busy actor in the busy scenes of that day.
I was then in the flush of vigorous and aspiring manhood. The
frost of age has now settled on my head, and ambition is tarned,
and passion is quelled; and the long vista of hope, which then
extended before me, has been traversed; and the tomb, which ter¬
minates it, (then unseen in the distance,) now near at hand, dis¬
plays its open portals fearfully distinct. My eye, turn where it
might, then rested on familiar faces:—and friends, never to be
forgotten, cheered me in my struggles, consoled me in defeat and
triumphed with me in success. " There is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother," and such a one I had.* Where is he now?
Where are they all; the reckless and the joyous, the kind, the
good, the generous, the brave—where are they % Knock at the
gates of death, and there demand them, and the answer shall
be given, when the archangel's trump shall echo througli the
hollow recesses, and burst the marble jaws of the tomb. Ml in¬
deed are not gone. Some few, like myself,
" Some few, all weak and withered of their force,
Rest on the verge of dark eternity,
Like stranded wrecks."
Will you pardon, gentlemen, this allusion to the past ? Or will
you deny all sympathy to one, who, in a scene like this, and at a
moment when the throb of hope beats strongest in your hearts,
and when all is eager anticipation of the spirit-stirring strifes and
triumphs of opening life, would turn your thoughts to the for-
* The friend here alluded to was John H. Speed, Esq., of Boydton; a
gentleman of the bar, who died at a very early age, but not without having
first established a reputation for talent, spirit, integrity and energy, which
insured him the respect of all who knew him. All these qualities the grave
covers; but in addition to these he had secured to himself that best of
blessings, of which the full fruition is reserved for the world beyond the
tomb.
9
gotten dead % It is perhaps unreasonable: but in such a scene it
is natural for me, when
"I see around me the wide field revive,
With fruits, and fertile promise, and the spring
Come forth her work of gladness to contrive,
With all her reckless birds upon the wing,
To turn from all she brings to those she cannot bring."
Yet think me not, I pray you, insensible or indifferent to the
value of other changes which time has wrought in this place.
I should indeed deserve to be stigmatised as the " querulus et diffi-
cilis laudator temporis acti," could I forbear to congratulate you on
those changes, and especially on the moral and intellectual im¬
provement, which are no where, perhaps, so striking and encou¬
raging as at this spot. It is the contemplation of this improve¬
ment which has prompted the thoughts I have uttered, and sug¬
gested the theme to which I propose to invite jrnur attention.
It is impossible to witness the advance of science and the pro¬
gress of society in all the arts of life, without a saddening thought
of that primeval curse, which, like the sword of the cherub, still
flames before the gate of that only paradise of the human heart,
a state of sinless purity. There may be, and I believe there is,
no assignable limit to the intellectual attainments and physical
triumphs of man. God has given him dominion over the earth,
and all that it contains, and to conquer and possess it, like the
Israelites of old, is his appointed task and his manifest destiny.
God has given him " dominion over the fish of the sea, and over
the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth on
the earth," and all these things are subject to him. The might
of the elephant, and the speed of the horse, and the talons of the
falcon, and the wings of the dove, are his instruments, and the
serpent's fang is disarmed of its venom, and the fierceness of the
tiger crouches to his mastery. In all the earth one thing, and
one alone, rebels against him, and defies him. It is his
own heart. The stain of far-descended ancestral sin is upon
it, and it is not, and it cannot be subject to that will which should
be his. " Deceitful above all things, who can know it V Alas!
how vain the hope that the discoveries of science, and all the tri-
2
10
umphs of art, will do more than gild his wretchedness, and make
his misery conspicuous in hopeless splendor, while he heeds not
the voice of him, who has threatened to " curse his blessings," if
he does not receive them as his maker's gifts, and learn to sub¬
due his passions and his appetites to his maker's will!
What study then so important as the study of himself 1 What
knowledge so precious as the knowledge of that mystery of ini¬
quity in his own heart, which ever lurks like a serpent amid the
flowers with which he bedecks his path: which can turn honey
to gall, and light to darkness, and blessings to curses 1 It is upon
this knowledge that the value of all other knowledge depends.
All other light without this is darkness,—" darkness visible," but
serving " to discover sights of wo."
" The proper study of mankind is man."
To all men, in all conditions, self-knowledge and self-control are
indispensable to happiness. And if this be true of all, how em¬
phatically is it true of those who know no human authority but
that which they themselves create ! In the establishment of this
authority; in fixing its extent; in regulating the manner of its
exercise ; in selecting those to whom it is to be delegated, how
important a duty do they perform! And he—who stretches forth
his hand to receive the sceptre of command, to minister between
God and man in the important task of giving law to will and
appetite—how high the function to which he is called ! What
qualities does it demand—what wisdom; what prudence ; what
virtue, in him who aspires to it!
