dging from mankind's sense of right, of justice, and of that moral
nobility which each individual's spiritual worthiness seems to demand, a
pure democracy is the highest and most perfect form of government. But
such a system presupposes a _perfect_ humanity as its basis, a humanity
which no portion of the earth has yet attained or is likely to attain
for many ages to come. Hence the vices as well as the weaknesses of
human nature render certain restraints necessary, which are more or
less severe according as the nation is advanced in moral excellence and
intellectual cultivation, and which must gradually disappear as the race
progresses, giving place to others newer and more appropriate to the
changing times and conditions of men. Under this view that progress in
the science of government is alone healthy which keeps exact pace with
the moral progress of the nation, and tends toward a pure democracy in
exactly the degree in which the people become fitted to appreciate, to
rationally enjoy, and faithfully guard the blessings of perfect liberty.
Too rapid progress leads to political anarchy by stimulating, to a
degree unsustained by their acquirements and natural ability, the
aspirations of the ambitious and the reckless, thereby begetting and
nationalizing a spirit of lawlessness which grasps continually at
unmerited honors, and strives to make all other and higher
considerations bend to that of individual advancement and personal
vanity. The truth of this position is seen in the utter failure of all
attempted democratic systems in the past, which may be traced to this
too eager haste in the march of human freedom, ending invariably in the
blackest of despotism, as well as from the fact in our own history that
every era of unusual political corruption and reckless strife for
position and power, has followed close upon the moral abrogation of some
one of those safeguards which the wisdom of our fathers threw around our
political system.

On the other hand, advancement which does not keep pace with the
expansion of thought, the intellectual development, and consequent
capacity of the people for self-government, not only offers no
encouragement to effort, but actually discourages all striving, and
blunts the appetites of the searchers for truth. It fossilizes the
people, retards the march of intellect by its reactionary force, and
rolls backward the wheels of all progress, till the nation becomes a
community of dull, conten