The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1889-11-01

borders and break from its barriers
whereas if the tributaries that feed it BIZ
first cut off, you maj in time succeed il
drying up the stream itself.
millions ofdolIars, "-he declared, were
invested in the liquor business, and mil
lions Of persons interested in its sale and
p~crpetuation, and to suppose that this i'm
mense interest was to be suddenly wiped
out, as proposed by Prohibitionists, was
to suppose the impossible. Law cannot
be made effective he continued, s.save
and except when supported by public
opinion. and no measures, no policy, no
law can De made operative a step in adj
vance ofpublic sentiment, and to illus
trate how far in advance the Prohibition
lists are ahead of public sentiment said,
as 20, 900. the Fisk vote of this State, was
to the $50, 600 on the other side, Sc was
prohibition in New Jersey to the senti-
ment against it. That vas about the
worst and most me had TO say IN the line
of prohibition, and as before put, present.
ed q most plausible showing. This pre-
sentation was made with such cogency
and tentative fairness that it really looked
very much like facts, and if left to a vote
at the moment to the mixed assemblage of
Republicans, Prohibitiomsts and Demo
Gratis present, would probably have carried
almost unanimously.
The speaker said nothing about the
bravery of a party in making public SEN
timent, nothing about the aggressiveness
of the old time Republican party in its
stand on great moral issues, a mere hand
full against the organized ignorance and
wickedness of the whole country; nothing
about the John Browns and Charles sum-
mers and Thaddeus Stevens of the party;
nothing about planting the colors in adj
vance of the column and bringing the Re-
publican hosts up to the colors: nothing
about right for the sake of right, but
everything about keeping Just 50 far to the
rear of public sentiment. Public senti-
ment is to be educated up to a certain
point on the temperance question by a
party just to the tail of public sentiment,
was the inference of his logic.
Let's see for a moment how the paral-
lels of history tally with the gentleman's
reasoning. The abolition of slavery could
hardly be said TO have been the sentiment
of the country at the time it was made
law, and yet by the simple edict of one
man, and that too in opposition to the
sentiment OF at least two-thirds of the
people of the United States, taking the
country over, millions of slaves were man
united and slavery in this country be-
came 4 thing of the past. Negro suffrage
was even more in opposition to the senti-
ment of the people than the abolition of
slavery, and yet in a day, as it were, it
became the lew OF the land. These two
colossal facts in history came through the
action of the Republican party and are
certainly still remembered by Mr.. Nevius
as a shining example of a party, and not
public sentiment, being ON the lead. The
Senator will probably admit that the law
abolishing polygamy among the mormons is
being made rigidly effective, and that,
too, though strongly out of accord with
the sentiment of that people.
But what is sentiment, anyhow, farther
than a purpose ito dare and to do" first
on the part of a few, perhaps a very few,
aud then going ahead to make public SEN
timent, and make it, too, grandiy opera
tive? All reforms, in short, are made
first by radical, aggressive leaders, after
that the people follow and public senti-
ment is made, but never sentiment first.
Some one has rightly said that ''history,
whether OF politics, or of society, or of
opinion, is administered by leaders. The
minority rules, not the majority. Two
million slaves in Egypt, one Moses.
Moses was mightier than the two million.
Not more than about one man in each
hundred has anything practical to do in
determining what the philosophy of the
age shall be, or its government, or It's re-
ligion. The action OF the majority is
mostly a form of assent to the decision
made by the minority"
Universal suffrage is not in fact so much
as it is in appearance. 1t is a plaything,
largely, which the people are allowed to
amuse themselves with while the leaders
of the people are transacting the peoples
business. As society improves We hope to
pave better leaders, but we shall always
have leaders. Oligarchy is a Divine fact,
and democracy, to a certain degree, 4 hu-
man attempt to fringe out its sewage and
make it ornamental. And the greater the
number of the rank and file who east their
little ballot according to the slate that is
made up to them-and from the nature of
the case VIC regularly do-the more puts
SAINT the slate makers. The more there
are that play they decide matters, the
more actual influence there is welded by
those who do decide matters. II is like
lengthening the long arm of the lever with
which they do their prying. 1t is like
ranging a string Of zeroes at the right of
an integer, each of which multiplies the
integer tenfold. If a thousand men, at
their generals order, fire at the advancing
enemy, it is as though the general himself
suddenly became a thousand men. If a
thousand singers sing the tune the pre-
ceptor names and voices for them. il is as