Does this thought seem new and strange 1 It may well do so,
accustomed as you are to see the suffrage of the citizen conferred
as a matter of compliment or favor, under no guidance but that of
whim or partiality; and the authority of government assumed for
the gratification of a childish vanily, or the accomplishment of
some selfish and unworthy purpose. Bear with me then, I pray
you, while I endeavor to vindicate the truth of what I have just
said, and to " show the line and the predicament wherein you
range," in all that pertains to government, under the king of
kings, the law-giver of law-givers, the ruler of the universe.
11
It gives me pleasure to believe that I am addressing an audi¬
ence, who will not dislike to be reminded that the God whose
power is over all things ; who commands the sun and moon in
their seasons; and guides the planets through the pathless hea¬
vens j and sends the wayward yet obedient comet on his errands
into the deep abyss of space unfathomable; yet, condescends to
interest himself in all that concerns a being so insignificant as
man: that he whom angels and archangels obey, yet deigns to
engage the service of the sons of Adam. What service ? What
can he need, that he should ask any thing at our hands 1 " If
he were hungry, surely he would not tell us, for the world is his,
and the fulness thereof." It is not sacrifices and burnt-offerings
he demands at our hands. " He will take no bullock out of our
house, nor he goat out of our flocks," for " he knows all the fowls
of the mountain; and the beasts of the forest, and the cattle on a
thousand hills are his." For what service were we designed—>
we with our limited faculties, and feeble powers, and fleeting
breath ? For what: but that we should " offer unto God thanks¬
giving, and pay our vows to the most high ; and call upon him
in the day of trouble ?" It is the heart of man that he requires,
and the subordination of the heart is all the service he demands.
Gentlemen; if it may be permitted to one not worthy to take that
holy name upon his lips, to scan the purposes of the most high,
may we not entertain the thought, that the very weakness, wThich,
when we have done all we can, leaves us yet unprofitable ser¬
vants, is implanted in the nature of man, as the means of quali¬
fying him for the only service God requires of him 1 It is through
his wants and infirmities that he is made subject to the discipline
of life; and what is the end and effect of all that discipline, but
to purge the heart of the selfishness of self-love, and to subdue
the wilfulness of self-will % Why else is the helplessness of in¬
fancy inflicted, and the child of immortality condemned, through
that long pupilage, to an authority wThich controls all his actions,
and moulds his mind, and sways his affections, and reaches even
to the thoughts and desires of his heart % Why else do the infir¬
mities of nature compel a reciprocal dependence of men upon each
other, for innumerable offices without which the race must perish ?
12
Why is society thus made necessary to man, but that he may learn
to submit his will to the laws of society? Why is government made
necessary to the authority and existence of social order, but to
familiarize him with the idea that crime shall not go unpunished ?
From the cradle to the grave, obedience to something besides his
own will is the lesson inculcated and enforced; and by this lesson
the pride of man is humbled, and his selfishness is rebuked, and
his affections are expanded, and his heart is purified, and made
worthy to be a temple where God may dwell.
When we reflect on these things, we are made sensible that all
the authority to which man is made subject on earth is God's in¬
strument for the accomplishment of his great work in the regene¬
ration of his fallen nature. We are thus made to see how true it
is, and in what sense it is true, <! that the powers that be are or¬
dained of God ; that there is no power but of him; that whoso¬
ever resisteth the salutary restraints of social order and discipline
resisteth God ; and that by him kings reign, and princes decree
justice."
I beseech you, gentlemen, wrong me not so far, as to suppose
that I mean to revive the exploded and impious maxims of king¬
craft, which consecrate the authority and person of princes as by
the sanction of divine appointment. Government is decreed of
God; and the decree is enforced by a sanction so cogent, that the
race of man must perish if it be not obeyed. Government is
decreed of God: its authority is from him; and it is his minister
and co-worker in his great purpose of subduing the heart of man
to the obedience of the gospel. But who they are that shall exer¬
cise the powers of government, and what shall be the mode and
measure of their authority, are matters which he leaves to man to
decide for himself. That he be careful to decide wisely and dis¬
creetly, is a duty which he owes not more to himself than to others,
and most of all, to his maker. It is God's will that restraints
shall be placed on passion and appetite. They who struggle
against these restraints resist his will. They, who, being blessed
by his providence with the high privilege of choosing their form
of government, and enacting their own laws, forbear to impose
them, slight his authprity, and thwart his gracious purpose. They,
13
who, being entrusted with the choice of their own rulers, elevate
to that high function men disposed to neglect or abuse their autho¬
rity - to connive at crime, and make a league with iniquity; these
insult their maker, and bring contempt on his ordinances and his
providence. But vainly do they strive against his will. It is his
decree that self-control is the inseparable condition of political free¬
dom ; and that they who, being free, refuse to put moral chains
on their own appetites, shall establish over themselves a master,
who shall load them with fetters of iron. The history of all the
free governments which have flourished and decayed, is the his¬
tory of the fulfilment of this decree.
