The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1864-05-07

measures as may be presented to his considera-
ton touching other mercantile interests and the
future prosperity of the nation. But the ques-
ton does not rise, whether q certain man would
be a better legislator if he had some property
but the question is are the average of property
holders in this country more intelligent and in
dustrious than the average of vagabonds ?" If
SO, which class should make laws for the other ?
the property-bolders for the vagabond, or the
vagabonds for the property-holders? In our
opinion it does not follow that because all men
are equal in their political rights, that is TO say,
by law, have an equal chance and right to obtain
an education and the other great benefits which
society confers upon industry and perseverance,
that therefore 4 man who has neglected TO exert
himself for, or failed TO obtain the education
spoken of, has a right to prescribe rules for that
society, any more than it follows that because
every man has a right to study to make himself
u physician or chemist, that therefore every man
has a right to practice his theories of healing
on our bodies, though the would-be practitioner is
ignorant of the difference between epson salts and
strychnine.
As we have said before, the amount Of pro-
perty which a man should hold to secure this
HAi lC6 IS vi Z Il cLjdii III fOi ldliINCs dIu eiIOb4i
not be large, since the poor man possessing a
cottage and a small plot of ground, or Il few
hundred dollars invested in government or other
funds. is equally interested in the permanence of
things, rs his rich n%eighbor.
The situation of this country is peculiar. 1t
should be an object with this government as far
as possible, to hold out i~ncentireS 10 the nafire
people,, to induce them to seek to acquire pro-
perty, that their natural tendency to idleness
may be overcome; to create social distinctions, so
that the idler and law-breakers should not be in
the sam footing as the Industrious observer of
the lazy.
There was n difficulty at the late election to
find properly qualified men, to put themselves
before the people but not because of the small
ness of the pay, for we know of at least two of
our best citizens, who would have willingly
served, so far as the pay was concerned. The
difficulty arose from an unwillingness, in good
men, to subject themselves to the expense and
chances of a canvass, in which it is impossible
to reach the people by any appeal to principle,
in which ignorance, no character, or even a posi-
lively bad character would stand an equal, and
even better chance than ability, probity. and
selfsacrifce, and an unwillingness to encounter,
IL ClcCltu, III Luz VI cIuedNOTlilS Z Sulue Il
House whose members have for the most part no
thought of their own, but are influenced by the
whispered insinuations of others, or their own
unreasonable fears.
And most certainly, if we have come to the
point that the question which is to carry a
political election is what may be the candidates
views on church government, or his individual
preference for attending Shepherd Hams
Church, - it is about time to change that. What
honor is conferred by the selection of a c~onstitu-i
ency who, guided only by religious fancy, vote
for a stranger, absolutely unknown to them,
when their own best citizens are on the canvass,
and that stranger convicted but recently of re-
peated infractions of the law, which those who
are presumed to be leaders of this sam consti-
tuency most earnestly support.
The fact is that a great part of this people are
mere grown-up children. We see them going to
the polls, not only ignorant of whom they are
voting for, but of what they are voting for,
taking the tickets of any one who will give them
a ride, or having one ticket taken from them and
another supplied, which they carry with the
utmost indifference, believing the most improba-
able story of the most INSCRIPTIONS narrator
with the easiest gullibility, equally ready to vote
for the convict just out of prison or for one still
in the prison, for the matter of that, as they are
for the most disinterested benefactor of their
race; but most of all ready to vote for any man
who will promise then that they shall pasture
their untaxed horse on another mans land free
of expense, or catch another mans fish out of a
pond close at hand, or feed their NANCY worth
less dogs on the improved Merino sheep of their
neighbor. Such people do not, can not value
the right of voting. 1t is not their right, and
to admit that they shall vote is in clear violation
of the rights of society, deters good men not
only from offering Themselves as candidates, but
from going to the polls, which they regard as
useless; and thereby nullities virtually the right
good citizens to the expression of their views
d~erogates from the dignity Of government by
elections Il farce and tends directly to
making one branch of the Legislature unre-
spected. \ man that will not in this country
fight with his own Incidence and vices sufficiently
to obtain a small property and Il reasonably fixed
abode, will not be very likely to spill Il very
large quantity of his blood in seeking, by mill
organization, the right to vote away the
product of other mans labor.