dea of which we should never lose sight, the uncontrolled
exercise of private judgment. Each man would thus be
inspired with a consciousness of his own importance, and the
slavish feelings that shrink up the soul in the presence of
an imagined superior would be unknown.

The mastery which this doctrine, whether right or wrong, has
acquired over the public mind, has produced as its natural fruit,
the extension of the right of suffrage to all the adult male
population in nearly all the States of the Union; a result which
was well epitomized by President Lincoln, in the expression,
"government by the people for the people." This extension of the
suffrage is regarded by many as a source of danger to the
stability of free government. I believe it furnishes the greatest
security for free government, as it deprives the mass of the
people of all motive for revolution; and that government so based
is most safe, not because the whole people are less liable to
make mistakes in government than a select few, but because they
have no interest which can lead them to such mistakes, or to
prevent their correction when made. On the contrary, the world
has never seen an aristocracy, whether composed of few or many,
powerful enough to control a government, who did not honestly
believe that their interest was identical with the public
interest, and who did not act persistently in accordance with
such belief; and, unfortunately, an aristocracy of sex has not
proved an exception to the rule. The only method yet discovered
of overcoming this tendency to the selfish use of power, whether
consciously or unconsciously, by those possessing it, is the
distribution of the power among all who are its subjects. Short
of this the name free government is a misnomer.

This principle, after long strife, not yet entirely ended has
been, practically at least, very generally recognized on this
side of the Atlantic, as far as relates to men; but when the
attempt is made to extend it to women, political philosophers and
practical politicians, those "inside of politics," two classes
not often found acting in concert, join in denouncing it. It
remains to be determined whether the reasons which have produced
the extension of the franchise to all adult men, do not eq