The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-06-06

trlct Jtetd hGnd reconstruction prevails.
The Africans fromY the surrounding
-country came in duly trained, and aid
ed by their negro masters of the ioity
(ue had the mastery of the body, but
they hive the mystery of the souD
and few white men "dyed in the
WOOL" they carried the political day,
and thus Sambo grins and says: "We
haze got the d Id rebels!"
Thoughts Upon Suffrage. From a
Letter OF Daniel II. Gootlloc, of North
Carolina. =.
No. 3.-EpMUND BURKE ON Sur
FRAaE.- Before quitting this branch
OF my subject, I take the liberty OF
recalling your attention to the OPT
MONS of another great English
author, whose genius and character
am aware you hold in the highest
esteem. I mean Edmund Burke.
The citations will bear chiefly on the
injustice of disfranchisng any class of
people, as such, without reference to
their qualifications. But he insisted
on o property basis of voting, and
speaks of those who were in favor of
universal unrestricted suffrage as
fanatics. In his letter to Sir Hefculus
Langrishe, dated January 8, 1892,
there occurs the following passage
1t is one excellence of our Con
stitution. that all our rights of pro-
vlncial election regard rather proper
ty than person. It is another, that
the rights which approach more
nearly to the personal are most of
them corporate, and suppose re-
strained and strict education of seven
years in some useful occupation.
1 quote this and similar passages.
not because they express nv own
ldeas, but in order to show how far
removed was Mr.. Burke from the
policy which at once DISTINGUISHES
the most intelligent and wealthy
class the natural governing class-
while the whole mass of illiterate
iaborers, vagabonds and paupers are
enfranchised. In his "Refiections
on the Revolution in France" there
occurs this remark:
Nothing is due aud adequate
representation of O State that does
not represent its ability rs we'll as its
property. But, as ability is a vigor-
GUS and active principle, and as pro-
perty is sluggish, inert and timid, it
never can be safe from the invasions
of ability, unless it be, out of all pro-
portion, predominant in the repre-
sentation."
This theory of Mr.. Burke is, to
say the least, antipodal to that which
has made servile Ignorance and pau
perism predominant in the repre-
sentation" over both ability and
property.
The following passage, from the
same treatise, is very applicable to
the present times. Mr.. Burke says ::
"There is no qualification for Go
vernment but virtue and wisdom,
actual or presumptive. Wherever
they are actually found, they have,
IN whatever state, condition, profess
sion or trade, the passport of Heaven
to human place and honor. Woe to
the country which would 1nadly and
lmpiously reject the service of the
talents and virtues, civil, military or
religiuos, that are given to grace and
to serve it, and would condemn to
obscurity everything formed to diff
fuse lustre and glory around State.
Woe to the country, too, hat, passing
1nto The opposite extreme, considers q
low education, mean, contracted
view of things, sordid, mcrcenary
occupation, as preferable title to
command"
The following passage is from the
letter above quoted:
'In all considerations which turn
upon the question of vesting or con-
tinuing the State solely and exc!u-
siyely in some description of citizens.
prudent Legislators will consider Aow
far the general form and principles of
Neir Commonwealth render it fit to be
cast into an oligarchal shape, or to
remain always in it. * Il Dle-
6eian oligarchy is monster, and no
people, not absolutely domestic or pre-
dat slaoes, acW long endure ii. n
l hold it to be absolutely impossible
for two millions Of plebeians, COM
posing certainly a very clear and do
cided majority in that class, to be-
come 50 for in love with six or seven
hundred thousand of their fellow
citizens, Ito all outward appearance,
plebelans like themselves, and many