The North Australian, Ipswich and General Advertiser, 19 April 1859, p. 2
TO THE ELECTORS OF THE DISTRICT OF DARLING DOWNS.
GENTLEMEN,—Your address is very gratifying to me, and I
thank you heartily for the manner in which so many of you have asked me to
present myself to you on the day of nomination, when you will be called upon to
make choice of your representatives. It is a great relief to me, I can assure
you, to find that your general expressions of confidence in me are subdued, and
that you have formed no delusive standard of excellence which I could not
satisfy. You have wisely abstained from those profound adjurations which on
similar occasions we have sometimes heard, which are in truth only worthy of
sycophants or hirelings, and from the unfortunate embarrassments of which you
will now be relieved by the adoption of the Ballot,—a system which, if
conscientiously carried out, will permit you to exercise the suffrage in
silence, without offence to your own consciences or the feelings of your
neighbours.
The franchise has been so amply extended that your
representatives must be accepted as the faithful reflex of the opinions of the
majority. To a Parliament so chosen the tendencies of an oligarchy can no
longer with justice be imputed. The elected will, it is true, be men
distinguished by no very commanding qualities from those who have been hitherto
chosen; and though it does not seem to be generally felt that a very radical
reform in our institutions is by such means either probable or practicable, it
is, nevertheless, a very sincere source of gratification to me and many others
that no large proportion of the adult male population can now complain of being
shut out from a participation in privileges held to be inestimable.
I am neither fool nor knave enough to profess that in these
or in any other pure principles of politics I can recognise a universal remedy
for all our ills, and I will not pretend to deny that even with some misgiving the
application of an somewhat complicated system of Government to so small a
community, we are absorbed in agriculture, and get so unused to the despatch of
business, but I know that nothing less will satisfy you, and I hope from it
more than I fear. Charles Fox used to say that “So good a thing was a
Parliament that a Parliament of the first four hundred men one might meet in
the street would be better than no Parliament at all.” Much more I suppose do
we think so now, since Whig principles have become so generally recognised. If
he could esteem such an Assembly, surely the choice of the electors should
merit our regard. If the aggregate is good, the exceptions will but serve to
prove the rule, and we will never despair of the eventual result, because, at
times, in frivolous moments of jealousy, or of anger, there may be some among
us who will rise by the popular voice to unmerited and short-lived distinction.
The influences of Democracy, which are so perceptible among us, are most
prominent in the vigour of youth. They are the lifeblood of rising republics,
and we have learnt from history that they are even consistent with national
grandeur and intellectual culture, but in modern times we see them, as in
France, sheltered, I had almost said overshadowed by a dominant system of
authority; and, in America, as her own President has told her, the fair
proportions of free government are in danger of being wasted and worn by
intemperate heats, by eruptions, by diseases even more baneful than those
engendered by unwholesome and irritating restraints. Walking by faith then
rather than by sight, warned, but not discouraged by these great examples, we
have chosen to aspire to a political position above that of mediocrity.
Gentlemen, you need not me to tell you, your favour, that it is a
perilous path,—yet there is excitement in danger,—there is satisfaction when it
is surmounted,—let us say, as they say in Scotland,—“A stout heart to a stiff
brae.”
Whether as elector or candidate for election I feel how much
I have to learn, how much I am unpractised in the performance of public duties.
It must be the same with most of us; but we may learn, and we shall be best
taught by cultivating habits of self-reliance in the management of our local
affairs, our townships, our corporations, our charities. While we can thus be
serviceable to the State, and become bound by affection and interest to this
Commonwealth and to these Colonies, we shall surely never forget that our
allegiance is also due to that grand confederacy, which in England, Ireland,
and Scotland, in the United States of America, in Canada, in South Africa, and
now in Australia, recognises a common cause, and to which it would seem that
for centuries, at least, the progress and liberties of the world are to be
confided.
At this time, then, when we are so shortly to be admitted
into the enjoyment of these benefits, you will permit me to speak; and I trust,
will forgive me if already I have spoken with some unusual warmth on these
subjects, which are always so interesting, but which do not, of course, call
for these constant comments, nor will admit of that incessant discussion which
it is so necessary that we should bestow upon the practical politics of life.
How to educate our children and ourselves? How to sell and lease our lands? How
to build our bridges and roads? How this telegraph to Port Essington is to be
constructed? How all sorts of mountains and hills are to be made low? How
valleys are to be exalted, and rough places made plain? On these and many
kindred subjects we all hold diverse opinions. With justice to myself and with
satisfaction to you, I could not hope to explain my views in the limits of an
advertisement,—but we shall meet shortly. With some I may agree,—with others I
may differ; but I am sure I shall receive a courteous hearing from all; and, I
trust, that with none—not even my most sturdy opponents—shall I be more at
enmity than now.
I am,
Gentlemen,
Your obedient servant,
JOHN DOUGLAS.
