Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 2 (of 3)Parker, Theodore
Religion
Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 2 (of 3)
Parker, Theodore
Sermons, American; Unitarianism
In America, politics more than elsewhere demand greatness, for ours is,
in theory, the government of all, for all, and by all. It requires
greater range of thought to discover the law for all than for a few;
after the discovery thereof it is more difficult to construct a
democracy than a monarchy, or an aristocracy, and after that is
organized, it is more difficult to administer. It requires more manhood
to wield at will "the fierce democratie" of America than to rule England
or France; yet the American institutions are germane to human nature,
and by that fact are rendered more easy, complicated as they are.
In politics, when the institutions are established, men often think
there is no room for discoverers and organizers; that administrators
alone are needed, and choose accordingly. But there are ideas well
known, not yet organized into institutions: that of free trade, of
peace, of universal freedom, universal education, universal comfort, in
a word, the idea of human brotherhood. These wait to be constructed into
a State without injustice, without war, without slavery, ignorance, or
want. It is hardly true that Infinity is dry of truths, unseen as yet;
there are truths enough waiting to be discovered; all the space betwixt
us and God is full of ideas, waiting for some Columbus to disclose new
worlds. Men are always saying there is no new thing under the sun, but
when the discoverer comes, they see their mistake. We want the new eye.
* * * * *
Now, it is quite plain where we are to place the distinguished person of
whom I speak. Mr. Adams was not a discoverer; not an organizer. He added
no truth to mankind, not known before, and even well known; he made no
known truth a fact. He was an administrator of political institutions.
Taking the whole land into consideration, comparing him with his
competitors, measuring him by his apparent works, at first sight he does
not seem very highly eminent in this class of political administrators.
Nay, some would set him down, not an administrator so much as a
political critic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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