State convention—Republican-democracy, i 61 
because of its abuses, the government of the people “ over all, by 
all, and for the sake of all.” 
So I shall speak to-night of 
REPUBLICAN-DEMOCRACY, 
Meaning thereby a democracy limited by a constitution and 
qualified by a representative government. It is the rule of the 
people, directly or indirectly exercised, under the limitations of an 
organic law. But, as this organic law is itself only a more formally 
expressed will of the people, and is subject to their revision and 
amendment, we are compelled to go further back, and to a higher 
source, to find our constitution of constitutions. We find this in 
the 
HIGHER LAW, 
—the fundamental part of all laws, constitutions and governments. 
Although twenty years since it was common to regard the doc¬ 
trine of a Higher Law as Utopian and revolutionary, yet none is 
better founded in right or reason, sustained by more weighty 
authority, or more essential in securing conscientious and wise 
action in voter and representative, and therefore more important 
in a republican democracy. A careful examination of a wide 
range of authorities enables me to say, that wise men in all ages 
unite in maintaining one or more of three propositions : 
1— That so far as each individual is concerned, his own con¬ 
science is the supreme law of his action, and must be obeyed at 
all hazards in all private or public affairs. 
2— That the consentaneous opinion of mankind, called jus 
gentium ,, and sometimes the “unwritten law,” as the result of the 
sum of the moral judgments of our fellow beings, and corrective, 
perhaps, of the bias of personal interest or prejudice that may warp 
our personal judgment, is of nearly equal value in determining 
the right or wrong of a given action, and ought constantly to be 
consulted. 
3— That the law of nature—the Divine law, or law of Grod—as 
it is differently termed, according to the supposed source of the 
communication, is subject to the approval of conscience, supreme. 
I need not delay to prove these points. Confucius, the laws of 
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