Sir, I am a republican; and I desire to see this House observe the
principles of that democracy which is ever on the lips of its
members, and which, I hope, is in their hearts, as I know and feel
it is in mine, and mean it shall be in my conduct. This Republic was
called into being, organized, and is upheld, by a great political
doctrine. That doctrine is, that the People alone are supreme; that
they are the fountains of power; that all magistrates are the
delegated agents of the People, for the purposes limited and
prescribed in their letters of appointment, and the general laws of
the land; that the constituents of a member of this House have the
right to give instructions to him individually; and that every
individual one of the People has a right to be heard by petition on
the floor of this House. These are among the things which I
understand to constitute the principles of democracy: those general
principles, which I learned in my boyhood with my catechism, in the
bill of rights prefixed to the constitution of my own State; which,
on maturer study, I have seen to be avowed more or less distinctly,
in all the constitutions of this Republic, and of each of its
constituent Republics; which I perceive to be defended and applauded
in the writings of the great text authors of political science in
modern times; and which after being for the first time practically
exemplified in our own institutions, have gone forth over the
universe, toppling down thrones, and raising up freemen, through all
the nations of Christendom.
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