Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 6.djvu/28

Rh realize an idea; the other animated by only commercial ideas, pushing forth to make a fortune or to escape from gaol. Some men brought religion, others only ambition; the consequence is, two antagonistic ideas, with institutions which correspond, antagonistic institutions.

First there is the Democratic idea: that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain natural rights; that these rights are alienable only by the possessor thereof; that they are equal in all men; that government is to organize these natural, unalienable, and equal rights into institutions designed for the good of the governed; and therefore government is to be of all the people, by all the people, and for all the people. Here government is development, not exploitation.

Next there is the Oligarchic idea, just the opposite of this ; that there is no such thing as natural, unalienable, and equal rights, but accidental, alienable, and unequal powers; that government is to organize the might of all, for the good of the governing party; is to be a government of all, by a part, and for the sake of a part. The governing power may be one man. King Monarch; a few men. King Noble; or the majority, King Many. In all these cases, the motive, the purpose, and the means, are still the same, and government is exploitation of the governed, not the development thereof. So far as the people are developed by the government, it is that they may be thereby exploitered.

Neither the Democratic nor the Oligarchic idea is perfectly developed as yet: but the first preponderates most at the north, the latter at the south—one in the free, the other in the slave States.

The settlers did not bring to America the Democratic idea fully grown. It is the child of time. In all great movements there are three periods—first, that of Sentiment—there is only a feeling of the new thing; next of Idea—the feeling has become a thought; finally of Action—the thought becomes a thing. It is pleasant to trace the growth of the Democratic sentiment and idea in the human race, to watch the efforts to make the thought a thing, and found domestic, social, ecclesiastical, and political institutions, corresponding thereto. Perhaps it is easier to trace this here than elsewhere. It has sometimes been claimed that the Puritans came to America to found such institu-