The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1866-01-27
THE RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE.

to the endowment of the Distinguishing mark
and badge of full citizenship in Republican
Government, is now before our Legislature.
And, as was natural, the agitation, in regard
TO the right Of suffrage, in reference to one
class of citizens, has unsettled the minds of
many persons on the whole subject matter
And having no basis Of general and universal
application, each man according To his
own proclivities or the emergencies of the
fcation for the exercise of the most inesti
mable right of citizenship, that right indeed
which gives permanence and security to all
others
In view, therefore, of the fact that the sub
ject is now before the Legislature, we propose
to republish and explain to some extent our
own views upon the subject, and to present to
our Legislators, as a rule for their action, GER
tain fundamental principles of Free Republi-
can Government enunciated by our Revolu-
tlonary forefathers, the founders of our Re-
publican system of Government
In the failure to apprehend any fundamental
principle upon which the right of suffrage is
based some regard the possession Of property
as the best general evidence of good citizen
ship, others regard virtue and intelligence the
true safeguards Of Free Institutions as the
the proper qualification for the exercise of the
elective franchise.
While property publication is a very es-
sential qualification for suffrage in a joint
stock company, whose object is confined to
making money. and dividing the profits
amongst them in proportion to the amounts
invested, such a qualification will never be
tolerated as essential In Free Governments,
where the infinitely higher interests of liberty
and life are involved.
There seems, then, more plausibility in the
theory which insists upon virtue and inteli-'
gence," as criteris, by which to regulate the
right of suffrage. But here there arises an
apparently inspperable difficulty in fixing the
standard of virtue and intelligence, and in
providing process to ascertain that the pre-
else standard has been reached. Besides on
this theory the more intelligent and vrtuous
the man, the better citizen he will be and the
better Government he will make, and there
fore the higher the standard. the better for the
country. Then, Of course, upon the first trial
it would be best to exclude, as near one half
the people rs practicable, making the stan
dard just as high as the majority can attain.
Then this majorty having excluded nearly
one-half Of the people, might amend their
Constitution and exclude nearly one half
the balance, and continuing to pursue this
process, might eventually get very : select
few " of highly virtuous and intelligent peo-
pie to govern the balance.
or course, if the right Of suffrage, is not
right inherent in manhood citizenship then
it is simply dependent on the will of the ma
iority, and may be based upon any whim
which the majority for the time being may see
fit to indulge.
Now, did the founders of this Republican
Government of ours, leave this important and
sacred right Of liberty to the caprice ofchance,
prejudice and passion? Did they declare no
principle which would prevent our Govern
ment lapsing into the Government Of the few,
and not of the many? Our Revolutionary
Fathers were wise people in their day, and
they pledged their ''hyes, fortunes and sacred
honor to the maintenance of the principles
they enunciated in the Declaration of Inde
pendenee, as fundamental to Free Institu-
tions.
The great charter of American Independ-
ence, which proclaimed to the world the
principles of Free Government announces
amongst self evident truths
THAT all men are created equal and are
endowed with certain inalienable rights,
amongst which are Life, Liberty and the Pur
suit of Happiness. And that TO SECURE THESE
RlGHTs. Governments are instituted amongst
men, deriving their just powers from THE
CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED.
There is the broad and just criterion of the
exercise of the right of suffrage, covering all
cases. subject TO no changes, or yascllations
from popular excitement or popular preJu-
dice, based upon no casual or incidental cir
cumstance, but permanent as time and just
as eternity. The governed are entitled to a
voice in the Government not the rich, nor
the virtuous, nor the intelligent alone, but
poor and the ignorant and the vicious us
well. II is a government of the people and
for the people, and all the people are entitled
primarily to voice, an equal voice at the
ballot in the matter in which all are inter
ested.
Now, every other theory Of the right of suf-
frage is anti Republican and anti Democratic,
for it rests upon the presumption, that in
equality of wealth or of intelligence, or what
not, creates inequality Of rights and hence,
that the rich and the intelligent are entitled
to govern the poor and ignorant, with or
without their consent. Our Fathers an
nounced the only possible just foundation OF
Free Republican Government; and if that
principe is false or wrong, then there is no
principle upon which Free Government is
possible, and our Republic like those that
have gone before must be perverted into an
arstocracy or monarchy. Without equal rights
and an equal voice in the Government by the
governed, our country cannot stand on the
great platforfs of free principles, constructed
by the founders of the Republic.
And whenever we prove disloyal to that
principle, we are afoat without chart or com +,
pass, to-drift wherever the waves of prejudice
or the winds Of passion shall drive us. If
there be no such fixed principle as that an
nounced by our fathers as amongst the inher.
ent rights of man essential to q free Govern
ment, then all rights are visionary and evan
escent If we may richtf,llv exclude anv