Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion
can change the government practically just so much. Public opinion, on
any subject, always has a "central idea," from which all its minor
thoughts radiate. That "central idea" in our political public opinion at
the beginning was, and until recently has continued to be, "the equality
of men." And although it has always submitted patiently to whatever of
inequality there seemed to be as matter of actual necessity, its constant
working has been a steady progress toward the practical equality of all
men. The late Presidential election was a struggle by one party to
discard that central idea and to substitute for it the opposite idea that
slavery is right in the abstract, the workings of which as a central idea
may be the perpetuity of human slavery and its extension to all countries
and colors. Less than a year ago the Richmond Enquirer, an avowed
advocate of slavery, regardless of color, in order to favor his views,
invented the phrase "State equality," and now the President, in his
message, adopts the Enquirer's catch-phrase, telling us the people "have
asserted the constitutional equality of each and all of the States of the
Union as States.
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