I HEARTILY accept the motto,—“That government is best which
governs least;” and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly
and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which
also I believe,—“That government is best which governs not at
all;” and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of
government which they will have. Government is at best but an
expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments
are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been
brought against a standing 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 an arm of the
standing government. The government itself, which is only the
mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is
equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act
through it. Witness the present 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 transmit 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; and, if ever they should use it in earnest as a real one
against each other, it will surely split. But it is not the less
necessary for this; for the people must have some complicated
machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of
government which they have. Governments show thus how
successfully men can be imposed on, 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 settle the West. It does not educate. The
character inherent in the American people has done 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 succeed in letting one
another alone; and, as has been said, when it is most expedient, the
governed are most let alone by it. Trade and commerce, if they
were not made of India rubber, would never manage to bounce
over the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their
way; and, if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of
their actions, and not partly by their intentions, they would deserve
to be classed and punished with those mischievous persons who
put obstructions on the railroads.