New-York tribune., 1896-05-24
TENDENCY OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE

TENDENCY OF MANHOOD SUFFRAGE
The outlook of life under the present tenden-
cies Of democracy is far from pleasing to Mr..
Lecky. Moreover. he is surprised that such ten
dences should have emerged from the politics
Of the eighteenth century The central principle
of political life in the last century was that
nobody should be taxed who was not also repre-
sented. In the dormant States Of Europe this
not understood But in England and the
English colonies the idea was fixed. 1t formed
the character of Parliament and 1t animated
the insurrection which became revolution in
America. The notion that there were such
things natural rights had not more than
penetrated the minds of certain philosophers
until the generation came on the scene which
framed the Declaration Of Independence. Above
all, nobody conceived the thought that the right
to vote was anything better than the gift of the
State for the States own benefit. The State
maintained itself upon the revenues which 1t got
from the people. Hence those were most inter-
ested in the affairs OF the State who had the
most taxes to pay. AS Parliament was above
all a machine for levying taxes, manifestly those
who felt It's power We're those who required to
know how that power was exercised. II was
by their own consent that they were taxed NO
danger in representative government was
deemed greater than that II should degenerate
into a system of yelled conhscation-one class
voting the taxes which another class was COM
pelled to pay" To the fact that most Of the
taxpayers In those days were landholders can be
traced the traditional hatred toward the landed
interest still felt by the classes which have
since risen to power But Mr.. Lecky points out
that "the doctrine that the men to whom the
land belonged were the men who ought TO gov
ern II was held. not only by great body Of
English Tories but also by Benjamin Franklin
and by a large section Of the American colon
lists" In practice this means something very diff
ferent in America, especially in the northern
colonies. from what 1t meant in England. In the
one case it approximated so closely to manhood
suffrage as invariably to suggest that alter
native; in the other 1t suggested the maligned
borough system which enabled great taxpayers
to have their own representative in Parliament.
To Mr. Lecky the system of representation
which grew out of the conditions of life in
England in the eighteenth century appears far
from Objectionable. 1t must be understood,
once for all. that he does not look on manhood
suffrage as means for getting at the real
opinions Of a nation. Every one" he says, who
will look facts honestly in the face can convince
himself that the public opinion Of nation is
something quite different from the votes that
can be extracted from all the individuals that
compose it. There are multitudes IN every
nation who contribute nothing to its public
opinion who never give serious thought to
public affairs. who have no spontaneous wish
TO take any part in them; who, If they are
induced to do So will act under the complete
direction OF individuals or organizations of an
other class. The landlord the clergyman. or
Dissenting minister, or priest the local agtator
or public housekeeper, will direct their votes and
in pure democracy the art Of winning and ac-
cumulating these votes will become one of the
chief parts of practical politics" The reader
who considers these sentences carefully Will
hardly need elaborate later chapters to show
what the authors opinion is Of Socialism and of
democratic governmental control.