The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-08-07
UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE.

The radical organs, such of them as dare
speak out, are engaged in perfecting a
scheme for the abolition of universal suf-
frage. Limited suffrage will be neces-
sary to the contemplated strong govern
ment under. Grant. Just how the ballot
is to be wrested from the American
people is not stated, but the necessity for
such an act of treason to the sacred rights of
freemen IS plainly set forth. Some weeks
since Francis Parkman, of Boston,
argued after the old federaIist style,
the failure of universal suffrage" and
now comes President Woolsey, who calls
in question the expediency of universal suf-
frage. In his recent work on Political
Science, he says:
Suppose now the classes without intelligence
or property or character to have the suffrage
and to be predominant in society, will the
elections of local or of more public officers be
made more intellgently than II they had been
excluded? Is IL not quite conceivable that
such an element among the voters would give
rise to a class of demagOgues, whose means of
gaining power would be to produce division
between classes, and to array the poor against
the rich? There is a great danger that those
who pay nothing will out vote those who pay
everything. So, in choosing magistrates, If
public judges and the members OF police
were chosen by the votes of those members of
a community who have an interest in being
screened from punishment, how can the in
terests of society be safe in the hands of such
officers?
These suggestions and assertions are all
designed to weaken the fabric of American
liberties and ultimately to change our form
of government They, in effect, declare
mans incompitency for self govern
ment, and inculcate the monstrously
vicious idea that virtue is found
only with the rich, that property
alone confers right to citizenship. The New
York Times, a pronounced radical organ,
from the columns of which we take the
above quotation, emphatically Endorses
Woolseys theories and quotes Parkman and
Burke in justification of its position. Park
man, in his North Amencan Review paper,
in referring to the right and duty of the
state, says: at is the night and duty of the
state to pro vide good government for itself
and the moment the vote of any person or
class of persons becomes an obstacle to its
doing so, this person or class forfelts the
right to vote; for where the rights
'of a part clash with the rights of
the whole the former must give
way" This statement" says the Times,
lis in full accord with the doctrine which
Burke lays down in his Reflections on the
French Revolution in opposition to the
theory of the French theorists who con-
founded natural with political rights, a
theory which had its fervid disciples in a
certain school of American politicians, of
whom Jefferson was the leader. 1t was a
Legitimate oifshoot of the social compact
theory of society, according to which no
man is bound TO obey the civil authority
any further than he has promised so to do.
After explaining that every individual has
a right to justice, and to share in the adj
'vantages of society, Burke says: AS to the
share OF power, authority and direction
which each individual ought to have in the
management of the state, that must deny
TO be among the direct original rights OF
man in civil society; for have in my con-
temptation the civil, social man, and no
'other. II is thing to be settled by conven-
tion'p
All of this is in direct conflict with the
Jefferson school of American politics; a
school that has been the glory and the pride
of America; school that lifted man to the
dignity of citizenship; that clothed him
with sovereign power; that recognized brain
power as one of the great forces of the
world; that wrested the scepter from federal
ism and permitted man, poor or rich, to ex-
pand to the full proportions of freeman.
This, however, does not suit the Times,
and it closes its article by saying:
1t would be great gain If our people could
be made to understand distinctly that the
right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happi-
ness involves, to DE sure, the right to good
government, bnt not the right to take part,
either Immediately or indirectly, in the man
agement of the state.
We are of the opinion that good govern
ment in this country depends upon placing
the ballot in the hands of the people. In
1876 we had a sublime illustration of the
value of universal suffrage. By a majority
of more than quarter of a million OF votes
corrupt and thievlng party was displaced from
power. IT was then that the advocates of a
strong government, the organs Of the radical
party, men of wealth, of learning, of high
social and political positions, and the enc
mics OF universal suffrage, conceived the
crime that adds to the number of the worlds
wonders, of reversing the will of the Ameri-
can people. They manufactured perjuries |
SO huge that the broad side of hell will have
to be torn down to admit them. They APP
Piled them and accomplished their purpose.
The Times Endorses the crime, and the Times I
Onnoses universal suffrage.