No man with a genius for legislation has appeared in America. They
are rare in the history of the world. There are orators,
politicians, and eloquent men, by the thousand; but the speaker has
not yet opened his mouth to speak who is capable of settling the
much-vexed questions of the day. We love eloquence for its own sake,
and not for any truth which it may utter, or any heroism it may
inspire. Our legislators have not yet learned the comparative value of
free trade and of freedom, of union, and of rectitude, to a nation.
They have no genius or talent for comparatively humble questions of
taxation and finance, commerce and manufactures and agriculture. If we
were left solely to the wordy wit of legislators in Congress for our
guidance, uncorrected by the seasonable experience and the effectual
complaints of the people, America would not long retain her rank among
the nations. For eighteen hundred years, though perchance I have no
right to say it, the New Testament has been written; yet where is
the legislator who has wisdom and practical talent enough to avail
himself of the light which it sheds on the science of legislation?
The authority of government, even such as I am willing to submit to-
for I will cheerfully obey those who know and can do better than I,
and in many things even those who neither know nor can do so well-
is still an impure one: to be strictly just, it must have the sanction
and consent of the governed.
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