The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1877-05-12

not, therefore, dwell upon that subject at this
time, further than is necessary to illustrate the
Importance, in that connection, of improving
the physical, intellectual and moral condition
of the units which compose the State, in order
to improve the State.
LORD MACAULAY.
III letter to gentleman who was writing the
life of Thomas Jefferson declared that he had
no sympathy for Mr.. Jefferson's views and
had never expressed any, even on the hust-
lngs; on the contrary he declared that he be-
heved government, by the votes of a nllmer-
ical majority, composed of the poorest and
most ignorant, was utterly impracticable. John
Adams, Gouyerneur Morris, James Otis, Ste
phen Hopkins Alexander Hamilton, and other
noble and patriotic Americans of the Revolution
airy times. doubted the ability of the people to
govern themselves under system as popular
even as our existing national government. Mr..
Hamilton thought the British Government
just it was in his time, the best form that
had ever been devised. Hamilton, up to the
time of his death, had little faith in the per
manency of our constitution he considered it
too weak too popular. He urged, in the cou-
ventisn, plan which required the President to
serve for life; United States Senators to serve
for life; Congress to have power to legislate on
all subjects without any restraint but its own
pleasure and judgment; Governors of States
be appointed by the Federal Government,
serve during good behavior, with power of
absolute veto of all laws passed by State Legis
latures.
Mr. Hamilton believed that the great maiori~
ty of the people were poor and ignorant, and
incapable of exercising the elective franchise
with intelligence and freedom.
The argument
AGAINST POPULAR GOVERNMENT
has always been that the great mass of the
people were poor and ignorant. Lord Macau-
lay. and the American statesmen to whom i
have referred, were intelligent. well-lnformed
men. We cannot say that they were wholly
mistaken, both as regards the facts and the
conclu Sions therefrom. 1t is, perhaps, true
that in all countries the great majority of the
people are poor, and extreme poverty is apt to
be accompanied by ignorance What, then, is
the solution Of this matter? Shall we recog-
niZe fact that the ma Ority are poor and
ignorant, and adapt governments to those con-
ditions, or shall we ascertain the causes which
lender the mass of people in all countries poor
and ignorant, and ascertain how far this cond
ton is caused by the INSTRUMENTATION of
state affairs that are managed by governments,
nd the feasibility of so modifying the Govern
ment as to reverse those conditions, and enable
the majority of the people to be well provided
with those things that are essential to their
welfare. physical, intellectual. and moral? My
theme tonight is,
1.-THE HAND-woRKERs
of the Mississippi valley-their power and
their responsibility" [ claim that they have
The power to understand this great social
problem, and that they have the power to in
augurate movements which will ultimately
solve it in a practical way, not only for our
selves, but for all peoples and I may add that
that movement has been commenced, and has
made some progress already.
Let us keep
THE PROBLEM
in view Admitting that poverty and igno-
rance is the common fate of great ma jority
of the people in all countries and that bv
reason of their poverty and ignorance they are
incapable of sef-government, the problem Is
how to reverse these conditions so that the
q1e0t majority Of the people shall no longer be
poos and ignorant, and may become capable of
self-government.
But why appeal to the hand-workers of the
Mississippi valley as having the power and
responsibility to secure the solution of this
great problem? Ny answer is. that for these
purposes those who invent. make and manage
mechanical machinery more capable than
anv other class of society in underst apding the
relations of part to the whole. and the neces-
sity of perfect adjustment and reciprocal ac
ton of the parts with each other, to secure re-
suits by the combined and cooperative action
of all the parts that the invention. making
ard use of mechanical machinery affords a
necessary preparation for the invention. max
L
chinerv-1ndcsine1,y by which wealth is most
readily OF economically produced, and inter
changed between producers and by which the
rights and duties of individual members of so
ciety are marked by laws, and protected by
governments.
VOC OCCUPY VAST PLAIN.
extending from the Appalachian range and the
on the East to the Rocky noun
tains of the West from the genial climate of
the Gulf of Mexico, the land of cotton. rice
and sugar, spanning the great wheat belt, and
extending to the SHOWS Of Dakota with its
mighty streams. navigable for many hundreds
of miles. the Mississippi Missouri, Red. Ar
kansas, Tennessee. Ohio, Cumberland and the
Illinois rivers. With its thousands of miles
of railroads. and washed by the waters of the
great lakes, and connecting with the great
water system of the st. Lawrence. with its
many roads to the sea. You occupy also the
great highway between Europe and Asia. The
hand-workers have been the great power that
gave persistent and efficient force to our Reyo-
luton. and have been the balance-wheel that
has preserved democratic-republican instit1-
tons IN this country, and prevented the alb
sorptlon of power by the General Government
and its withdrawal from local governments and
the people.
claim for the hand workers of the Nissis
sippi valley that they are less incapacitated for
tnls work by poverty and ignorance than anv
other people in the world. and have the mower