The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-01-11
Henry Ward Beecher.


er's remarks:
He began by saying: 81 shall speak to yol
this evening on the Redemption of the Ballot
Government is an organic institution. TIL
form of government is not Divine but the in
stitution of government is. There are thre,
kinds, and they may be said to answer to thre
stages of civilization Where none of the PEG
pie are cultured, monarchy must prevail
where part of the people are cultivated, arts
tocracy, or the government of the few; wher
the whole people are intelligent, democracy, O
the republic or representative government
There is no kind of government, however
which is free from practical objection. A re
PuDlican government is by no means perfect
All that can be truly said is that its practica
results are better than those of any other COY
eminent. A monarchical government has it,
advantages; but after all is said, the govern
ment by the whole people works out in the Ions
run more virtue, more happiness and more gen
eral prosperity. 1t develops a wealth Of
tnought and action, and creates that creates
OF known powers, an intelligent public senti
ment, out OF which springs government, and
by virtue of which the forms of government
can be administered There is grandeur in
the aroused public sentiment of a nation. The
great rebellion of the public mind from the
drinking habits of the past generations is an
instance of the sanative power of an aroused
public sentiment. The tremendous uprising
that carried this country through the war and
destroyed slavery is a still more remarkable in
stance of the power of an awakened public SEN
timent. Our business is to arouse this public
sentiment for the suppression of political
evils. We are not to stand theorizing, but to
press forward to the entire emancipation of the
public from the hands of evil doers and brush
down every web and destroy every machination
which puts the public property in peril. Now
is the time to spread abroad knowledge of
government among the people. The public
mind is like an open furrow. Let us put the
seed therein.
In our government the will of the people gov
erns That is the theory. How shall that will
be ascertained and rendered efficient? There
were two ways in which this could be done.
The one by the direct vote of the people them
selves and the other by their secondary vote
through their representatives. The first meth
Ga was only available in small communities.
II might be done in a township; it could not be
done in the county. So the dignity of the bal
lot was the unit of the government 1t was
the initial force. There was no other part
OF the government that could not better suffer
than the ballot, for it was the point where force
centers and takes on executive form, and where
subordinate forces began to clash themselves
into DEGREES that carried with them success.
The Judiciary might be corrupt, yet other por-
tions OF the government would go on; the Leg
lsiature might be corrupt, and other portions
stlll go on; but when the ballot was stricken
with disease it was heart disease, for there
was no other part of government SO full of life
or death. sF
The dangers which the ballot were liable to
were then considered, the first of which was
ignorant voting. Every man voted more or
less ignorantly. When, said Mr.. Beecher, they
present me with ballot, read ON it some
twenty or thirty names. Perhaps one or two
am acquainted with; the rest I take on faith
And it IS faith. We do many things in this
world on faith. We know very few things per-
sonally. The voting itself is substantially an
education. The man who has voted for forty
years and taken pains every time has got a
better education than if he had gone through
university, and with more profit than many do
who go through such inst itutions. He was in
favor OF a wide extension of the ballot, and was
opposed to the reading and writing qualifca-
tion of virture. 1t gives men eyes and ears,
but it does not give them virture.
He considered the danger of ignorance in this
country very slight with an advantage of edu-
cation. The second danger was in passionate
voting, and it was to guard against this that
the system of double voting or by representation
was devised as mere mechanical continuance
to keep men cool. The third danger was in
wicked voting, or using the ballot to accom-
plish personal ends, which he severely condemn
ed The fourth danger was in insubordinate
voting, or with predetermination not to abide
the result. A notable instance of this was seen
in the election of Abraham Lincoln, when one
half the people went into the Presidential cleo
ton determined to renounce the decision if il
U
enterprise, Mr.. Beecher said, was such that he
trusted the attempt would not be repeated dur
ing the present century. The fifth danger was
in venal voting, making merchandise of the
VOTE Now, said the lecturer, we are getting into
deep water. Upon this point he was specially
severe upon those men who attempt in an i'm
proper way to influence mems votes If, said
he, you oblige the men in your employ to vote
not according to their Judgment, but yours, you
bride them. There are multitudes of men who
1nvn fIn
as crime, who do not hesitate to give the por-
ter to understand that if he does not vote in ac-
cordance with their wishes his place will be
filled by some one else. There were, perhaps,
very few who would take money for their votes
at the polls, but men just as good as they had
been sent to the Legislature and had sold their
votes there We called man scoundrel that
would sell his vote for S. or $40, and there was
nothing in nomenclature too bad to be applied
to him: but he who in the Legislature sold his
vote for $50, 1000 is meaner scoundrel by so
much as $4,000 was greater than five. He
fn g TIE a% 4 & s a y
foundations of civil Government.
