Sacramento daily record-union., 1881-11-19
toRIGINAI
THE WAYS0F THE WORLD.
IoRIGINAL SERIAL sToRY.l
BY JUN1Us HENRI BROWNE.

At times l think I'll quit the damned
party wash my hands of it, and be clean
for once. Don't you feel frequently as if
you wanted moral Turkish bath, Porter"
Yes; but the feeling is incident to
politics generally. Ii you leave one party
and join another, it's much the same
thing. Politics is not principle it is
game to win. We must employ such ma
terial as we have to insure success.
"We do; don't we? In this town we
carry things about as far as we can, I
should say"
mo further than the other party would
if they had our opportunities. and the
same elements to deal with.
Probably not, Porter. But do wish
that the rank and file of our party looked
little better, and didn't-phew Offend
the senses quite so much"
Half an hour later Northrup harangued
his 20 friends and fellow citizens y fulsome
ly eulogized the nationality that consti-
tuted the strength of his party, and pro-
claimed himself lover of the common
People in every land, but particularly in
his own.
As he was going out of the meeting
Porter seized him by the arm and whispered
in his ear, "You have made amends in
your speech for the unworthy opinion you
have privately expressed of noble and
generous race"
" Yes, l have; damn them -
As Northrup was on his way home he
stopped at the Rensselaer, Club, and met
James Rivers, who had just come from
the office-it was now past midnight-to
look at back number of the North Anaer.
ican, ReUieag. The politician, who took
pains to cultivate the journalist on account
OF his profession, asked him to join him in
glass of sherry; and while they were sip
ping it, they hit upon politics through the
elder asking the younger his views of the
next State election.
81 like to hear your ideas because you
are independent, and not biased, therefore,
as members of the two great parties are
likely to be"
"Nodoubt am biased everybody must
be; though 1 don't care fig for parties.
imagine that if were in politics, should
be called ideal, visionary"
"Why so?"
''Because l don't believe in universal
suffrage l think, unless suffrage be re-
stricted, that the Republic will be ruined
in time by the votes of the ignorant and
lawless populaoe."
"That is not republicanism it is sheer
aristocracy. You wouldn't set aside the
will of the People-would you?"
"Most decidedly, unless the People were
capable of voting inte'ligently on any and
every public question presented to them.
Chow would you manage the franchise,
Rivers? Your plans would be impractical.
BILE. Having once given the People the
suffrage, you can not deprive them of it
that would be retroactive and unconstitu-
tional."
81 would not take the suffrage away
from the persons who had exercised it. l
would have an amendment made to the
Constitution at least national law
passed, that, after certain time, two or
three generations ahead, nobody should be
allowed to vote in this country who had
not certain degree of education and on
financial questions, there should be prop
erty qualification"
"That would never do, Rivers. The
People would never submit to be deprived
of their rights.
1.-THE People? The demagogues you
mean, who have been the curse of every
republic that has existed. The People
would be well enough, if the demogogues
would not tamper with them. Rights of
the People is a sounding phrase, alto
gether vague, which has done incalculable
mischief, and will do far more"
"But you must remember, Rivers, that
no government which has ignored those
rights has ever lasted"
Rights of the People, you will allow me
to say, Northrup, with all due Difference
to you, is mere catch-phrase which de-
signing leaders have employed to cajole
and betray the People. Would you, or
| any American, pretend that it is right
of every man born on this globe to vote
| in the United States?'
"Isn't thatan extreme way of puttingit?''
"No. That is just what our present
naturalization laws amount to. It's mis-
take to suppose that to vote is right it
is privilege. Every man should prove
himself worthy of the privilege before he
! is permitted to exercise it.
| "You're poll tical theorist, Rivers.
Your views might answer for an ideal re.
public, like Plato's, but mot for an actual
| government like ours"
I" 1 told you that 1 should be called
visionary, though I maintain that 1 am
not Imagine that it should be determined
by the will of the nation that from and
after 1880, nobody should be entitled to
the elective franchise who had not the
rudiments of education. Who would be
! injured by that? 1t would affect no one
now living 1t would not discriminate
against any individual or any class"
| "Yes, it would, Rivers. Then, as now,
many of our foreign population would be
disfranchised by such an enactment.
$50 much the better, Northrup. They
could qualify themselves, if they would.
The fact that they won't proves their un-
! fitness to be citizens.
"Why, don't you think our foreign
element great help to US ~
"Not, as whole, politically indeed
the very reverse. They would be a helm.