The Influence of Private Character

“In a democracy,” said Winthrop Aldrich, “it must be the aim of education to teach the citizen that he must first of all rule himself, and that in ruling himself he must not forget that every act he performs, affects ultimately every other person in his community. This becomes increasingly true as our population increases and our economic and political life become more complicated. The citizen of a democracy above all others must never be permitted to forget that he who ruleth himself is greater than he who taketh a city.

In his essay on Politics, Emerson said that “…the form of government which prevails is the expression of…the population which permits it…” too much law is an abuse of government and the antidote is the “influence of private character…”

“Let us hope,” added Aldrich, “that…we will be able to chart our course so that…we can use voluntary action more than compulsion, self-control more than law,…public responsibility more than legislative enactment, education more than force. In a word, that through wise educational policies we may be able to preserve our individual liberties and not succumb to any form of tyranny or collectivism….

“If we can implant in our people the Christian virtues which we sum up in the word character, and, at the same time, give them a knowledge of what can be accomplished within the stern laws of economics, we will enable them to retain their freedom, and at the same time make them worthy to be free.”

Men were meant to “do many things of their own free will” and not to be “commanded in all things”⎯but freedom will only be preserved as we live within law ⎯and learn to keep the Commandments.