f this being a Government of the
whole people, which is our fundamental principle, which is our
original idea, it is a Government, in the first place, of a
majority only of the people; and in the next place, it is in some
sort a Government of that small number of persons who give
preponderance to one party over another, and who may be
influenced by fanaticism, corruption, or passion.

This being our political state at present with reference to
electoral action, what do you propose? We have a great evil.
Electoral corruption is the great danger in our path. It is the
evil in our system against which we must constantly struggle.
Every patriot and every honest man here and in his own State is
bound to lift his voice and to strike boldly against it in all
its forms, and it requires for its repression all the efforts and
all the exertion we can put forth. Now what is proposed by the
reformers of the present time? We have our majority rule--it is
not a principle; it is an abuse of all terms to call it a
principle--we have our majority rule in full action, presenting
an invitation to corrupt, base, and sinister influences to attach
themselves to our system; we have great difficulties with which
we now struggle arising from imperfect arrangements, and what do
you propose? To reform existing evils and abuses? To correct your
system? To study it as patriots, as men of reflection and good
sense? No, sir. You propose to introduce into our electoral
bodies new elements of enormous magnitude. You propose to take
the base of society, excluded now, and build upon it, and upon
it alone or mainly, because the introduction of the enormous mass
of voters proposed by the reformers will wholly change the
foundations upon which you build.

Will not these new electors you propose to introduce be more
approachable than men who now vote to all corrupt influences?
Will they not be more passionate, and therefore more easily
influenced by the demagogue? Will they not be more easily caught
and enraptured by superficial declamation, because more incapable
of profound reflection? Will not their weakness render them
subservient to the strong and their ignorance to the artful?

I shall not, however, detain you with an elaborate argument upon
this question of suffrage.