New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-09-16

q wOmans convention where sOmeDouy uoes
not feel impelled TO remark that there are too
many voters already, and that some OF them
should be put out of the way to make room
for their betters.
And when men or women once get this
solicitude into their heads, 1t IL seldom got
out again. Men have seen how England has
gradually outgrown the control OF the throne;
then of the House of Lords; then OF the
"great governing families" and has come to
Gladstone and Disraeli at last. They have
seen French Imperialism disappear In the
crater of a volcano, and the Prussian monarchy
already beginning to climb the sides OF one.
No matter. You can convert a European con-
seryatiye, but an American reactionary dies
hard the despotisms of the Old world may
crumble before his eyes, while he still clings
TO the belief that the nation can only be saved
by limiting political power to himself and his
cousins.
Fortunately the American community, az
whole, remains uncOnvinced. Where, IL per-
sistently asks. are you to draw the linef The
barber in Nicholas Mickleby refuses to shave
coal-beayer, on the ground that you must draw
n line somewhere, and he draws it at bakers.
The coal-heaver himself, if he had drawn 1t
would certainly have drawn it so as to IN
clude himself, and among all those VINO
would restrict the suffrage there Is not one
who would consent to leave himself outside.
Each restriction proposed, while it vitates the
principle. still fails to satisfy. Talleyrand said
10 the Emperor Alexander, in 1914, that Bona
parte represented principle and Louis Xviii
represented principle, while anything else
was but an intrigue. So among ourselves,
Casarism might represent principle, only
that there is no Caesar. Universal suffrage
represents principle. Between these there ia
nothing which has even the dignity OF an
intrigue
If we grant that there are in any community
one, two, or a dozen persons who could govern
it better than it governs itself now, the ques-
ton still remains, How are those gifted lew To
be got at If they are to select themselves
and each il to recruit an army to fight 1t out,
we have South American government. III
they are to DO selected by merely literary ex-
animation, then we have Chinese type OF
rulers But if they are TO be chosen by the
popular voice, then we have republic after
all. This at least aims to combine personal
ability with popular government. There are
always few persons remarkably fitted for ex-
ecutive duties-One to command an army, one
to organize schools, one to "swing railroad"
Every caucus, every convention, every election,
is an effort to discover those men, and to put
them where they will be useful. Americans
take as readily to the appointment of commit
tees as to the decision by majorities, because
they are trained to understand that the many
must settle what is to be done, and the few
have charge of the doing. "Teague, who can Dig"
merely claims tho right TO decide at proper in
teryals which among the thinking Ralphs shall
be put at the helm. We can spare neither.
What would have become of this nation had
the adjustment of the Slavery question been
left to the professors In our cOllegesY Each
voter stands for his own rights and for those
of his class, if for nothing else, and the larger
the body of voters the less easy to cajOle or
bride them. Because demagogues hatter the
uO1 popuk, it does not become wise men to
ignore its value 1t was not an American re-
publican, but tho shrewdest of French thinkers,
who said, "There is one who knows more than
"anybody, aud that is, Everybody"