Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-11-13
y nttereth knowledge. but not for these.

day uttereth knowledge, but not for these.
With monotonous iteration the old
tricks and swindles are exposed, one after
another, but to no purpose. There is no
mouse but will enter the trap when it
smells the toasted cheese. There is no
trap too old fashioned 80 catch mice with.
The coarse rogueries OF hundred years
ago still suffice to fleece the yokels of to-
day. The ancient and hoary strap,
game" has its victims sempiternally, though
it be explained by an oficious press three
hundred and sixty-fiv days in the year.
The growth of human folly in fact appears
to the casual observer to proceed step for
step with the growth OF human intelligence,
and the task Of clearing away the thorny
waste of national ignorance and perversity
may well seem an hopeless one to those
who do not look beneath the surface.
But for all this ignorance and stupidity,
for all this headlong folly which runs with
shut eyes into the tolls on every side,
there is but one cure. Enlightenment,
however painful and tedious, must be the
remedy. There is no other to be had or to
be thought OF. OF old the prevalence of
ignorance was taken advantage of by the
intelligent minority to fortify their own
supremacy in the State. The masses,
said they, are STEPPED in folly and barbar-
ism, andincapable of self government. They
must be driven and herded like cattle. and
we must attend to all their affairs for
them. So long as this theory stood the
world could not advance. The minority,
having power, necessarily abused it. The
majority, being impotent, necessarily suf-
fered. 1t was not until the universally of
the right to knowledge was recognized
that this theory of exclusive gov
eminent was overthrown. Situated as
we are there can be no middle
path. Our political system was chosen
for us by our fathers. The power to
restrict the suffrage has passed away.
There are the masses, possessing equal po-
litical authority. Upon their intelligent
exercise of the authority placed in their
hands, everything must depend. That
they will blunder is to be expected. That
occasionally the inferior minds will exhibit
their inferiority, as in this forged letter
case, is to be expected. That the credulity
which finds manifestation so abundantly
in every other phase of life will also be ap-
parent in politics. is inevitable. But if we
wish to secure ourselves against the dan
gerous ascendency of credulity and lack of
judgment, if We wish to guarantee the
country against the possible repetition of
such a scandal as the Morey letter, we must
devote ourselves to the one great agency of
popular education. 1t is no doubt menace
to good government that people who
are incapable OF distinguishing between
clumsy forgery and genuine letter
should be under any circumstances al
most numerous enough to change the
result of Presidential election by their
irrational caprice, but neither deploring
their folly nor railing at their stupidity
will make them any wiser, or deprive
them of one title of their dangerous
power. There they are, and they must be
reckoned with in every election. And
since they cannot be disfranchised it re.
mains only to instruct them. 1t s.possible
that even now great many persons who
voted for General Hancock under the be.
lief that the Morey letter was true, have
realized their error, and it may safely be
assumed that all such persons are guaran-
teed against similar receptions for all
time to come. As to acting upon the men
who made use of forgery as a political
weapon, it is useless unless they can be
made examples of through the criminal
law. They are the physical consequences of
political degeneration, just the worms are
the result of carnal putrefaction. They
will act after their kind, and where there
is ignorance and perversity they will play
upon them successfully. Remove the
ignorance, and Immediately political
careers would be closed to such men as
Barnum. They, therefore, may very well
be ignored in Analysing the Morey Incl
dent. The remedy for popular credulity
does not consist in exterminating the char
latans, but in making charlatanism I'M
profitable. You cannot destroy the seeds
of imposture SO long as dupes abound. It
is by the extension of knowledge alone
that dupes are to be eliminated, and their
removal entails double gain upon So
ciety.