The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1895-09-18
A Sure Foundation Is the Majority.

a SURF 10 tut
The souls OF some reformers are in a
perpetual state of disquietude because
of certain alleged inequalities in re-
publican form of government. The
cardinal principle of republicanism is
that the majority shall rule. This
principle these reformers are ever
studying to modify, and to substitute
therefor another principle-that the
minority shall rule part of the time.
In recent newspaper discussion of
this subject, it was shown that the
democratic vote in Maine is 1873 per
cent of the whole vote, but that no
democrat sits in the senate, and only
3.3 per cent of the representatives are
from the minority; in New Hampshire
the democratic vote is 400 per cent,
the democratic senatorial vote 1876 per
cent, the representative vote N.3 per
cent. These percentages OF demo-
cratic participation in government in
New Hampshire are much larger than
in any other New England state. In
Vermont, the democratic vote is pa
per cent. The party is not represented
in the senate, and only 4.6 per cent Of
the representatives are democrats.
Third parties are not represented in
either branch of the New England
legislatures, though casting small per.
centage of the popular vote.
From this state of things it is argued
that the spirit of equal representation,
the ideal of the constitutions, has been
sacrificed in practice. The spirit of
the constitutions is that the majority, or
plurality, shall prevail. This does
not imply that the minority shall be re-
duced to slavery, or dragged at the
heels of the majority, or oppressed in
any form. When the question, Who
shall be governor Of the state? has
been answered at the polls, the person
named becomes in theory, and he is in
practice, the chief executive of all the
people, the minority as we'll as the
majority. When a senator or repre-
sentative is chosen, he becomes in
theory-and he is in fact-a law-maker
for all the people. Executive and leg
islator take solemn oath to obey the
constitution and the laws, in their letter
and spirit. The constitution and laws
are made in the interest of the people
as body, and the charge cannot be
successfully maintained that the spirit
of either is sacrificed or disregarded
by executive, or legislator, or judge,
chosen by majority of legal voters.
There is no majority caste. No OBJ.
server of any community can say who
among its members belong to the po-
litical majority and who to the minority
All have and enjoy equal rights, priv
ileges, protection. There is no dis
tinction. Either the majority must
rule at the polls at election time, in the
legislature in the enactment of laws,
on the bench in deciding questions of
law, or there must be chaos. These
devices of professional reformers for
substituting some new principle for the
old bedrock principle of majority rule
are interesting as fanciful theories, but
in practice-if it were possible to put
them into practice-they would be SUBJ
versive of order and good government.
Two bodies cannot occupy the same
space at the same time, nor can con-
fiicting parties concurrently participate
in the administration of government.
The income tax is constitutional or I'M
constitutional. If five judges of the
supreme bench of nine say it is uncon-
stitutional, that must definitely settle
the question. The law cannot be one
thing five-ninths of the year and the
opposite thing the remaining four
ninths. If in Vermont a republican
receives 1876 per cent of the votes cast
for governor, and democrat pa per
cent, the former must be governor for
the entire term of that officer, not for
1876 per cent of the term and his rival
for "a A per cent. If three.quarters of the
persons exercising the franchise vote
for prohibition, and one-quarter fol
free rum, prohibition it must be for 36d