The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1867-04-03
Ma iorities and Minorities.

Has republican government proved
TO be a failure in this country? I'm
qucstionably it seems so. We have
reached a point where we may well
ask ourselves the question whether we
should not he better off if our IA
theirs had left the country under British
rule. Where, then, are the weak points in
the machinery of republican institutions!
One is the unreasonable and irresponsible
nature of maiorities. Corporations are said
to have no souls; not because they are
corporations, but because masses of men
do not hold themselves accountable as units
for the acts of the whole body, and the
consequence is that a corporation, or
dozen, or hundred men, will be guilty Of
hard. grinding acts of injustice and OPP
nresSion which no man of the number
would himself perform. 1t is an old say
ING that no one man in mob is quite as
malignant and devilish as the mob itself.
And so ii may be said of the worst Radl-
cal in Congress or in the country that he IS
not quite as bad as the s"ulleSs monster
called majority" \ minority has
no rights which the majority is bound to
respect" is the only article of the popular
creed. Constitutions, laws, courts, prece-
dents. all these 60 for nothing when they
come in conflict with the will of an insane
"maiorlty."
MANY statesmen have attempted to de-
wise some means by which the voice of
minority would become more influential,
and their rights more secure. Up to the
present time no success has followed these
efforts. Our own country presents the re-
markable and unprecedented spectacle Of
minority, or, at any rate, very small
majority, Of the people ruling with rod OF
iron the rest Of their fellowcitizens, and
doing it under the forms prescribed by the
Constitution and laws. New York gives
say four hundred thousand Democratic
votes and four hundred and ten thousand
Radical votes; but these are so distribu-
ted as to throw all the Offices and depart
mcnts of the government, executive, legis-
lative, and judicial, into the hands OF the
Radicals, Nearly one-half OF the voters
being Democrats, ii would seem to be ma
tural that nearly half of the Congressman
from that State should be Democrats; but
the delegation lin the two Houses stands
TWENTY-FIVE 10 eleven. 1t ought to be
about sixteen to sevcnteen-that is, If the
voters were fairly represented. So all
through the North. There are thousands
and hundreds of thousands of voters whose
influence is never felt upon the politics OF
the country. The moment they have voted,
and their candidates been defeated, they
are lost sight Of. The Radical legislator.
or officer, or Congressman, represents only
those who voted for him. The Radical
Senate thinks it presumption in the Pres-
dent TO nominate Democrats for even one
fifth of the Offices, and scorns the idea of
confirming any such nominees. In word,
the Democratic voters of the North, who
are numbered by the million, are practi-
cally as much out OF their proper relations
10 the Government .as are the people OF
the late Confederate States. And all be-
cause majorities are reckless, blind, wilful,
irresponsible, and souiless.
Is there any remedy for this state OF
things IL not, republican government
must be pronounced not simply failure.
but deiusion and cheat-a bpmhn,
We have never seen any practicable plan
suggested for giving its proper weigh, n
all cases 10 the voice Of the m;nor;,v !,
is a singular fact, however, and one worth
OF consideration, that the Radicals or ~,
New York Legislature should have CON
ceiyed and successfully perfected a nlan
for accomplishing this desirable obiec, in
one instance. We refer, OF course, to that
feature Of the convention bill recently
passed by them which secures to the De-
mocratic party one-half Of the delegates
al large. This was done, as We have here
toiore explained, simply by providing that