The ballot was still further in danger from
the manipulators of the ballot boxes themselves
Who can live when such man as Tweed
counts? And yet intelligent people and appar-
entity good citizens regarded such matters laugh
ingly. There must be public sentiment of the
sacredness of the vote which shall be like re-
vival of religion.
The ballot was still farther in danger from
corruption in the form of tampering-of fraud
between the voting and the declaration of the
vote. The driving away of men from the polls,
the ballot box stuffing, and, above all, the in
fernal art of counting-these were a substan-
tial usurpation of the ballot, and they amount
ed to treason to the State. What counterfeit
ing was in commerce, what forgery was in pub
lie affairs what treason was in government,
that exactly, although in more infamous form,
is every method by which violence is done to
the ballot box. That this had taken place was
notorious; both parties have been guilty; cheat
ing had been met by counter-cheating-all
these facts had become familiar to honest men
in the great cities, and although he would not
say that both parties We're equally guilty, he
would say that these acts had been practiced by
both parties, and as long as this was the case
all reformation was impossible.
If we are to go on as we have in some parts
of the country it will be but few years before
our Government will become mockery and a
farce. He was not afraid of the foreign vote.
He believed it would be expedient to give them
the vote the moment they landed. The most of
the foreign vote will be found true to liberty
and the Government. A greater danger lay in
corporate wealth. Ever since the world began
there had been a struggle to obtain possession
of government, but there was no government
the control of which gave so many advantages
as this one. Consider how powerful the great
parties were. They were webbed full of the
vital interests of men. He that has possession
of the Government is in possession of some
thing that touches his interests on every side
All the great commercial interests; all the in
dustrial interests; and when added to these
were the interests of the great moneyed corpor
ations-corporations which can take a hundred
millions of dollars and throw it as they pleased
into the scale; when all this was considered the
danger to which the ballot was exposed wOulC
become apparent.
Having spoken of the dangers to which the
ballot is exposed, Mr.. Beecher proceeded a
length to give his views of its salvation, which
was to be done by public sentiment. The frs
step must be in the household, and next thu
whole power OF religion must be eXerted in tina
direction. 1t is not enough to teach men relig
ion; they must be taught how to apply it. Mel
must be educated into patriotism. We mus
train men to the sacredness of the ballot. Their
are always classes In society, and there Away
will be. 1t is not an evil that there are bu
the higher class has much to do with the educa
ton of the lower. If they so conduct them
selves that they create an opinion that the bal
lot is insignificant, then the bottom of societ
will say, 1.-THE ballot is Insignificant; will tax
it and do what like with it, and they TAX
| hold of it and make something out OF it as the
| think they have right to do. If the uppe
| classes had made men believe that they consid
| cred the ballot of vital interest, then Their
would not have been such proclamation of tn
| ballot as there is to-day. The excuse whic
men make for this neglect of duty are unwol
thy of them. They are willing enough to dirt
themselves making money; they would strip t
the shoulder to dig for gold; but for the sake 9
| good laws and pure morals and good magi'
trates they were willing to do nothing. The
| would rather sit in their pleasant parlors afte
the labor of the day was done than to go
work for the good of the community. 1t wa
! just as possible for good men to combine as
was for bad men. Men say they have no tint
that they have their business to attend to; br
they should make time.