The selection of a governor for the great state of New York, containing more than 10,250,000 inhabitants and comprising a political constituency larger than any other in this country, is certainly a matter of vital and profound concern to the whole body politic, to every citizen, to every community, to every party, to every class, to every interest. If the short ballot be now adopted, the successful administration of the whole state government will practically be staked upon the selection of qualified candidates for governor. All hope of governmental reform, efficiency and economy will then necessarily depend upon the statesmanship and character of one man, who will be vested with full executive and administrative powers over a population and a territory larger than some of the nations of the world. A wise and safe choice will be infinitely more essential and more difficult than in the past. In fact, if the views of certain advocates of the short ballot prevail, we are to vest all this power in the governor for a term of four years, without restraint of any kind except his sense of responsibility to the people, and without any effective check upon his will or caprice. We should have to trust him absolutely. We should, in truth, have precisely the definition of an elective despotism and tyranny--beneficent if we are so fortunate and blessed as to secure an exceptionally able and high-minded statesman for governor, baneful if an incompetent, untrained, or scheming politician or demagogue should be elected. The governor would then have it immediately within his power to become an absolute state boss through the use of an enormous and constantly increasing patronage, directly or indirectly reaching and touching every election district in the state. He would be able to break party lines asunder, to promote the interests of any group or faction, to punish adversaries, to cater to any class, to sacrifice the rights of minorities, to substitute his will or caprice for the policy of his party, to permit waste and extravagance, to dictate who should be his successor. A competent candidate for governor who would be so well known and tested as to be safely relied upon to resist this temptation would indeed be a phenomenon. If history teaches us that there is anything certain in human nature, if experience, which is of far more value than any mere reasoning or theorizing, has again and again demonstrated any practical and eternal truth in politics, it is that unrestrained power inevitably leads sooner or later to abuse and tyranny, and that no one official, be he emperor, king, president, or governor, can safely be entrusted with any such power.