e that each man should have a
share in providing for his own security, and probable, that partiality
and cabal should by this means be most effectually excluded."

And again, "To give each man a voice in the public concerns comes
nearest to that admirable idea 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 produ