The Hawaiian gazette., 1889-05-21

ldlul1 WuSbuCl OIL AOoGASOAOho uPOA
the right of voting, and if so what,
are for the greatest good of the
greatest number. Sdlus populi SUI
prema ler-the welfare of the people
is the supreme law.
The mere theorist, the man who
regards his ideas as fixed and i'm
mutable principles, and who, when
the facts of human experience fail
to confirm or conform to his precon-
ceived notions, simply shrugs his
Shoulders and says, in substance,
$50 much the worse for the facts" is
dangerous guide in any walk of
life, and especially in politics.
We suppose no one at the present
day will dispute the claim of George
Washington to be regarded as an
eminent statesman, or that his adj
ministration of the public affairs of
the newly organized government
was conspicuously wise and success
full. But even a moderately careful
study of his civil career will disclose
the fact that he had scarcely any
political theories or doctrines what
ever.
So long as reconciliation with
the mother country seemed possible,
he was warmly in favor of it, and
therefore might be fairly classed as
a monarchist. But his monarchical
training and his unquestionable
loyalty to the British crown did not
stand in the way of his accepting the
leadership in ain armed resistance to
that crown, in behalf Of what
he believed to be the rights
and interests of the colonies.
Nor may his honesty, or even his
essential consistency, be successfully
called in question.
On the other hand, there is no
reason to suppose that he ever be-
came, upon merely theoretical
grounds, republican. In this Ee
differed markedly from Jefferson
and Samuel Adams, and other re-
evolutionary leaders who could be
named, and who were what might
be called republicans on principle.
The successful termination of the
war and the acknowledgment of the
entire independence of the colonies
necessitated the formation of an en-
tirely new government. In view of
the development of advanced liberal
opinions during the seven years
struggle, and indeed of all the con-
ditions then existing, the establish
ment of a government republican
in form and substance mad become
simply a necessity. There was alb
solutely no other solution to the pro-
blem. Washington accepted the in
evitable logic of events readily and
heartily, and no theoretical consider
atoms of the divine right of kings,
or of his former honest professions
of loyalty to King George, disturbed,
for one moment, the balance of his
serene and eminently practical in
tellect. Washington was a wise,
practical statesman, not a mere
theorist.
1t would be well that something
of the same spirit and mental tenn
per shown by Washington Ill dealing |
with the various important matters !
requiring attention and settlement |
during the eight years of his presi-
Dental life, should be taken as our
model and guide in considering the
question of a property qualification
for voters. Appeals to abstract pro-
positions concerning natural rights
will not afford any sure basis for a
solution. This whole subject of |
what is called natural rights, their
foundation, nature, scope, limitations,
and practical application, involve
questions about which there seems
to be, among even the wisest and
best of men, considerable differences
of opinion.
The wise man and intelligent
patriot, the one who regards public
questions in the same way that was
habitual with the great American,
will look carefully over the field, he
will study the composition as well as
the general tendencies and dominant
ideas of the voting population, he
will consider the evils which have
afflicted the body polite in the past
and the source from which they
sprang, he will ask himself. not what
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