15 



as a postulate — requiring no proof — to be stated, only by 

 way of formal declaration, as a preamble to the declaration 

 of rights, which, although a pait of, is precedent to, the Con- 

 stitution of the Commonwealth. That preamble, possibly 

 forgotten by some who hear me, commences thus : 



*' The end of the institution, maintenance, and administra- 

 tion of government is to secure the existence of the body 

 politic, to protect it and to furnish the individuals who com- 

 pose it with the power of enjoying in safety and tranquility 

 their natural rights and the blessings of life." Thus, in a 

 word, are more succinctly and more tersely stated, than per- 

 haps anywhere else, the exact purposes, objects and ends of 

 civil government. Such a government, our fathers designed 

 to make, and such a government substantially has been en- 

 joyed by the people of the commonwealth for nearly a cen- 

 tury. 



How came it to be created ? How is it to be preserved ? 

 These are important enquiries, to which we have been ac- 

 customed to give too little thought. To say that it is the 

 product of popular institutions and is to be sustained by sus- 

 taining popular institutions, is merely to use other language 

 to convey the idea that it exists and is to be preserved as 

 heretofore. But what are popular institutions ? No phrase 

 is more frequently upon the lips of all classes of people, and 

 I suspect, that no phrase is so used with less appreciation of its 

 meaning. Ask an enthusiastic declaimer upon the virtues of 

 popular institutions what he means by the expression, and 

 when he shall have collected himself, he will not be unlikely 

 to say, that he means the right of the people to choose offi- 

 cers and to hold office ; to vote and to be voted for ; or pei - 

 haps he would say that he meant by it only popular govern- 

 ment. Neither of these answers, however, conveys any 

 proper idea of that condition of things that is meant by 

 the language, popular institutions. If popular government 

 means only a government that is satisfactory to and is sus- 

 tained by a majority of the people, then it can scarcely be 



