The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1868-02-01
Grounds Of Impartial SutTra &c.

| wheh the VICIOUS are judges. Morality is q
moral stencil in the nostrils ofthe depraved
and which are the depraved depends on who
are the moral critics. Most men S morality
| Compounds for sins they inclined to
| BY danning Those they have no mind to.
| We all have conscences keenly alive to the
sins committed by Others And, as to in.
telligence, fool always looks upon phil.
osopher rs an ass. A knave nstinctively
holds man Of piety to be a hypocriIe. A
thief, whether in or out Of our legislatures,
winks at honesty as the last pretense of a
scsundre. And a drunkard hiccups in his
maudlin stupor that the only difference be-
tween a saint and him is, that one gets drunk
on rum and the other on religion. The
shareholders, whose property in the slave
was a daily theft of his wages, honestly
scorned the hero who gave the slave his
freedom as on a moral par with the thief
who steals a horse. None are so conceted
in estimating their wisdom as the intensely
| ignorant; none so appreciative Of the intel
| ligence of the humbest in their sphere as
the very wise. A sailor would despise n
| Newton who could not tie mariner knot.
But a Newton would find everything to ad.
mire in the skill with which the sailor fulfill
ed the functions Of his narrow but useful
| sphere of life. Contempt for men of any
kind, class, or race, is never felt by the best
men nor the highest races for the lower.
| but always by the lower for the higher. 1t
is not the Christs who cruelty the rabblc,
nor Socrates who administers hemlock to
the ounces, nor Calico who imprisons the
| bgots. nor the reformers who burn the sen
| sualists at the stake. SO it is not the higher
classes of the American or English nation
who objects to universal suffrage, but they
| whose right to the suffrage is as doubtful as
that Of those to whom it is proposed to ex.
| tend it. Ask the first man you meet who
| cannot read whether the right to vote ought
to be limited. and he will answer Yes Not
ofcourse expecting the Imitation will OK.
| clude him, who cannot read, but that it will
exclude some foreigner or negro who per
haps can. But ask the ChiefJustice OF the
United States if all men ought to vote with
ont limitation. either as to education or
property and he answers, Certainly: yot.
ing is the simplest Of all matters men do
not vote Tor measures, nor even for princi
| pies, but only for one Of two political par
| ties, and the most ignorant man knows with
which party his immediate interests lie, i
The popular vote is not designed to teach
| craftsmanship, nor to solve intricate cues
tons Of any kind for those are never sub
| mitted directly to the mass Of voters. 1t is
! designed to tic statesmen and politicians to
the peoples interests, not to supply them
with the knowledge how those interests eau
best be served, for that is in all cases better
understood by those who make "a special
| HE study OF it than by those who give their
| time to a thousand other kinds of business,
and are prevented thereby from becoming
experts in craftsmanship. But all men
know what their personal interests demand.
All poor men want freedom to labor, and
| the power to recover their wages, protect
their families, educate their children, sue
benefits Of the government which taxes
them. Whatever party most literally and
sincerely offers these benefits, not to others
but to their own class, workingmen will vote
for. In the better days of the Democratic
party, it offered these to foreigners, and
thereby secured their vote. The Republi.
can party now offers the same to the Freed
men, and thereby secures their vote. The
Democratic party is most earnest in securing
the same to the eXRebels, and thereby is
more assured than it should have been Of
securing their vote. 1t does not require
much intelligence in any man to know which
of the two political parties is most devoted
to the interests of the class TO which he be.
longs. The Freedmen of the South have
distinguished between the party that would
complete their emancipation and that which
could restore their serflom. They have
seen clearly and voted soldly in the direc
ton in which their largest liberty lies. This
demonstrates that they have sufficient intel.
ligence tie vote, and leaves the problem no
longer an open question.
Let all men, in discussing this question of
Universal Suffrage, bear in mind that voters
only require to know which party most sin
cercly favors the class to which they belong.
They do not vote on questions of policy or
craftsmanship, but only for one or the other
of two, seldom three, political parties. -
The general principles to which the parties
are pledged always emanate from the most
experienced minds in the country. The
particular steps in Legislation by which those
principles are to he carried out are discuss
ed by the ablest minds in both political par.
ties. The two parties tone their platforms
and policies sufficiently toward each other
that the general difference between them is
more one of time than of principle. The
Democratic party favors to-day what the
Republican party advocated year ago, and
the extreme Radicals were advocating two
years ago.
Thus, in Finance, the position Of the
Democratic party was originally for hard
money, and against State banks then ror
State banks and opposed to greenbacks !;
and now it is for greenbacks and against the
National Banks and, should any improve
ment be suggested in the National Banking
System, it would be for the National Banks