Thus has our country testified to its idea of a Republic, not only throughout long days of controversy, but in national declarations, being in themselves monumental acts.
3. From these national declarations I come now to the _Opinions of the Fathers_. Here you see how these same principles have been sustained by eminent characters, whose names are historic, all testifying to the government they founded and upheld. In their weighty words you find a definition, constantly repeated, in harmony with all the promises of the Fathers, whether in controversy or in solemn instruments which are the very title-deeds of the Republic.
I begin with Benjamin Franklin, who saw all questions of Government with a surer instinct than any other person in our history. As early as 1736, while still a young man, he wrote an article, which was published in the Pennsylvania Gazette, containing these words:--
“Popular Governments have not been framed without the wisest reasons. It seemed highly fitting that the conduct of magistrates, _created by and for the good of the whole_, should be made liable to the inspection and animadversion of _the whole_.”[126]
It is for _the good of the whole_, and not for an odious oligarchy or an aristocratic class, that our patriot speaks, and in these words is foreshadowed the idea of a republican government. But it was in discussions, after Otis had hurled his flaming bolt, that we find a fuller and more precise definition. Here it is, as adopted, if not written, by Franklin:--
“That _every man_ of the commonalty (excepting infants, insane persons, and criminals) is, of common right, and by the laws of God, a freeman, and entitled to the free enjoyment of liberty.
“_That liberty, or freedom, consists in having an actual share in the appointment of those who frame the laws_, and who are to be the guardians of every man’s life, property, and peace: for the _all_ of one man is as dear to him as the _all_ of another; and the poor man has an _equal_ right, but _more_ need, to have representatives in the Legislature than the rich one.
“That they who have no voice nor vote in the electing of representatives _do not enjoy liberty, but are absolutely enslaved to those who have votes, and to their representatives_: for to be enslaved is to have governors whom _other men have set over us_, and be subject to laws _made by the representatives of others_, without having had representatives of our own to give consent in _our_ behalf.”[127]