I do not affirm the divine right of kings or numbers. No parti¬
cular form of government is of divine appointment; but it is the
decree of Heaven, not proclaimed in thunder, nor engraved on
stone, but written on the heart, and stamped into the nature of
man, that government of some sort there shall be. It is the will
of Heaven, that passion shall be submitted to the dominion of
reason; and that the evil propensities of the creature be subjected
to those restraints which are necessary to subdue him to the au¬
thority of his Creator. What these shall be depends at first on
himself. The yoke that reason imposes is easy. To him who
voluntarily assumes this, no more is necessary; while he whose
ideas of freedom demands an exemption from all restraint, and
who therefore gives himself up to the dominion of passion, pre¬
sently finds himself chained down with fetters imposed by the
hands of others. Such must be the consequence of every attempt
to carry freedom beyond that limit which a respect for the rights
of others and the law of God prescribes.
It has been truly said, by an enlightened foreigner,* whom I
am proud to quote, that man is, by nature, a political animal, and
that his natural state is a state of political society. " The state,"
says he—that is government of some sort, " is aboriginal with
man: it is no voluntary association; no contrivance of art, or
invention of suffering ; ho company of shareholders; no machine ;
bo work of contract by individuals who previously lived out of it;
* Professor Lieber, of the University of South Carolina.
14
no necessary evil; no ill of humanity, which will be cured in
time and by civilization; no accidental thing; no institution
above, and separate from society; no instrument of one or a few:
the state is a form and faculty of mankind to lead the species to¬
ward perfection. It is the glory of man."
Is it then a light thing, gentlemen, to be placed in a condition
which charges upon us all the responsibility for the form in which
this institution shall be framed, and the manner of its operation ?
You must reject as idle speculations the thoughts that I have
suggested, or you must be sensible, that no object can be of more
importance, than to qualify ourselves to act wisely and worthily
our parts in an affair of so much moment. And will you permit
yourselves to believe, that the necessary qualification is to be
acquired by charging the memory with a few specious political
maxims, calculated to cheat us into the belief, that, though, in all
things else, bound to conform our conduct to the dictates of jus¬
tice and prudence, yet, in this high concernment, we are free to
give ourselves up to the impulses of passion and the suggestions
of caprice?
The accident of birth has lately placed the crown of a mighty
kingdom on the head of a young woman: and this circumstance
communicates an air of romance to the transactions of her court,
and invests them with an unusual interest. The papers on both
sides of the Atlantic are full of anecdote and details on that sub¬
ject. We see her exercising her august authority to regulate the
head-dresses of the ladies, and to decide the color and adjust the
tie of the cravats of her courtiers. Sinking the character of the
queen in that of the woman, her most serious thoughts have been
engaged in the selection of a husband; and, in the critical pos¬
ture of her affairs, she permits herself to think that the services
of the wisest, purest and ablest men in the kingdom are to be re¬
jected, because they cannot be accepted without some sacrifice of
her private predilections. We can see the folly and wickedness
of this, and there needs no Daniel to read the handwriting on the
wall which denounces her doom and that of her empire. What
is the source of this fond and fatal delusion ?
According to the forms of the constitution, she is taught
15
to speak of her fleets, her armies, her parliament, and her peo¬
ple. She has heard of the divine right of kings, and has per¬
haps learned to look upon the ceremony of installation as an
anointing from on high. Can we wonder, then, if, looking abroad
on the wide and flourishing land over which she reigns, on the
commerce that whitens every ocean with its sails, on the well-
appointed armies, whose force is felt beyond the Ganges, and the
numerous fleets, which, like the bird of Jove, carry her bolts in
their pounces to the uttermost verge of the sea, can we wonder, if,
while musing upon all this, a voice should whisper in her ear,
"For thy pleasure all these things are and were created?" If
such infatuation as this possesses her mind, we shall be at no loss
to understand how she may believe that her favor confers an
honor in comparison with which the noblest birth and the high¬
est personal merit may sink into contempt. We shall no longer
wonder to see her endeavoring to degrade all that is illustrious in
her kingdom, and insulting the descendants of statesmen, warri¬
ors and kings, and the men whose services have established her
throne, and whose fame is the glory of England, by seeking to
give precedence over all these to a foreigner * a boy, a singing,
rhyming coxcomb, for no better reason than that she has chosen
him to be the partner of her bed. With the example before her
of the fate of all those of her predecessors, who have ventured to
sink the royal character in that of friend, or paramour, or hus¬
band, she has the folly to suppose that the qualities which please
a lady's eye, the accomplishments that grace her drawing-room
and enliven her boudoir, entitle the possessor to more of the con¬
ventional tokens of respect and honor than a lineage traced from
the victors of Cressy, the barons of Runnimede, or the conqueror
himself: more even than the laurelled crown of him beneath
whose prowess sunk that terror of the earth, before whom all
* It is not my intention to deny that the husband of the English queen
may be a very well-behaved and modest young gentleman. If he be com¬
pared only with others of his age, it would be unjust to speak of him other¬
wise. But when he is put forward with a claim of precedence over such a
man as Lord Wellington, it is allowable to speak of him with contempt.
