126

OUR RELATION TO OUR COUNTRY.

[Part II.

lished in such numbers, that, if the people fail of adequate infor-mation on public affairs, it can only be for want of time to readpapers so voluminous. Every public library is gratuitously sup-plied with complete copies of them, and they are freely distrib-uted by the members of Congress among those whom they repre-sent. Newspapers, being the great vehicle of every-day informa-tion respecting public men and public measures, are made by lawthe objects of special favor in the arrangement of the mail, theexpense of conveyance being so light as not to be burthensometo the poorest citizen ; and more than ten thousand (11,100)post-offices convey them to every village and neighbourhood.Further to encourage the diffusion of political information whichmight not find its way into the public documents and newspapers,the same freedom from even the slightest expense of conveyance,is extended to the correspondence of every member of Congress,and every citizen is thus invited to communicate with the repre-sentative of his district with the utmost freedom, or with anyother member with whom he may wish to hold communication.Thus invited and encouraged, and fully supplied with sources onwhich full reliance may be placed, if any citizen fails to keephimself well informed of public men and measures, he can com-plain of no one but himself.

There are several other topics of argument by which thisduty of the citizen might have been illustrated, — such as theindispensable necessity of the people possessing this information,to the suitable and satisfactory performance of any of the duties ofcitizenship ; and the consideration, that, in a popular government,the acquirement of this knowledge by the citizens is only quali-fying themselves to superintend their own business. But I havechosen the argument, by which the duty of the citizen to ac-quire the requisite information is inferred from the extraordinaryfacilities furnished him to this end ; and the rather so, becausethis source of illustration seems to have been seldom used. Itmay well be argued, that every duty is the more imperative asthe means of fulfilling it are the more easily obtained. And, asthe nation has, in its wisdom, rendered the means of political in-formation accessible to all, what can excuse an individual fromthe duty of availing himself of them ?