Polynesian. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu], Hawaii) 1844-1864, 1862-11-15
No. 20.

honor the interests of the North, were given to
the winds, and the last argument of tyrants was
adopted. The thoughtful and reasonable men of
the nation suggested a Convention fresh from the
people, composed of two or more citizens of each
State, to devise measures of harmony and recon-
ciliatiOn. But they were unheeded
AS evidence that the Conservative men eff
the North We're strongly In favor of Cancellation,
of saving the Union without coercing the South,
single fact is worth more than volumes of mere
assertion. When these Resolutions were pending
before Congress- and while the voluntary Peace
Convention was being held in Washington, there
happened to be at the time, in the same city,
national meeting of railroad officers and directors.
The Hon. MIR. Corning, NJ. c., OF Albany, man
of large wealth, and leading democratic politi-
cian, was chosen chairman of this meeting. In
order TO ascertain more thoroughly the feeling of
the class OF people throughout the country whose
material interests were then under special consid-
GRAFTON. Mr.. Corning telegraphed to the president
of every railroad company in the United States for
his vote on the Crttenden Resolutions and from
this large number of responsible and intelligent
men, whose various incorpnratiuns extended over
aggregate distance OF 80 900 miles of railroad,
representing capital of 81 900 600 ,OOO only two
votes were cast against Mr.. Crittenden's proposi-
ton for peaceful and bloodless settlement of the
great sectional, social, and political controversy
Could the votes Of the judges, the lawyers, the
clergy the presidents of colleges, have been simi
larly taken at that moment, there would doubtless
have been overwhelming voice for peace. Even
the Cabinet of Mr.. Lincoln, assured. had
decided on Withdrawing the Federal troops from
Fort Sumter. in the harbor nf Charleston after the
formal secession of South Carolina, in the hope
that negotiation mig follow resulting in ami
cable restoration of the Union. The masses, how
ever, who had nothing ut stake, and the dema-
gogues and spectators who had everything to
make by the war, proved too strong for the cslmer
counsels of the Senate, the more prudent policy
h. oc IT.
South We're refused hearing at the White House,
Fort Sumter was taken, and the greatest aud most
disastrous civil war the world has ever witnessed
was begun. When and how it will end, it is MT
our present purpose to predict; that it might and
would have been avoided under II system OF limited
suffrage. is the great fact we would now impress
upon the trainers Of republics and the advocates of
democratic institutions.
1t is free suffrage that has demOralized the Gov
ernment involved the nation in domestic war;
and If il be not greatly restricted, the days of the
American Republic will be numbered. How
can this great family of States, with opposing in
terests. dwell together in unity, when a Msssachu-
setts cotton manufacturer, by the aid of his
ployees may counterbasnce the votes Of whole
township of Mississippi panters-the former yOt-
ing for high tariffs and the latter for free trade
The question then arises, whether the people,
under any circumstances, are capable OF self-goy-
ernment in other words, whether Republics are
people and the masses, between the citizens and
the p0pulace we answer decidedly in the afhrma-
tive. Under a wise system OF restricted suffrage,
guarded by careful registration laws, a Republican
form of Government, resting upon the consent Of
the governed. is not mere Utopian dream BORN Of
PIatonc optimism, but a pleasant and practical
reality IL is u fundamental dogma of Democracy
that all power springs from the people and that
the power to govern implies the right to govern.
The great CONSISTS in cOnfounding the people
with the mob the citizen who has an interest 10
the State, with the individual who merely inhabts
it. The former only has a right to take part in
the Gov rnment, either in framing or in executing
the public laws. All other persons should be
treated minors. Let the right of suffrage be
limited to men worthy of so sacred trust and
let no man have a vote in the State who cannot
read and write the language of the State ; and who
has not some pecuniary interest IN the public well
fare. With these two qualifications OF property
and education, people may be safely trusted to
govern themselves.
Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine inaugurated
the .Age Of Reason and radcalism by inculcating
the eallaciOus doctrine-the cornerstone of the
- Declaration of Independence that =" all men
are born free and equal :" and this, too, while
recognizing property in slaves, and reckoning them
as a basis of representation Why the trainers of
the Constitution were not sufficiently logical to
allow a man tp cast a vote on an equal amount of
property invested in horses, oxen, other beasts
of burden, has been satisfactorily explained
| hy the Democratic doctors and it is a question
which may try their logical acumen to answer. .
To return to our theme let glance little
mnre closely at the operations of the unlimited
suffrage system, the broad field of - presden.
tal campaign.' formerly the great political 0lym-
piad, the quadrennIal Saturnalia of the United
States. In the local elections of towns districts,
and States. find the elements of this all -pervad
ing evil at work. hut comparatively limited
scale. In the grand race for the Viii House be-
hold the political g Derby day" Of the - Great
Repuhiicl" All the passions of the mob are let
loose; freednm into lawlessness and liberty
riots in licentiousness. Every partisan black-leg
bets his - pile upon his favorite; and every
political prostitute has something to win or lose
the result. The stakes large, the struggle des-
pirate, and the cheating reckless. The winning
party not only has iour years in the White House.
clothed with supreme executive authority, and
SIS, ZOO year he has also the making of his
cabinet the appointment of his foreign ministers,
and the distribution of One hundred thousand sala-
ried Offices. To say nothing of the patronage of
500 900 900 year in time of peace and 81 0O0,-
900 900 in time Of war And every four years, or
twenty times since the formation of the American
4 government, has this whirwind Of passion, like a
trcssssl tornado, swept over the land. its momen-
tunIS <sasing with the tide Of population, until
the roc-s AQt thirty millions of excited people.
like Atlantic Asges lashed into madness by the
fury of opposing Wfslss threatens to upheave the
very foundations Of the Republic.
10 the nameless graves of innumerable victims,
in thousands Of MANNED and wounded soldiers, 10
the long procession of widows and orphans, in
desnlate homes and in bleeding hearts, we behold
painful harvest of the fruits Of the suffrage as is
exists in America. All these calamities, with an
endless vista of coming woes, have been brought
upon people who, but few short months ago,
were the must free, the most prosperous, and the
most lightly taxed people on earth; and all this
I I=L L
license of the ballot-box, by placing power in the
hands of monster mob-that hydra of democracy,
whose I" tender mereies are cruelty" and whose
reign is always reign of terror and of blood be-