Unwarranted pretension always excites, and therefore justifies contempt.
16
Europe trembled, and whose power shook, not only the throne of
her ancestors, but the very foundations of her island kingdom.
It is of course that she should claim the right to surround herself
with counsellors suited to her taste, and to be guided by the artful
flattery of an imbecile profligate in preference to the graver wis¬
dom of the men to whom England looks to save her from im¬
pending ruin.
Gentlemen, we all see the folly of these things, and we can all
anticipate, with some degree of certainty, the mischiefs in which
they must end. But what is the root of all? What is it, but the
fatal mistake of one, who, being inirusted by providence with the
high prerogative of government, supposes that, in that station, so
exalted, yet so responsible, it is not the will of her maker, but
her own, that is to be consulted ? And whence is this mistake but
in her ignorance of the deep mysteries of political science, in
which lies hid so much that the temporal welfare of man requires
him to know ? On this knowledge, depends not only the security
of government itself, but the preservation and order of society,
the intellectual and moral improvement of the race, and its ad¬
vance to that high, refined, enlightened civilization, which is the
end of man's being and his destiny.
Gentlemen—are the duties of that unfortunate young woman
more difficult than our own ? Are the tasks of royalty more in¬
tricate and perplexed, more full of paradox and mystery than that
of se/f-government ? Is it harder to understand the structure and
principles of a constitution, which conforms, in so many particu¬
lars, to that model with which statesmen are most familiar, than
the complicated machinery of institutions like our own ? If this
be so, we may then feel justified in censuring the follies and ca¬
prices of crowned heads, and yet, resting in contented ignorance,
take no part of the censure to ourselves. If this be so, we may
condemn the rash and impious presumption, which, without due
preparation, ventures on duties of such magnitude and importance,
and, at the same time perhaps, find some excuse for our own
neglect of those qualifications, which fit the free citizen for the
task of self-government. But may it not deserve a serious thought
whether some part of the judgment which we pronounce upon
17
the sceptred rulers of the earth may not recoil on our own heads ?
"To censure others while we act the same," is a common error,
and unless we feel assured that the duties of self-government are
so simple, so easy and so consistent with self-indulgence, as to
require no preparation of the mind or heart, we may find it hard to
excuse ourselves for neglecting our own political education, and
that of our children. It is not pleasant, when we have denounced
the crimes and derided the follies of others, to be found in the
same faults and to hear the whisper of conscience: aMutato
nomine, de te fabula narratur.1'
When we hear of a sceptred ruler, and a subject people, we
have before us ideas with which the world has been familiar from
the very infancy of government. We may speculate on the
source of his authority, and the motives of their obedience. But
let the authority be admitted, and the habit of obedience estab¬
lished, and the rest is plain. There is no paradox in such a case.
To study the interests of his people, to exercise his authority for
the promotion of their welfare, which must be his,' and steadily
to apply that moral discipline and cultivation, which may make
obedience liberal and duty pleasant, is the ruler's task. With
the nature of this task all men are made familiar by the habits of
domestic life. The father, who feels, as a father should, for the
happiness and virtue of his children, is in the constant exercise
of analogous duties, and he has been prepared for them by his
own experience of their salutary influence on his infancy and
youth.
