The disposition to give due attention to the spirit of American
institutions is one which needs cultivation. Government, looked upon
only as machinery, may easily become a means for the accomplishment of
ends very different from those intended by its designers. In this
connection some recent utterances by Dr. Lyman Abbott are worthy of
serious thought:
It is sometimes said that the majority rules in America, and it
would be unfortunate if it were true. The French Revolution shows
that no despotism of the individual is so cruel as the despotism of
the majority. When the decisions of the majority or minority are
supported by the whole people that is Americanism. Our democracy is
not founded on the idea that our people make mistakes, but that the
decision of all the people is better than that of one class, and
that all the men are better judges than priests and kings and their
instruments. Fraternal government is what we are trying to
establish, and whoever strikes against the spirit of fraternalism
strikes against the foundation of our government. We can get along
with anything bad in our laws and correct it in our progress, but
we can never live and prosper with the East arrayed against the
West, the North against the South, rich against the poor, and labor
against capital.