Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-02-14
MR. BELTZHOOVERS MiILEksvILLE
GRAFTON.

MIX. EtSS MlLLEkSv
GRAFTON.
A Review of it by the New York .Sun.''
In noticing Hon. F. T.. Beltzhoover's
recent oration at the Normal society ann
versary, published m full in the INTELLI-
GENCEI, the New York Sun says:
Mr.. Beltzhoover. 4 representative in
Congress from Pennsylvania, has been
making a speech in favor OF intelligence
as a qualification for the ballot. We do
not agree with Mr.. BeltzhOOver, and mas
much as his deliverance is strong, and was
addressed to an audience of students,
whose influence in the community can
scarcely be estimated, it seems only pru-
dent to notice some of its most obvious
errors.
Mr.. BeltzhOover says the line must be
drawn somewhere, and he wants it drawn
at intelligence. But at what degree of
intelligence? He will be satisfied with
reading, writing, and ciphering. But
some one else may demand Il higher stand
ard, and the logic which sustainS the one will
sustain the other. If the lower standard
gives good government, the higher will
give better, and so on, until the same
reasoning brings us to the conclusion that
the best government is the absolute rule OF
the most learned citizen.
Ii We begin by putting the wholly un-
lettered under the heel of those who can
read and write, why not put the latter UNI
der still better educated class, until by
refining all the dross of ignorance from the
governing body, we reach by the process
Of selection the single despOt, who rules by
reason of his superior learning.
AacivaS oil itS fc,,,,
the consent Of the governed. Among the
governed are those who cannot read or
write. Shall they he political slaves be-
cause of their misfortune? They have as
large stake in the peace and order of the
community as the others. They have life.
liberty. family, property, character, to he
protected. Has the reader and ciphercr
anything greater or more sacred?
Is man who can read, write and cipher
any more likely to use his vote for the gen.
eral good than the man who cannot. We
defy MIR. BeltzhOOver to prove that it is.
The increase of corruption in English elec-
tiOns has kept pace with the increase of
the means of popular education until the
disfranchisement of whole bOrOughs has
come to be considered proper rem
edy. The same may be said of this
country, except that our ancestors were
purer and their children are more de
generate than the English-and it is u
striking fact that our educational facili-
ties are greater than theirs. Among our
revolutionary fOrefathere comparatively
few possessed Mr. BeltzhOOver's require
ments !; but they established the best gov
ernment Oh earth, and maintained it ill It's
| original purity and simplicity and We ven
| ture to say that they would have looked
| with very little liberation upon Il PROPOSE
| tiOn to change it to an ariStOcracy of S"-
called intelligence. Few of us can trace
| back their lineage very far without comin:,
| to unlettered ancestors, who voted with
the fathers of the republic, and shouldere'l
| their fire-lOcks with the heroes of indie
pehdence.
In England the learned bodies have
always been the last to yield to liberty and
reform. The Universities were the strong
holds of the Stuarts, and the Tory ma iori-
ties of Oxford have been Il prOverb. But
the other day vote was taken among the
students of Yale, and an enormous ma jor-
ity of them were found to be in favor o.
OverthrOwing the precedent set by Wash
ingtOn, and making Grant president for 4
| third term. What admirable custOdians
of our free institutions these educated gen
tlemen would be; yet, according "a Mr
BeltzhOOver's reasoning, We ought to com
nit these institutions to their keeping ex
clusively.
Reading and writing form in reality a
poor measure Of intelligence, and still less
of the virtues which make the good citi-
zen. Let the qualifications remain as they
are. The uneducated man pays his taxes
in time of peace, and in war takes his place
in the ranks. He wants good roads, good
schools for his children. justice impartially
administered, and protection to his little
property and enterprises. just as his more
fortunate neishbOr does and in the limit
ed view of public affairs which both neces-
sarily take, the one is certainly rs honest
and in most cases quite as capable voter
as the other. We may in time have IN
aristocracy in this country, but it will not
| he founded Oh MIR. Beltzhoovers qualiiica
tiOns of reading, writing and arithmetic.