But when we endeavor to form distinct ideas of that relation,
in which every man is at once ruler and subject; of the sovereign-
citizen, who recognizes no laws but those of his own enactment,
and no authority not constituted by himself; who acknowledges
subordination to the laws, yet claims to stand on a footing of
equality with those who enact, and those who enforce them ;
who must be and remain a slave to the wayward sway of appe¬
tite and passion, unless by his own act, he imposes chains on
these masters of human action, and subdues himself to the
dominion of a reason not his own: when we endeavor, in con¬
triving the scheme of self-government, to determine the relation
3
18
of cause and effect; to determine the nature and degree of that
action and re-action, in which government is seen to make man
what he is, while man in turn, because of what he is, stamps on the
government the impress of his own character: we find ourselves
entangled in a web of paradox so intricate, that philosophy herself
is at a loss to fix the point where her speculations on consequences
and results should commence. Which is cause and which is
consequence ? Are all people capable of self-government 1 If
ignorant, can they know what is good 1 If vicious, will they
choose it ? Who shall enlighten their ignorance, when they
select their own teachers, and reject all who inculcate unpalata¬
ble truths 1 Who shall bring their passions under the control of
reason, and condemn their vices to the lash of the law, when
they are in condition' to denounce as unreasonable every maxim
which does not give license to passion, and when their own hands
must place the scourge in that of the executioner 1
Do I state this too strongly : and are you prepared to say, that,
if these things be so, then the problem of free government is
impracticable, and the very idea of self-government an absurdity 1
Gentlemen: this conclusion would be just, were there no other
terms in the proposition besides those I have adverted to. The
scheme of perpetual motion is not more absurd, than the idea of
causes producing and reproducing indefinitely their own causes.
There must be an agency independent of these, a force from with¬
out to set in motion this endless series of cause and consequence,
just as the counterpollent forces of the planetary system do but
regulate the impulse imparted by the hand of the Creator.
Gentlemen: There is such an agency, and there is a power
that wields it. That power is God, and that agency is the inborn
sense of right and wrong, the native love of good and aversion
to all that is evil, which is among the strongest instincts of man,
implanted in his heart by God himself. To deny these, is to
deny the capacity of man for self-government, or to affirm that
effects may exist without a cause, and action without motive
and against motive.
In this instinct of human nature is the secret of man's capa¬
city for freedom; and here is the starting point both for the
19
theory and practice of free government. Is it then a light task
for the political philosopher to adapt his institutions to the neces¬
sity of preserving and cultivating this principle of action, lest it
may perish in the using? Is there no caution necessary to pre¬
vent those who acknowledge no power but that delegated by
themselves, from forgetting that it was established as a restraint
upon themselves; and thus imagining that it is never to be
exercised but in strict subordination to the will, and pliant subser¬
viency to the caprices it was meant to control ? Is there no
danger that the native sense of right may be obliterated from the
minds of those who are called to minister in great affairs; that
the exercise of power, engendering the lust of power, may corrupt
those who wield it, and tempt them to corrupt the tribunal to
which alone on earth they are responsible ? It was the saying
of a wise man and an able statesman, that the business of educa¬
tion is to train and prepare the boy for the tasks and duties of the
man. How self-evident is this truth! And how important is
that training which is to qualify the sovereign-citizen of a free
state for the tasks and duties of that responsible character : the
training which shall teach him to know himself; to correct the
infirmities of his own nature; to medicine the distempers of his
own mind ; to stop his ears against the voice of passion, yet
leave them open to the counsels of wisdom ; to tie up his hands
from mischief, yet leave them unfettered, that they may do the
great work to which he is appointed; to command those whom
he obeys, and obey those whom he commands, and this because
they command his obedience in virtue of his command to them !
These ideas are just, in their application to free government
in every form, and under all circumstances. They make it the
duty of every people, who would preserve their freedom, to keep
a watch over themselves, and to guard their hearts with all dili¬
gence, since out of them are the issues of temporal freedom, as
well as eternal life. In the execution of this task, they need the
benefit of all the precautions that wisdom can contrive, in those
seasons of dispassionate reflection, which nations, like individuals,
do not always enjoy. The institutions established at such times,
may be likened to the wise precautions of Ulysses against the
20
allurements of the syren. Aware of his infirmity, and antici¬
pating temptation, he gave the helm to those who were secured
against it; and the last use he made of his authority, before he
was bound to the mast, was to command his companions not to
release him till the danger was past, whatever signs of impa¬
tience might escape him. Happy for him that their senses were
not only closed to the voice of the treacherous charmer, but also
to his persuasive eloquence. They could not fail to understand
his signs, but they obeyed him in disregarding them. They saved
him in spite of himself: but it was his wisdom acting through
them that saved them all; and never did they show their respect
for him more, than in subjecting his insane will to the authority
of his own sober reason.
Of a like nature, gentlemen, are the restraints imposed by con¬
stitutional limitations on the authority of the people over those
appointed by themselves to act for the time in their name. What¬
ever they may require of their official servants, in contravention
of constitutional obligations, it is their duty to show respect to
the sovereign will of the people, by disregarding such require¬
ments, " honoring them more in the breach than by the obser¬
vance." Such things are apt to provoke resentment; and he who
has the firmness to do his duty, loses the favor of the people. But
the hour of excitement passes by, and when the reign of reason
is restored, he who had dared to serve them in spite of themselves,
is rewarded with such honor as mean compliance never wins.
