San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1879-02-01

leadership Of sophistlcated anu
iaithless few, rather than the VICIOUS
propensities, Inherent and iueradicable
Of the voting many. He denies, more
over, the practicability of a reform on
the retrograde line advocated BY Mr.
Parkman. His mind is exalted
with a Jeffersonian enthusiasm for the
capacity u men for self government
and abhors the idea Of contracting the
range Of suffrage by arbitrary tests as
traversing the logic of Democracy ana
threatening to unsettle the foundations
Of the republic. "A government OF
the wisest and best" he says, is con-
fessedly uuattainable through any her.
editary or autocratic methods, and 1t
is equally so under Democracy, save
as wisdom and virtue find expression
in the endeavor Of the whole people.
By what rule should we distinguish
the wise and good from the ignorant
and vicious? Granting that character
and intelligence should govern, we
ask what defiued:measure ofthese quail
ifications should be exacted SO that
voters and non .voters might DO intel
ligently classified? How could the
sheep and goats be distinguished? No
human wisdom could possibly deter
mine. Infants, idiots, lunatics and
those who have forfeited their rights
by crime, are deprived of the ballot
because they are wanting in that pow
er Of choosing which is the very es'
since of popular. government; but
these we'll defined exceptions are per-
| fectly consistent with the rule which
bases the right Of suffrage upon per.
sonality. The attempt to go beyond
them, and arbitrarily to restrict the
governing power to an aristocfacy OF
character and intelligence, would be
as repugnant to the principles ofDem'
ocracy as it would be superlatively alb
surd and impracticable," While Mr..
Juliau's sentiments and arguments are
in strict keeping with the impulse, i'm
pressed upon the country by the revo-
lutiouary fathers Of l776, towards an
exhaustive assertion of the natural
rights of man and a complete evolu-
ton Of the Democratic principle, there
can be no question that Mr.. Parkman's
wall over the alleged failure of uni
versal suffrage" reflects feeling
which events have engendered in the
minds of some of our best, if not our
wisest, citizens. We studiously re-
frain from classifying such despond-
ents among our wisest citizens, be-
cause bypochoudria is not wisdom, and
because wisdom never surrenders eth
er to palsying melancholy or to a
spasmodic activity under the counsel
of panic fears. Grant that suffrage, as
now crudely organized, has brought
upon the country, in the language Of
Mr.. Parkman, IAN ignorant proleta.
riat and half taught plutocracy." II
does not follow that escape from these
twin barbarisms is possible by an alb.
ject retreat for shelter under a regime
founded upon utter skepticism of the
capacity of the people ut large for sell
government. Remember what Thorn
as Jefferson said on coming into the
presidency after his triumph over 9
paroxysm of political melancholy
among the federal reactionists Of the
Hamilton and Adams school, similar
to that which has seized some good
but morbid. minded citizens of the
present day. Remember these words
of the inaugural on that occasion
Sometimes it is said that man cannot
be trusted with the government o.
himself. Can he then be trusted with
the cove, nmeut of others? Or have w
found angels in the form of kings tt
govern us ? Let history answer this
question" No, assuredly, as our his
tory has taken its impetus in the line
of the democratic principle, safety ii
not to be found by listening to the
gospel of political despair and praying
for repose in some form Of aristocratit
or despotic rule. The path of safety
comedies with the doctrine that il
free government the right of suffrage
should rest, not upon any accident Of
humanity, but simply upon humanity
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