and Mr. Thomas Carlyle ridicule it. The old Dutch Governor in Irving's Knickerbocker said he would not give his watch to be mended by a shoemaker; and asked why he should give the much more intricate machinery of the state into the same hands. In an insidious way, the Middle Age writers, who may be numbered by the thousands to-day, talk about the government of the best being better than the government of the people. But universal suffrage among the People who trust to it does not pretend to a knowledge of the last sweet patents in the science of administration.
What universal suffrage proposes is, first, Peace among the people; and this it secures. At the end of an election, be it in the City of New York, or be it anywhere among the forty-five States, the defeated party knows that it is defeated by a majority of the strength of the country. There is therefore no temptation to rebellion, there is no rising of the minority in arms. On the other hand, the beaten party may begin as soon as the votes are counted, on its canvass for the next year, and it probably does. When in the autumn of 1903 the existing government of the City of New York was badly defeated by the party which is called Tammany, its leaders all began to consider what they should do and what they should say two years afterward. This is what happens, and happens always, if you give the election into the hands of all the men who can bear arms. If any party is outnumbered it knows it is.
Second, If you intrust to universal suffrage the ultimate direction in an ultimate appeal, as all civilized America has done, you intrust yourself, of course, to the impression at the moment of the average man. You have no right to expect the best men in a nation to be at the head of its administration. The chances are undoubtedly that for the high offices of this administration, you will get men who are largely known and well esteemed. It is impossible to elect to high office men absolutely profligate—a bandit, or a thief, or a drunkard. It is to be observed that among very illiterate people the moral sentiment has the sway which is promised to it in the religious
