New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-03-07
MAJORITY RIFLE.

HdJORiIH RULE.
There are more things "tOlerable and not
"to be enduredn than "fOr the watch to bab-
"ble and talk" OF which one, according to
Democratic authority, is obedience to law and
submission to the rule of the majority in
South Carolina and other Southern States.
We have heard this excuse for the violation
of law and the suppression of an honest vote
in those States until it has become little
thrsadbare. Viewed as an abstract question
in a government based upon the fundamental
principle of the right of the majority to rule,
the incapacity or even the dishonesty, of the
majority furnishes no excuse to numerical
minority, though it be composed of majority
of the intelligence and wealth of the cOmmu-
nifty, for breaking the law and cheating the
majority out of their legal rights. 1t is one
of the limitations under which popular gov
eminent must necessarily work that the
majority are not always wise nor their rule
always benefcent. The voice of the people,
notwithstanding the positive assertion of the
old Latin, is by no means the voice of God. But
whatever il is, the fundamental fact in our
form of Government is that it is the recOg-
nlzed law which we must obey. The popular
majority is the only sovereign. AZ President
Garfield tersely states it: of in other lands
ait be high treason TO compass the death of
" the king, il should be counted no less a crime
"here to strangle our sovereign power and
"sthe its voice" Whatever hardships may
come under the practical operation of this
principle-i.ld that there are hardships the
intelligence and wealth Of this, the most i'm
portant city ir he Union, have good occasion
l. h. -,
cure or mitigation of Them can he found. The
taxpayers of New-York have furnished an ex-
ample, too, of this.
The principle must cover the whole country
and be held sacred Ivy all the people. NJ tx
ceptiOns to it can he made. 1t will not do to
say that it shall hold when Intelligence and
wealth are in the ascendant, and not when
the majority are vicious, ignorant aud POOR.
The low wards in this city have too often
given New York IN incompetent. corrupt and
venal government that plundercd the tax
payer and made the honest citizen hang his
head in shame. 1t is claimed that ignorant
and dishonest negroes have done the same in
South Carolina and other Southern States. In
both cases the misgOvernment seemed at times
Noticeable Yet no intelligent citizen Of New
York ever dreamed of openly justifying a re-
sort TO fraud violence to remedy this trouble
some condition. Therein our friends in
South Carolina differ. They mako no
secret of suDpressiDg tho negro vote
by intimidation or overcoming il by fraud,
and justify themselves upon the plea that tho
rule Of the majority is intOlerable. President
Garfield, in bis Inaugural, has admitted the
plea to the dignity Of serious argument and
given it patient hearing and respectful an
swer. lie wisely indicates the source of the
evils they complain of, and points them to
the only eflicacious cure. The source Is igno-
rance education the cure. "All the cOnstitu-
"tional powers of tho Nation and of
"the States and all the volunteer forces
"Of the people," he says, "should
"be summoned to meet this danger
"by the saving influence of universal educa-
"ton." Meantime, speaking of the emanci-
pated classes whose votes have been sup
pressed on such an extensive scale, he says:
$50 far as my authority can lawfully extend
"they shall enjoy the full and equal protec-
"tion Of the Constitution and the lawsn
The World newspaper of this city, however,
commenting upon this feature of the Inaugural,
thinks it is 90 hard saying if the majority of
"voters in any particular community are so
Ignorant and their leaders so corrupt that
"the rule Of the majority is the rule of high
"waymen, the minority, who comprise all the
" intelligence and all the property of the
community, must apparently submit to
"be robbed upon the ground that, whereas
robbery is great evil,' denial of the cleo
" tive franchise to classes cOnfessedly unfit at
"present to exercise 1t is more than an evil
cit is a crime" The fallaces contained in
this proposition are too plain to need pointing
out but suppose we accept the inference
that the very fundamental principle of
free government may be overturned and GER
tain communities exempted frOm its operation
on the ground of expediency How would
The World and its party like to have the rule
extended to those Democratic communities
where, as in many of our OwA city wards,
classes cOnfessedly unfit" to exercise the
elective franchise are In an overwhelming
majority9 We live under form of govern
ment in which no man or set of men NAV
Justify violation of law upon the plea that its
operation was oppressive or enjoined hardships.
The highest philosophy of citizenship is recogni-
ton of and obedience to law. Hardships are,
after ALL largely relative. A highstrung commu-
nifty may feel the burden of over-taxatiOn and
the disgrace of misgOvenment 80 intOlerable az
to Justify fraud as the remedy. A sensitive
man, having the same feeling of intolerable
hardship in being obliged to wear seedy ap-
parel, might steal coat. Both acts would be
criminal and inexcusabe. The hardship might
be in either case equally intolerable but it
would not DO accepted as jusifying the Of