The meeting of last evening may be said to have carried out more nearly the real idea of the College Conference meetings than any of the previous ones this year have done. In the course of his remarks, Mr. Cable frequently called upon the members of the audience for their thoughts upon the several points which he brought up, and in every case the replies were many and ready. Mr. Cable's lecture was almost entirely free from any strong expression of partisanship, and for that reason a most hearty concurrence with his remarks was shown by the audience.
That the right of every man to rule is born in him and is not given by one man is the first letter in our political alphabet. Therefore it is that we have no right to surrender our conscience, our responsibility, our duty, or, in fact, any one of these three attributes which were born within us. The comparative right to rule by intrinsic merit is decided not by one man, but by the opinion of the majority of our fellow citizens, and the power of this majority is not that merely of the majority over the minority. It lies in the consent of all to the choice of the majority, with the proviso that that choice shall be frequently considered.
To pass from allegiance to government to that of party. We must have party, but in joining it we must let our conscience ask how much party we are to have, and have much conscience left if we relinquish everything towards forwarding the actions of that party. We must have our ideals towards which all our struggles should be directed; but there is no likelibood of our being able to have any hope of reaching our own place unless there is given to us for our aid, three great factors, liberty, righteousness and courage. No people or class ever existed which was so righteous as not to be tempted-if if had the power-to oppress any other class or people which it was afraid to trust. Therefore it is, that righteousness is a demonstrable necessity to governments. But we must be careful to carry liberty abreast with righteousness; for a tyrannous enforcement of righteousness is an unrighteous tyranny. In struggling towards our ideals, while we are helped by liberty and righteousness, we must use courage as a factor. We must not be timid as to our internal relations. We must have the courage to "seek righteousness" and to protect liberty.
To name three practical questions for the ideals of which our conscience and our vote should be working. Immigration-the ideal is that it should be the right of every man being to dwell anywhere he will, so long as he keeps the laws of public health and peace. Freedom of suffrage-the civil and political equality of all men by virtue of their manhood. Commere-none of us know what the ideal of this is, but we are going to try to get as near the ideal of a free commercial world as we can get the majority of citizens to follow us. For these ideals then, let our conscience, tempered with moderation and judgment, be always voting with liberty, with courage, and with righteousness.
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