Such is the use of those political charters by which powers are
delegated and defined, and the inherent and inextinguishable
sovereignty of the people themselves is put under salutary disa¬
bilities and restraints, and in which the principles of freedom and
the grand maxims of government are consecrated.
To put these things to their proper use, and to preserve them
from contempt and destruction, they must be studied; they must
be understood in their letter, and in their spirit and principles.
Trust me, gentlemen, this is no easy lesson, nor one that is to be
learned without long and various preparation. To master it
thoroughly, he who would do so must bring to the task a mind
deeply instructed in the nature of man, and in the history of
21
government—a mind capable of detecting causes in their effects
and anticipating effects from causes.
Of this nature is the study of all government, even the most
simple. Unfortunately it is never so difficult as when the consti¬
tution we wish to understand is one contrived to preserve itself
from innovation and destruction, at the hands of those whose
freedom it is meant to guard. The machinery of despotism is
simple, its action is direct, and its methods coarse. In proportion
as government is free, so is its structure intricate and delicate, and
liable to derangement from the unskilful hand of meddling igno¬
rance. The history of man affords no example so well illustrating
this truth, as our own.
Reason demonstrates and experience has proved, that, in every
government, the power to be exercised by the ruler will bear a
certain proportion to the extent, the wealth, and the resources of
the community, over which he presides. With these it must in¬
crease, as society advances in the career of improvement and pros¬
perity, always most rapid where freedom is most perfect and best
secured. The power of the community is the power of the go¬
vernment. It reacts upon the people with an energy always pro¬
portioned to its direct action, and enhanced by the increasing
means of influence, the increasing sources of corruption, and the
more frequent opportunities of usurpation. The administrators
of an empty treasury can rarely secure the public favor, but by
strict integrity and fidelity to every duty. When prosperity pours
into the coffers of the state the confluent streams, which take
their rise in the overflowing gains of every art and every occu¬
pation, the means of winning the mercenary support of those
who are ready to sell their country for gold are fearfully increased.
The honors that tempt ambition to the service of the usurper are
not in the gift of the ruler of a petty state. But when his country
takes a place in the foremost rank of the nations of the earth,
and they who represent her may contend for precedence with
the ministers of imperial crowns, the badge of office is no longer
a mere toy to tempt the childish vanity of little men, but they
whose hands were formed to wield the destiny of empires, find
objects to engage even their ambition, in subordinate stations, and
22
yield themselves the willing and efficient instruments of daring
and splendid usurpation.
Aware of these things, the founders of our institutions saw the
necessity of effecting a distribution of the authority of govern¬
ment, so wide and various, as to afford a reasonable security
against such an accumulation of power and influence in the hands
of any one functionary as to endanger the independence of the rest,
and the liberty of the whole community. It was with this view,
that they ventured on the experiment of a government without
example in all past history; dissociating all those powers which
reach the private relations, and affect the private rights, and indi¬
vidual acts and interests of private men, from those which in
their exercise, afford the means of engaging the co-operation of
the interested or aspiring, by lures addressed to the avarice of the
one or the ambition of the other. In laboring to carry this pur¬
pose into effect, they have established institutions, which have
commanded for their founders the gratitude of America, and the
admiration of the world. Yet so anomalous is their plan, that, to
this day, the ablest expounders of the constitution are not agreed
upon its fundamental principles, and so little does it resemble any
other government, whether past or present, that all attempts to il¬
lustrate and explain it by analogies to them, are sure to lead to
dangerous mistakes. It is not my purpose at this time, to take
either side of any one of the numerous discussions which grow
out of it. I do but advert to the fact, that such discussions have
taken place, that new ones are continually arising, that every
day adds to the interest which attends them; every day brings
nearer the time when they must be decided, for good or ill, by
the people, who alone can decide them; and every day shows
more and more the importance of deciding wisely and discreetly.
Gentlemen; if the founders of this singular system deserve
that praise for wisdom which has been universally awarded to
them; if, as we all believe, the constitution established by them
is the palladium of our safety; if the loss of that would be followed
by the loss of peace, prosperity, security and freedom, while, in
preserving it, all these are safe; how earnest and devoted should
be our efforts to secure this inestimable blessing to our posterity!
23
With what preparation and what rites should they, who are to
guard the temple of freedom, the depository of this precious talis¬
man, be trained and consecrated to this hallowed duty !
