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view, consist of mere paper and ink, having no inherent physical power to sustain themselves. They embody such rules and principles as the will of the people has determined to be necessary for the government of the country; but have in themselves no physical power to enforce those rules and principles. In another point of view, they are mere intellectual existences, expressing the will of the people; but that will must be dormant and inoperative, unless the successive generations of the people themselves have intelligence and patriotism sufficient to cause it to be enforced. But a person, who has not education sufficient to learn and understand these principles, and in some measure to appreciate their value, cannot be capable of exerting a safe and salutary influence for the enforcement and direction of them. And if he is destitute of virtue, or patriotism, he has no principle of action to give a right direction to his exertions.

No prudent and intelligent man, having an important question relating to property or any other valuable right, would submit that question to an arbitrator too ignorant of the subject to understand it, and to form an intelligent opinion respecting it; or too corrupt to be entrusted with a decision of the question. The same prudence and discretion, that would govern a wise and honest man, in that case, ought to be applied to the case under consideration. The electors are in a great measure, the arbitrators, or rather the arbiters, in all questions relating to our civil and political privileges. Our liberties and every thing dear and valuable that we possess, depend upon the maintenance of our constitutions and forms and principles of govern

ment; and the administration of the government depends upon the electors. The whole subject, as to the qualification of the electors, is within the rightful control of the people; and why should they not take every prudent measure, to guard the right of suffrage, so as to keep it, as much as possible, within the influence and direction of wisdom, intelligence and virtue? An individual may sport with his own rights, and leave them to the hazard of accident and chance, when the interest of no other person is involved, if such a case can be. But the happiness and destinies of all those classes of society, that have no suffrage in our affairs, as women and children, depend upon the support and due administration of the government; and those who have a voice in these matters are bound to protect their rights; and have no authority to leave or subject them to any avoidable contingency or hazard.

The will of the people constitutes the moral power of the country; and the object of taking their suffrages is, to collect and concentrate that moral power, and to bring it into action, so as to direct and control the physical power of the country. To take the suffrages of the ignorant and the vicious, for this purpose, would be a violation of the first and fundamental principles of the government. It would be a substitution of ignorance in the place of intelligence; it would be an infusion of darkness into the administration of the government, instead of light; it would be an attempt to collect the public will from sources where no enlightened, intelligent or independent will can exist. It would be as unreasonable to take the suffrages of such persons for the expression of the constitutional

public will, as it would be to enumerate and enroll dead bodies in estimating and marshalling the military force of the country. In either case the addition would diminish the efficiency and force of the power intended to be increased. In ordinary cases, persons wholly destitute of education possess but little intelligence; especially of that kind that qualifies them to take a part in the management of public affairs; and vice is too often, but not necessarily, the concomitant of ignorance. And the training and mental discipline which our youth receive in the schools, are admirably fitted to prepare them for the performance of their duties as citizens. It may well be questioned whether the discipline and the habits of regularity and subordination acquired at our schools, have not done more to prepare the people of this country for selfgovernment, than any other cause. It is true that there are some very illiterate persons, who, by a natural sagacity and aptitude to gain information, do acquire intelligence sufficient to enable them to form independent and correct opinions respecting public men and public affairs. But they are still dependent upon others for the formation of their opinions; and the general fact, and not the exception, ought to furnish the rule. The general fact is, that persons wholly destitute of education do not possess sufficient intelligence to enable them to exercise the right of suffrage beneficially to the public. It is not proposed that a high degree of education should be required, but a person ought to be able to read and write with facility, so that he may inform himself, by study, of the structure of our government, and of the principles

of our constitutions; and so that he may learn, from the common publications of the time, the condition and wants of the country; and so that he may write his own ballot at an election, or at least read one that is written for him; and especially so that he may learn his whole duty, and the retributions which await the performance or non-performance of it, in the oracles of divine truth.

It may be objected that it is a hardship to exclude a person from the right of suffrage for the want of education, which may be his misfortune and not his fault. With the facilities for obtaining an education provided in our country, it is, in most cases, the fault of the person if he does not avail himself of them, at least to the extent above proposed. But if it his misfortune, it is better that he should bear it, than that the public interests should be put in jeopardy. If intelligence is a necessary qualification for the due exercise of the right of suffrage, let it be made a qual◄ ification, If we would preserve our liberties and free institutions, we must carry out their true principles in practice. When the principle is sacrificed, all is sacrificed. And let the rule be once fully established throughout the country, that no person shall be admitted to the rank of a voter, without the degree of edu cation above proposed; and an ambition will be excited to obtain that rank highly favorable to the cause of education among that portion of the people to which these remarks apply; and few uneducated persons will be found amongst the next generation of our native inhabitants. Thus the rule, as usual, would advance both private and public interests. But the

rule ought to be prospective in its operation, so as not, by the sudden introduction of a new principle, to exclude those from the right of suffrage, who have been accustomed to the enjoyment of it. This may be effected by providing that no person who shall arrive at the age of twenty-one years, four years or more after the principle is established, shall be admitted to the right of suffrage without possessing the requisite education, leaving the rule to operate only when those who have four years of their minority in which they may qualify themselves. But this exception should not be made in favor of foreigners.

CHAPTER VII.

Of some other Conditions, Relations and Interests which may be supposed to have an Influence on the Right of Suffrage.

There are other relations and interests, which may be thought to have a just influence in establishing the qualifications for the right of suffrage; and which claim a brief notice.

Persons standing in the relation of husband and wife, parent and child, brother and sister, or sustaining any of the other natural relations, have an interest in the welfare of each other. They have, consequently, an interest in the care and protection which the government of the country may extend to these various relatives, which others, not sustaining these

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