t rests probably
with ourselves to determine whether the influence of these shall be
salutary or pernicious.

It cannot be denied that the great political question of this age is
that between absolute and regulated governments. The substance of the
controversy is whether society shall have any part in its own
government. Whether the form of government shall be that of limited
monarchy, with more or less mixture of hereditary power, or wholly
elective or representative, may perhaps be considered as subordinate.
The main controversy is between that absolute rule, which, while it
promises to govern well, means, nevertheless, to govern without control,
and that constitutional system which restrains sovereign discretion, and
asserts that society may claim as matter of right some effective power
in the establishment of the laws which are to regulate it. The spirit of
the times sets with a most powerful current in favor of these
last-mentioned opinions. It is opposed, however, whenever and wherever
it shows itself, by certain of the great potentates of Europe; and it is
opposed on grounds as applicable in one civilized nation as in another,
and which would justify such opposition in relation to the United
States, as well as in relation to any other state or nation, if time and
circumstances should render such opposition expedient.

What part it becomes this country to take on a question of this sort, so
far as it is called upon to take any part, cannot be doubtful. Our side
of this question is settled for us, even without our own volition. Our
history, our situation, our character, necessarily decide our position
and our course, before we have even time to ask whether we have an
option. Our place is on the side of free institutions. From the earliest
settlement of these States, their inhabitants were accustomed, in a
greater or less degree, to the enjoyment of the powers of
self-government; and for the last half-century they have sustained
systems of government entirely representative, yielding to themselves
the greatest possible prosperity, and not leaving them without
distinction and respect among the nations of the earth. This system we
are not likely to abandon; and while we shall no farther recommend its
adoption to other nations, in whole or in part, than it may recommend
itself by its visible influence on our own growth and prosperity, we
are, nevertheless, interested to resist the establishment of doctrines
which den