320 HARRISON, TYLER 



That's born into the world alive, 

 Is either a little Liberal 



Or else a little Conservative." 



If we were to take a hint from mathematical physics 

 we might regard this curious fact as a case under the 

 general law of deviations from an average. Out of a 

 thousand shots fired at a target the deviations in the 

 one direction will very nearly counterbalance those in 

 the other. So in a political society, where free aim 

 can be taken toward the course of action most bene- 

 ficial to the community, the distribution of opinions 

 will be found to follow the same law. The line of 

 average deviation will be swayed now a little to one 

 side, now a little to the other, and the resultant course 

 will be remarkably steady; it will express itself in 

 what we call a conservative and moderate policy. 

 For this reason there is no form of political society so 

 strong, so peaceful, so adaptable, so likely to endure, 

 as an intelligent democracy. It is repression that 

 calls forth radicalism. It is in the unwholesome soil 

 of despotism that anarchist weeds spring up. When 

 the states general are not assembled for nearly two 

 centuries, and class legislation meanwhile goes on 

 briskly, it is time to look out for a reign of terror. 

 In American history the revolutions which have 

 been dreaded by many good people, when there has 

 occurred a change of party supremacy, as in 1801, 

 in 1829, and in 1885, have in general not happened. 

 In the single instance in which a violent convulsion 

 has resulted, in 1861, the exception was of the kind 

 that proves the rule, for the trouble was caused by the 

 existence of negro slavery, an institution utterly incom- 

 patible with the spirit of true democracy. In the other 