But, gentlemen, among us there is no order of political priest¬
hood, to minister in that temple in behalf of all the rest. We have
no hereditary lawgivers, no Levite race, who are to stand between
the people and the altar, and to receive and sanctify and present
their offerings there. In this, as in that higher worship which
we owe to God himself, each man must render for himself the only
sacrifices that can be acceptable; to the one, the humble and
contrite heart; to the other, the mind understanding^ devoted to
freedom guarded by law. Freedom, like the Lord of hosts, dwells
not in temples made with hands. Ye are yourselves the tem¬
ples, both of freedom, and of him who made you free. Beware
lest you profane them! The spirit of God will as soon dwell
with the impure of heart, as freedom will dwell with sloth, and
luxury, and avarice, and that impatience of salutary restraint, in
which the rights of all are sacrificed in the strife of all, each con¬
tending for license which freedom disallows. In politics as in re¬
ligion, the truth alone can make you free, and there is no free¬
dom, as there is no salvation for such as close their ears to the
things that make for their peace.
Next after that truth on which the eternal welfare of man de¬
pends, what study can be so important to the youth of this repub¬
lic, as that of our own institutions % What work of man so much
deserves to engage your attention, as those charters in which your
rights and your duties are alike defined ? What philosophy so
worthy of your profoundest thoughts as the philosophy of govern¬
ment ? What science so vast, so comprehensive, so important % It
involves the study of man, his nature, his rights, his duties, the
good and evil that are in him, his reason, his passions, his infir¬
mities, his vices, his physical, intellectual and moral capacities
and wants. If the thoughts I have already offered have seemed
of any worth, they must have suggested to you the importance
of much that we do not know, or know not as we ought. They
should have made you sensible that the function of a sovereign
citizen is an affair not of right alone, but of duty also; and that
24
he who presumes to act in that exalted character, far from being
subject to no law but his own will, no reason but his own caprice,
is exercising a high duty, to which he is called by God himself,
whose unworthy instrument he is, in his great work—the moral
government of man.
Are these suggestions of reason to be silenced, by the oft re¬
peated cry that the people can do no1 wrong, and that their voice
is the voice of God % Gentlemen—such is the language that
all sovereigns hear from their flatterers. The maxim that the
king can do no wrong is a maxim of the English constitution
with which we are all familiar, and which, in its most absurd
sense, is never more current in the mouths of courtiers, than
when the throne is filled by a prince whose crimes dishonor it.
The infallibility of the pope is an absurdity which all Europe
believed, or pretended to believe, for nearly a thousand years, and
he is no true catholic, whose faith is to be at all shaken, by the
innumerable contradictory interpretations of the scriptures, each
proceeding from the same infallible source, and each condemning
all the rest. In like manner, (for its terms are universal) our
maxim is applied alike to the vicious and ignorant, as to virtuous
and enlightened communities ; and political revolutions, in which
the idol of one day is the victim of the next, and that which yes¬
terday was wise and just, is, by the same unerring tribunal, to¬
day denounced as foolish and wicked, must not be permitted ta
awaken a doubt of its truth.
What says reason to these things 1 What says the voice of
truth from on high 1 When Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat
upon his throne, and made an oration, the people gave a shout,
saying, " It is the voice of a god, and not of a man; and immediately
the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the
glory, and he was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost." It
is not responsibility to human laws, and' human authority, that
makes the test of what is right or wrong. The people are irre¬
sponsible in this sense, and none can sit in judgment upon them,
and there can be no authority to punish their transgressions.
Their power is indeed, and most emphatically from God. What
then ? Is every exercise of it therefore righteous in his sight ?
25
" Knowest thou not," said Pilate, {! that I have power to crucify
thee?" Jesus answered, " Thou couldst have no power against
me, except it were given thee from above." Do these words jus¬
tify the sentence which doomed their sinless author to the death
of a malefactor ?
Gentlemen; the power of the people is from God; and that
his blessing attends its discreet and righteous exercise, is proved
by the prosperity and happiness, and the advance of science and
art and intellectual improvement which ever attend it. But think,
I pray you, whether this fact does not betoken an ultimate pur¬
pose, the final accomplishment of which may belong to a remote
generation, and to which our short time on earth should be de¬
voted in subordination to his will 1 If thk purpose is the perfec¬
tion of man in all that civilization can achieve, and if political
freedom is God's chosen means for accomplishing this, how heavy
is the condemnation of those, who, being called to work together
with him, to this great end, profane their high function, by using
it to accomplish the petty purposes of a day, suggested by their
own evil passions! What place should ambition have in the
heart of him who is born to this illustrious destiny % Can worldly
honor and distinction, and the breath of man, add any thing to the
glory of him who acts well his part in such a work as this ? Is
it the leader's truncheon, is it the ruler's sceptre, that distinguishes
the name of Washington, and secures him the foremost place
among those whose memory shall never die ? Is it not rather,
that God was in all his thoughts; that in all things he devoted
himself to the high purposes of the master of the world, and acted
as one called to do Ms maker's will, and not Ms own ? He did his
maker's will, and here we see the results. He effected his maker's
purpose, and in the fruits of his labors we find an intimation what
that purpose is. With what humble thankfulness and earnest zeal
should we devote ourselves to the farther advancement of that
gracious design, which, by the agency of free government, and
the instrumentality of beings so insignificant as ourselves, has
made this wilderness to blossom as the rose, and will never cease,
till the whole earth is full of the knowledge of God, and of that
4
26
freedom which they who serve him in spirit and in truth alone are
destined to enjoy 1
Gentlemen; if there be any truth in the ideas I have laid before
you, I owe the knowledge of that truth to one of those illustrious
men, whose names you have consecrated by adopting them as
the designation of your institution. You have engraven the name
of Randolph on the shrine here erected to literature, to science
and to God. What offering so fit for that altar; what offering so
proper for me to lay upon it, as this poor attempt to embody and
preserve something of the teachings of that deep sagacity and
profound wisdom which distinguished him, and which he labored
to impart to me*. Love to the brother—gratitude to the bene¬
factor—even these sentiments should be subordinate to my vene¬
ration for the man, from whose eloquent lips I have learned more
than from all my own experience and reflection, and from all the.
