The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-03-19
The Talk Of q pessimist.

Sir Lepel Griffin in Fortnighty Review.
Manhood suffrage untempered by any educa-
tional test, and rendered uncomfortable by the
surging mass of emigration, which was condi-
ton unestimated by the drafters of the Consti-
tuition, is the chief cause of the present difficulty
and respectable Americans do not see how they
can escape from it. Their usual reply, when
driven into a corner, is that although the ad-
ministration is shamefully corrupt, they will
be able to reform it whenever they have
time to do So AT present they are engaged in
making money as quickly as they can. They
cannot be troubled with politics; but when at
leisure they will reform the administration and
make it clean and honest Moreover the coun-
try is young and people, ike the English, who
have passed through the political experiences of
the Georges, should not be squeamish in criti-
cising America, which is undergoing a not more
discreditable process OF publication. The double
fallacy which underles this defense is obvious
to every. historical student. In all communities,
and certainly in America, the honest and re-
spectacle largely outnumber the disreputable and
disorderly. Yet the greatest catastrophics in re
pubhcs have been due to the cow
ardice and apathy of the former when
opposed by the organization and au-
dacity of the latter. The excuses of
1893, both in Paris.and the provinces, were the
work of very small minority, who might have
been easily overpowered had the mobiles and
courage The horrors of the commune We're
due to a handful of men whom the shop-keepers
of the boulevards could have driven into the
Seine with their yard measures Safety is new
er to be secured by hesitation and delay, and the
longer an abuse remains unremoved the more
difficult is its extirpation. The conditions of
political life in England during the last century
and those in America to-day are essentially
different Here the power was in the hands of
an educated class, who, as the standard of NOR
ality became more high were com
PEELED to change their methods or
lose power altogether But, in
America, manhood suffrage has placed power in
the hands of the lowest and least educated class
a large proportion of whom have little sympathy
with the country of their adoption and are too
ignorant to understand its requirements Edu-
cation may possibly affect these favorably in the
future; but ii Is also to be considered that the
present system directly tends, by making dis
honesty more profitable than political virtue to
continually augment, in an ever increasing ratio
the number of those whose interest it is to per-
petuate the reign of corruption Nor can Amer
lea plead youth as an excuse for her moral de-
crepitude A vicious and depraved youth does
not promise a healthy manhood or an honorable
old age. The advantages of her youth were peo
pie unfettered by the chains of poverty and pre-
jndice which weigh on the races of Euprope,
and field free for the noblest experiments in
government She inherited the experience and
culture of the ages; she could profit by their
splendid examples and avoid the rocks on which
they had made shipwreck. She should have adj
vaneed and not fallen back, and this was the
proud hope Of her earliest statesmen. The young
and vigorous republic of the West was to revive
the classic virtues of Brutus andsC incinnatus
and blaze forth, pillar of fire, to guide through
the darkness tho afata 'A'n'oarehias of the old