Page:The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper, 1838.djvu/92

86 despotism. The most insinuating and dangerous form in which oppression can overshadow a community is that of popular sway. All the safeguards of liberty, in a democracy, have this in view, as, in monarchies, they are erected against the power of the crown.

The old political saying, that "the people are their own worst enemies," while false as a governing maxim, contains some truth. It is false to say that a people left to govern themselves, would oppress themselves, as monarchs and aristocrats, throughout all time, are known to oppress the ruled, but it is true to say, that the peculiar sins of a democracy must be sought for in the democratical character of the institutions. To pretend otherwise, would be to insist on perfection; for, in a state of society in which there is neither prince nor aristocrats, there must be faultlessness, or errors of a democratic origin, and of a democratic origin only. It is, therefore, a publick duty of the citizen to guard against all excesses of popular power, whether inflicted by mere opinion, or under the forms of law. In all his publick acts, he should watch himself, as under a government of another sort he would watch his rulers; or as vigilantly as he watches the servants of the community at home; for, though possessing the power in the last resort, it is not so absolutely an irresponsible power as it first seems, coming from God, and to be wielded on those convictions of right which God has implanted in our breasts, that we may know good from evil.