men with whom I have ever conversed, and from all the books
I ever read. How so well can I manifest these sentiments,
how so fitly express my gratitude for the honor done to his me¬
mory by you, as by availing myself of this occasion, to bring to
your ears a faint echo of the words I have heard from him 1
Where so properly could I offer an exhortation to the study of
political philosophy as a branch of academic education, as in a
temple of science on which is inscribed the name of one, whose
life was devoted to that study1? I speak after him, when I say,
that to understand the constitution and laws of our country, in
* It is hoped that this laudatory mention of one whose fame is a part of
his country's history, will not he deemed an offence against the laws of taste
and delicacy, although Mr. Randolph was the speaker's half-brother. He
felt that an acknowledgment was due from him for the honor done to his
distinguished relative, and that he was bound in candor to make known the
source from whence he had himself derived the leading ideas in this ad¬
dress. He trusted too, that their truth would be more sensibly felt when
announced on such authority. It is perhaps to be regretted that the circum¬
stances did not make an opening for any expression of the speaker's high
admiration and profound veneration for that most wise and able man, Mr.
Macon. And yet perhaps the most striking part of the compliment paid to
Mr. Randolph by the founders of the institution, is the association of his
name with that of one whom Mr. R. himself pronounced to be the best and
wisest man of his age and country.
27
their letter, and in their spirit; to explore the philosophy of our
institutions, and to qualify ourselves to act well our several parts,
as sovereign citizens of Virginia, is the great temporal duty which
we owe to God and to man. To God:—for in that we accom¬
plish the earthly end of our being: to our fathers:—for it is the
only fit expression of our gratitude for blessings transmitted to
us: to our children:—because we should not impair the inheri¬
tance we have ourselves received. Thus, and thus only can we
fulfil our duties as members of that great partnership, which not
only unites together the present generation, but which connects
the living with the dead, and with those who are yet to be born;
and in which man is elevated to a sort of fellowship with the
Creator himself.
I deeply feel how unequal I am to the task I have endeavored
to perform; and I feel it the more sensibly, because, in the very
act, 1 am reminded of him, who, above all men was best fitted for
it. His was the mind to understand; his was the faculty to
expound : his was the eloquence to excite. His was the mar"
vellous gift, to
Put so much of his soul into his words,
That others followed, wheresoe'er he called :
And, by the inspiration of his voice,
Cowards, made bold, performed the tasks of valor,
And sloth leaped up, and from his sluggish limbs
Shook off the leaden fetters.
He lived for Virginia. She was his country. She was his
world. And though a step-son's portion was his lot; though his
best endeavors to serve her were sometimes repaid with neglect
and reproach; yet never did his faith waver: never did his zeal
falter: never did his love cool: never did the feverish impatience
of his fiery spirit rebel against her. In his darkest hour, it was
his pride to know, that he had never merited, however he incurred
her displeasure, and to bear meekly all the scoffs with which she
sometimes requited his endeavors to serve her. To rival the
marvellous endowments with which Heaven distinguished him is
not perhaps for any one of us. But to emulate his example in
devoting ourselves to our country, according to the measure of our
28
capacity, is what we all may do. To that effort I would incite
the youth of Virginia; and, that they may make it profitably to
her, and honorably to themselves, I would urge them to devote
themselves, in early life, to those studies which alone can qualify
them to act worthily their parts as sovereign citizens oe this
ancient and illustrious commonwealth.
ERRATA.
Page 5, line 16—for "with which we shall make our children familiar,'"
read "with which use shall make our children familiar."
Page 13, line 23—"ideas of freedom," should be "idea of freedom."
Page 16, line 4—" counsellors" is printed for " councillors."
Page 24, line 11—for "absurd" read "abused."