pact. The present condition of the balance in our social affairs shows the complete failure in the prognostications of that day as to the effect of universal suffrage upon the governmental relations under the social compact. In the years of universal suffrage in this country the balance of the government has been restored, and instead of popular license and national disintegration, and the increase in the already overweening powers of the States, the National Government has been relatively strengthened. The governmental condition of to-day shows the great skill of its creation, for whilst the war left the National Government with vastly increased powers, yet the causes of friction have been largely removed between the concurrent powers under the Constitution, and there is to-day a better feeling between the States and the National Government than has ever been known in the history of our country. It gives a great impetus to optimism when we observe that, notwithstanding the great war, which was practically a war of the General Government against the sovereignty of the States, the States are to-day determined to be as absolutely sovereign within their constitutional powers as ever before. The chief fear of to-day, however, is the tendency of greatly increased power in the General Government, as the danger was fifty years ago in the enlarged powers on the part of the States. This tendency is the danger of the day.

Public sentiment, appreciating the tremendous power

which the General Government exhibited in the great civil conflict, and its consequent preponderance necessarily arising from that exhibition of strength, has been earnestly aroused in the past few years in the direction of preserving intact the constitutional rights of the States. As a great scholar well observes, “This reliance (upon national authority), however, is controlled and regulated by the deep-seated consciousness of the people that the rights of the separate States are not to be superseded by the acts of the Central Government, and that the rights of towns, counties, and districts are to be protected against the arbitrary interference of legislation." In this relation is peculiarly needed that "righting sense" of the people, undiminished in power, to watch and preserve within their respective bounds those delicate relations between the State and General Government.

Let us for a moment investigate the relations of the citizens each to the other, and, practically speaking, the effect of universal suffrage upon the classes. This has been the subject of infinite discussion by the learned. Will you pardon me for an observation as to the general consideration of this important question by the scholars? They have largely affected the public sentiment among the higher classes. The want of breadth in the elucidation of this question of universal suffrage by the learned emboldens me, a plain man, to ask for a deeper and more real knowledge of the people on the part of the learned of our country. They have wrought

infinite harm to the body politic by opinions betraying want of knowledge of the people themselves, the real subject of discussion. Do not the conclusions of the learned as to the great public too frequently result from investigation and experience alike limited and indiscriminate in application? Do not those in high places most frequently neglect the strenuous exercise of that ars profunda, that deeper penetration into the very life and genius of the people? That subtle spirit, that vital essence of the people's being, is the most difficult to grasp, and it can only be comprehended by a knowledge of the life, the thoughts, the habits, and the desires of the people, acquired by an investigation alike profound as it is rare.

The destiny of a nation cannot be forecast and its civic phenomena adequately explained from experience touching the abuse of one privilege, the failure of one system, or the wrongdoing of one class. The study of the effect of a system in the city, with its peculiar relations to the body politic, will not suffice as the foundation of an opinion as to the country at large. The study is too narrow. Rather, to control the thought, and direct our hope, there should be a study of those eternal principles which are deep in the very spirit and breath of the people and which alone guide the destiny of a nation. I repeat that this experience can only arise from a wide study of the people itself. Appreciating those who love the books and respecting “that wit of wisdom," still the highest essential in investi

gating the people is that rare combination of mind and experience which can both touch elbows with the thought of the people and deduce therefrom a right conclusion. I have in my mind a book of a teacher of youth, who, had he lived in the Athenian days, would surely have owed a cock to Asclepius, wherein, with the authority of high place, he teaches the youth that the majority of those who predominate in the exercise of universal suffrage are vicious and ignorant and prefer the gambling den, the brothel, the saloon, and the prize ring to the exercise of pure politics. Sir, such deductions, their foundations untrue in fact and defective in investigation, lower the moral tone of the student and dishonor the citizens of the Republic. Against such teachings, in the name of the millions of clean-hearted and pure-breathed men whose eyes never beheld the gilding of the saloon and whose souls never knew the infection of the brothel, and who, whilst the furniture may be scanty and the floors bare, hallow the rented house with the unspeakable glory of an honest, pure, and independent citizenship, whose hands, though hardened with work, would spurn the touch of unearned gold, and whose hope and ambition is to leave to their children that same incorruptible citizenship bequeathed to them by the Fathers of the Republic, and in the name of the youth of our country, whose minds are corrupted by such teachings, I enter my earnest protest and dissent. To those who discuss without kindliness or moderation

the great problems of our national existence, I beg that from the poet of darkened Persia they will read that lesson of moderation which they have failed to grasp under a century of free government:

"And Abraham sat in the door of his tent about the going down of the sun.

"And behold, a man bowed with age came from the way of the wilderness, leaning on a staff.

And Abraham arose and met him, and said, Turn in, I pray thee, and Abraham baked unleavened bread and they did eat.

"And when Abraham saw that the man blessed not God, he said unto him, Wherefore dost thou not worship the most high God, Creator of heaven and earth?

"And the man answered and said, I do not worship the God thou speakest of, neither do I call upon his

name.

"And Abraham's zeal was kindled against the man, and he arose and drove him forth with blows into the wilderness.

“And, at midnight, God called upon Abraham, saying, Abraham, where is the stranger?

'And Abraham answered and said, Lord, he would not worship thee, neither would he call upon thy name, therefore I have driven him out before my face into the wilderness.

"And God said, Have I borne with him these hundred ninety and eight years, and clothed him,