Gazette Of The United States

THE TABLET.—NO. CXXV.

"The voice of the people is the voice of GOD:"

It is remarkable that so old and celebrated a truth, as that contained in my motto, should be so often disputed, and so often misapplied. The voice of the people is frequently referred to, when it does not exist; and it is sometimes denied, when it has an existence. I made some observations in the last number, to shew that the public opinion is often too indefinite to be admitted as a rule of conduct. But there are cases where it is not indefinite, and where it furnishes a good rule of conduct.

In all situations, where instinct is a better guide than reason; and where habits have so long prevailed, as to make it presumable they are founded in natural propriety, it should be supposed the general sense of the people will seldom be erroneous. In situations likewise, where the people have it in their power to know all the circumstances of a case, and where the effects of a decision will operate uniformly in all parts of the community, the public voice will generally be the voice of truth and nature. But there are few occasions where all these advantages concur in fixing a public opinion. Most of the questions that are discussed by a Legislature are attended with new and extraordinary circumstances.

The most essential facts that come into consideration, in any given question, may be known only to part of the community; and the operation of a measure proposed may not be alike beneficial in the several districts of the commonwealth.

It will readily be acknowledged that a representative should deem the opinion of his constituents as a safe and proper rule of conduct, unless he makes some new discovery of facts or reasons, which were unknown to them, when they communicated their ideas to him. The people of the United States entertain a general sentiment that they cannot safely relinquish the practice of choosing their own Representatives; and that civil liberty would receive a dangerous blow, if the right of trial by jury was surrendered, or the liberty of the press abolished. It is not probable any convention of the people, or any Legislature can have better means of determining such points than the people at large possess. The general impressions of the community on those permanent subjects should be viewed as a better criterion of judging, than the theories or reflections of learned and sagacious individuals.

(To be continued.)