p.

23

commercial nation, can be managed only by men of long
practical experience and observation. Men of narrow views,
scanty information, and strong prejudices, cannot regulate
commerce and finance. Very few of our public characters
are competent to this task.

Another most pernicious opinion prevails, that the
legislator is to follow the wishes of his particular con-
stituents, called the people. This opinion, reduced to prac-
tice, changes the legislator into a mere agent or attorney of
the district in which he is elected. This is to invert the
whole order of things in legislation. The man who is
chosen to the legislature by a city, town, or county, is not
elected to make laws for that particular district, but for the
whole state. He then becomes the representative of the
state, and is bound by his duty and his oath, to act for the
interest of the whole state. He is not to be governed by
the wishes or opinions of a particular district, but by a view
of all the interests of the several parts of the state. Proba-
bly no rule of public duty is more frequently violated than
this.

In addition to this consideration, it must be observed
that, in most cases, a man's constituents in a particular dis-
trict, have not the means of forming correct opinions, and
are as likely to be wrong as right. Examples are con-
tinually presented to us of candidates for election pledging
themselves if elected to vote for or against a particular mea-
sure, when the opinions of their constituents are mere pre-
judices, instilled into their minds by false reasoning and
misrepresentations, and the measures they expect their
representative to advocate, operate directly against their own
interest.