The sun., 1900-03-26
JOHN LEDYARD.

their liberty and those who suffer
others to do it. '''i l'""'
JOHN LEDYARD.
EXPERIENCE has shown that the found
ers OF the Republic were not infallabe.
Wise, good and great they were. Their
work, grand in conceptionand marvellous
in detail, was still imperfect. The ex-
perience of the century ofthe Republics
history has proved this, and civil war,
the like of which was never before
known, showed conclusively just where
the greatest defect in that work was
the distrust of the people.
Upon this point ex-senator Ingalls, in
a recent article on "The Stormy Days of
the Electoral Commission, says:
- the founders of the Re-
public had little confidence in what
Lincoln called the pain, common peo-
pie, and less faith in their capacity for
sell government.
They we're aristocrats. They be-
lieved in the rule Of the best, AID not
the rule OF the most.
They thought public affairs should
be controlled by intelligence and not by
numbers.
They wanted liberty regulated by
laws enacted by the wise, interpreted by
the learned, and administered by the
strong"
The basic error in all this is the dis
trust of the people. AS Mr.. ingalls, has
pointed out where the popular will has
been recognized, and among the repre-
sentatives of the people there has been
little or no trouble; where the effort in
government making and administration
was an avoidance of the popular will and
a practical eviction of the masses from
governmental participation, the greatest
governmental scandals, and dangers,
have been evolved. The Senate, repre-
senting the States, has been the scene
and subject of more scandal than has the
House Of Representatives chosen directly
from and by the people. The electoral
college, devised to practically shut the
people out of the privilege of choosing a
President of the United States, has al
ways been productive of danger. The
ectors can vote for whom they please
for candinate that has been chosen not,
or ior some one vino name has never
been mentioned as "a can 1idate.
Ii is worthy OF note that it is just
here, at the point OF greatest danger,
tnat partisanship-party zeal and 10y
aty-keeps the men i'll whose hands the
Law places the future OF the nation, loyal,
and legardfu OF the DEGREES OF the peo-
pie. In that it is proved that the mod
ern, so-called, wise political doctrinaires
who illuminate against partisanship are
discrediting and rejecting that which
has been and is, after all, the mainstay
OF the nation. Partisanship is not the
evil the mugwumps describe it to be. 1t
is the conserving force in our politics,
just as, after its rejection by the makers
OF the Constitution, the common sense
loyalty aud devotion Of the people to the
principles OF the government, rather
than obedience to the laws, saved it
from destruction. The law would have
killed it. The spirit OF it-liberty and
equal rights for all-enthroned in the
hearts aud consciousness of the people,
kept it alive.
~
Just here we find marked distinction
between good and right government.
What the makers of the Constitution
were after was good government; not
good upon basis of ethics, but wise,
learned and strong. The Declaration of
Independence, however, was demand
for right government. In such gov
ernment the wise have no more rights
than the foolish, the learned no more
rights than the ignorant, and the strong
no more rights than the weak. That is
the government OF the United States as
the people see it and believe in it. The
errors OF the Constitution makers were
all in their departure from this ideal.
The failures OF the Republic, the faults
OF its administration and the dangers OF
its politics have all resulted ftom these
errors. In the conditions evolved dur
ing century of history. the wise, the
learned and the good (?) are still the ad-
vocates and exponents of these errors;
are combating the demand Of the people
for right government, in the interest of
good government; and as necessity
advocating the government of the ordi-
narily good people by the best people.
That is the underlying thought prompt
ing restricted suffrage, the application
of educational tests to suffrage quali6ca
tions, and the disfranchisement of the
negro Of the South. These "best peo.
pie" are wrong now, just as they were
wrong in the era of our governments
making. AS their predecessors error
Bought trouble and danger, so will their
error bring like trouble and danger-per-t