Sacramento daily record-union., 1883-10-27
DEFENSE OF THE RHODE ISLAND
SUFFRAGE QUALIFICATION.

I
A DEFENSE OF THg RHODE ISLAND
SUFFRAGE QUALIFICATION.
In the North american RevieD Senator
Anthony rises with vigor to the defense of
Rhode Island. Her suffrage regulations
have been much debated, he says, and
the qualifications imposed upon her
voters have been misrepresented and the
State reproached on that account. Even
were it true, as represented, that the suf-
frage in Rhode Island attaches strictly to
the soil, Mr.. Anthony plainly tells us it is
nobodys business but the Rhode Island
ers'. 1t is the concern of those affected by
it, and we are given to understand, who
are go unfortunate as to live without her
sacred bounds, that Rhode Island doesn't
| care farthing what we think, and as for
those within the State who " do not like
it, " they can exile themselves. However,
Mr.. Anthony begs the world to know that
while his State has surrendered the land
qualification for suffrage as to native, born
citizens, it is retained as to citizens of for
eign birth, and even then amounts only to
a landed estate of Sl34 in value, or a
yearly rental value of 81. The we'll
! informed will concur with him that the
right of a State to establish its own suf-
frage qualifications is not to be ques-
toned, and also that suffrage is not a nat
ural right, but privilege growing out of
society. Rhode Island, he points out, has
population of stable character; it has
adhered longer to old customs than any
other, and has reverence for the
traditions of the fathers. Nowhere
else is the laboring population more
comfortable, or in enjoyment of
more of the luxuries of life or of greater
advantages for their children. Rhode
Island is the most densely populated State,
its people are among the richest, and char
tiles and systems of education are am
ply endowed. The mechanical class in
Rhode Island largely preponderateS over
the agricultural class, which is the safest
depository of political power. But the
mechanical class has not a strong local at.
tachment. It's members move from State
to State influenced by the huctuation of
wages, and to this class the population of
foreign birth in largest part attaches it.
self. The foreign born come mainly from
regions where there is ruling and sub
servient class, where the Government is
more hated than loved, and where they are
born to hostility to the ruler. To make
this the ruling class here Rhode Island be.
lieves to be dangerous. She insists, rather,
on Americanizing these people, and her
system she finds does not discourage their
immigration to her soil. Had she the sole
naturalization of the foreigners to dwell
within her borders, she would entertain
less fear, but the truth is that she is so
situated as to receive very large accessions
of foreigners whose first education under
American institutions is had in New York,
where the magnitude of the naturalization
| frauds is sufficient to poison the suffrage
of the whole country. The same laws
are grossly abused in other countries be-
sides New York, and voters are ground
| out by machinery to become the tools of
demsgogues, without a solitary idea of
the basic principles of our government, and
possessed only of bitterness of sentiment
against all government. With the exam
pie of New York and Chicago before her,
Mr.. Anthony declares Rhode Island dare
not relax her suffrage restrictions. b.
sides, it benefits the foreign born, who, in
that State, become thrifty, industrious,
orderly, and inspired with respect for the
law, the suffrage regulation encouraging
habits of industry and economy, and pro-
noting the self.respect of the landowner.
But the most pungent and incisive para
graph of Mr.. Anthony's rather pugnscious
paper is that in which he reads some of the
other States pointed lesson. "More
slowly than in the case of her sister States,
the sturdy conservatism of Rhode Island
has yielded to the liberalizing temper of
the times, which has carried some of them
far beyond the limits of safe and prudent
government, and has brought them within
sight of communism, which has broken
down the barriers that protect individual
independence, and has endangered the very
rights of property" Who is prepared to
say that Mr.. Anthony is not correct in this