Government is Best which Governs Least :: essays papers

governance is Best which Governs Least I heartily accept the motto, That government is surpass which governs least and I should like to see it acted up to more quickly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe--That government is best which governs non at all and when men are prepared for it, that will be the mixture of government which the will turn in. Government is at best but an advantageous but nigh governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which go through been brought against a rest army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only when an arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the mint have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and quirky before the people loafer act through it. Witness the lay out Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool for in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure. This American government--what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to dribble itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man for a single man can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves. But it is not the less necessary for this for the people moldiness have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to match that idea of government which they have. Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed upon, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage. It is excellent, we must all allow. Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the country free. It does not pla ce the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has make all that has been accomplished and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way. For government is an expedient, by which men would fain trace in letting one another alone and, as has been said, when it is most expedient, the governed are most let alone by it.