200 TRANSACTIONS OP THE 



as the virtue and intelligence of the people maintain a public opin- 

 ion strong enough to hold the Government true to the principles 

 upon which it is founded. If, unfortunately, the pressure of our 

 rapidly increasing population should ever check the intellectual and 

 moral growth of our people, as it has in some other countries, then 

 would come the pause indicating the approach of old age and declin- 

 ing years. And if that pause should be followed by internecine wars, 

 as it naturally would be, the end would not be far off. 



Civil liberty may be likened to the pure mountain stream fed by 

 stainless snows. The mild heat of Summer pressing gently upon 

 the source causes the supply to be continuous and abundant. The 

 natural storms of Winter replenish the melting snows; and so the 

 limpid waters run unceasingly to the seas. But let the volcano 

 burst forth with its raging fires and floods of lava. Then the stream 

 will no longer be a fountain of life, but polluted and poisoned; it will 

 become a source of death, or cease to exist altogether. So in a popu- 

 lar government. Public opinion, from which the fountain of liberty 

 flows, is renewed by the discussion of political questions, as in our 

 frequently recurring elections. They are apart of the means whereby 

 the public conscience and intellect are educated; they are the natural 

 medium through which the will of the people is formed and 

 expressed. But when such contests cease to be a friendly and honest 

 struggle for principle, when they degenerate into a fierce and angry 

 fight for the spoils of office, the results are demoralization, and a 

 tendency to ultimate decay. In the passions of the evil born, men 

 are apt to forget their higher duty to country and to posterity, sacri- 

 ficing all to secure a temporary party triumph. Here is a dangerous 

 spot in our system; and it is mainly to the men of the country that 

 we must always look for the conservatism that will check the heated 

 passions awakened in the populous cities; they have more space to 

 w r ork in, more time for reflection, and being more generally identified 

 with the soil, they are not so apt to desire change merely for the 

 sake of change. 



In this way they become the sheet anchor of the commonwealth. 

 They ma}^ hinder progress somewhat; they may go a little too slow 

 possibly; but we will always have the power of keeping close to that 

 which has been tried and found good to fundamental principles: If 

 they do not accomplish so much in creating a sound public opinion, 

 they will do more in maintaining it. But it is in your power to do 

 a great deal towards creating public opinion. You may not all be 

 able to write book or newspaper articles, or make speeches, but each 

 one of you has the home training of one or more of the future citi- 

 zens of the republic. Perhaps some of you are training future 

 Presidents. It is certain you are educating the men and women 

 who are to rule the country generations hence. That which they 

 learn at schools and universities is not more important, if indeed it 

 is as important, as the things you can teach them at home. Their 

 moral training will be almost wholly under your control, and while 

 the schools are stimulating the intellects, home life is the source 

 mainly from which they will imbibe their notions of right and wrong. 

 You all remember how scrupulous your fathers were in their con- 

 duct towards their neighbors, how prompt to acknowledge every act 

 of kindness, how ready to lend assistance to others when in their 

 power, how particular in returning money or any other article bor- 

 rowed, how attentive to their duties as neighbors in cases of sickness 



