ything. In old times a
dispute between man and man was settled by
blows--fisticuffs--gradually superseded by the sword, at last by
the pistol; and now we have thrown that out, and established a
system of jurisprudence. Now all these petty grievances must be
settled in court. Private violence must no longer be permitted,
and that is a great march in civilization.

The parallel case is this: We in this country--we men, I mean,
for women are nobodies and nowhere when you come to the
discussion of great questions like these, but I use the
conventional we--we in this country are attempting to carry our
ideas of liberty and responsibility into legislation, and we
don't agree--we quarrel bitterly and almost come to blows
again--but election days cool us off, acting like a court-room
itself. We accept their judgment, and go about our business
quietly till next time. Now if we were all Americans, acting
under an intelligent sense of responsibility, everything might be
expected to run smoothly under this regime; but the trouble is
when the foreigner comes in who does not understand our
institutions, who is, perhaps, ignorant, debased, and
superstitious. But the foreigner is, it seems to me, the very man
who needs this safety-valve of the election day more than any
other on the face of the globe. We ourselves could run our own
nationality; but here comes this man from the principalities of
the old world--from Europe we will say, to begin with--and he has
an idea that he is going to be richer, smarter, happier, more on
an equality with every other man than ever he was before. He
comes here, and what does he find? He finds a ladder, reaching
higher into the clouds, perhaps, but the lower rounds are just as
near the earth as over there, and he is on the lowest round
still. He sees his next-door neighbor has more money than he has,
is better educated, and commands the respect of the community, as
he does not, and he is filled with disappointment, and sometimes
with rage. What would he naturally do, with his old world
antecedents and training, when he is thus aggrieved as he
conceives himself to be? Why, burn your barn, break into your
house, steal all he could from you. But what does election day do
for him? On that day he is as good as anybody. He goe