Suicide is not a remedy. If in other lands it
be high treason to compass the death of the king, it shall be
counted no less a crime here to strangle our sovereign power and
stifle its voice.
It has been said that unsettled questions have no pity for the
repose of nations. It should be said with the utmost emphasis that
this question of the suffrage will never give repose or safety to
the States or to the nation until each, within its own
jurisdiction, makes and keeps the ballot free and pure by the
strong sanctions of the law.
But the danger which arises from ignorance in the voter can not be
denied. It covers a field far wider than that of negro suffrage
and the present condition of the race. It is a danger that lurks
and hides in the sources and fountains of power in every state. We
have no standard by which to measure the disaster that may be
brought upon us by ignorance and vice in the citizens when joined
to corruption and fraud in the suffrage.
The voters of the Union, who make and unmake constitutions, and
upon whose will hang the destinies of our governments, can
transmit their supreme authority to no successors save the coming
generation of voters, who are the sole heirs of sovereign power.
If that generation comes to its inheritance blinded by ignorance
and corrupted by vice, the fall of the Republic will be certain
and remediless.
Pages:
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268