The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-10-30

The PROBLEM of universal suffrage is agi,ating
Spain. The idea, very naturally, does not meet
with favor from the aristocracy; and there is
certainly good reason for this when the ignorance
and violent prejudices of the mass of the Spanish
people are considered. They are not quite as
sured in Spain that the peasant, who has neither
the Intelligence or disposition to study and master
difficult issues of public policy. should have an
equal voice in determining them with the person
who By education, training and habit is fitted to
decide upon their merits. Universal suffrage is a
very good thing in theory, but not infrequently it
may prove a very bad thing in practice. To give
the ballot to a people wholly nnprepared for it
is like putting a sharp tool into the hands of a
child. The Great Republic, which during the
coming year viii celebrate the centennial of a
" government by the people and for the people, -
has to day within itself a troublesome problem of
this kind to solve. Four millions Of Africans,
but yesterday suddenly freed from slavery with
all its attendant ignorance and debasement, have
been at once invested with the privilege of the
ballot on equal terms with the white citizens.
With all the educational advantages that NAV
possibly be brought to bear upon the colored
population of the South, it is not to be expected
that the present generation will ever really I'M
derstand and appreciate, SO as properly to use,
this important privilege which the law has con-
ferred upon them. And the same rule must hold
good in the case of every race and nation under
the sun that may be entrusted with universal
suffrage without being first trained and educated
to it. A democracy is safe and beneficial only
where the people are enlightened up to the stand
ard of self-goVernment. The following thoughts
from Mill on the 90 Infrmities and Dangers of
Representative Government are pertinent in
this connection
"No progress at all can be made toward OBJ
tanning q skilled democracy, unless the democracy
are willing that the work which requires skill
should be done by those who possess it. A de-
mocracy has enough to do in providing itself
with an amount of mental competency sufficient
for its own proper work, that of superintendent
and check.
How to obtain and secure this amount is one
of the questions to be taken into consideration in
judging of the proper constitution of represent
alive body. In proportion as its composition
fails to secure this amount, the assembly will
encroach, by special acts, on the province of the
executive it will expel a good, or elevate and
uphold a bad ministry it will conniye at, or
overlook in them, abuses of trust, will be deluded
by their false pretenses, or will withhold support
from those who endeavor to fulfill their trust
conscientiously it will countenance or impose a
selfish, a capricious and impulsive, a short-sighted,
ignorant, and prejudiced general policy, foreign
and domestic it will abrogate good laws or enact
bad ones let in new evils, or cling with perverse
obstinacy to old it will even, perhaps, under
misleading impulses, momentary or permanent,
emanating from itself or from its constituents.
tolerate or connive at proceedings which set law
aside altogether in cases where equal justice
would not be agreeable to popular feeling. Such
are among the dangers of representative govern
ment, arising from a constitution of the repre-
sentation which does not secure an adequate
amount of intelligence and knowledge in the rep
resentatiye assembly,