state Convention—republican-democracy. i 63 
and state, and a widely spread belief that kings are the vicege¬ 
rents and special servants of God. The ruler is still rex deigratia. 
The king can do no wrong. Perhaps, even now, as Falstaff told 
Prince Hal, “ The lion will not touch the true prince even the 
present emperor of Germany, in 1866, reluctantly consented to 
the absorbing, or as we would saj* annexation policy of Bismarck, 
because his “ sincere belief in the divine origin of royal power 
made him reluctant to the last, to consent to the overthrow of 
Other thrones for the benefit of his own,” and this was not ten 
years ago! 
But in this somewhat irreverent age, when “ the tramp of dem¬ 
ocracy’s earthquake feet goes thrilling the wide world through,” 
such theories as these, that would name Isabella of Spain and the 
present Prince of Wales vicegerents of God are regarded scorn¬ 
fully, They are “ played out.” 
In contrast to these ancient opinions, it is demonstrable, from 
what I have already said, that a democracy, as the best expression 
of the moral sentiment of a nation and as the nearest approach to 
the requirements of the divine law, is in a much truer sense of a 
divine origin. I would develop the idea something in this wise : 
1. The first duty of the individual being to obey the higher 
law, the citizen in a democracy, as well as elsewhere, is primarily 
subject thereto, and as elsewhere, should endeavor to obey what 
he believes to be its dictates in his public as well as his private 
/ 
acts. 
2. The requirement of the Higher law in our civic or political 
action, I assume to be expressed in the most general terms by the 
Golden Rule which has been formulated by the highest religious 
and philosophical authorities, and can be determined with suffi¬ 
cient precision. Confucius said “He whose heart is right, and 
bears toward others the same feelings that he has for himself, is 
not far from the moral law of duty declared to men by their ra¬ 
tional nature; he does not do to others what ^he desires they 
should not do to him.” His disciples said, “ The doctrine of our 
master consists in having righteousness of heart and in loving one’s 
neighbor as himself” Plato said, “ It is not right to return an 
injury or to do evil to any man, however one may have suffered 
from him.” Aristotle, when asked how we should treat our 
