Popular misgovernment in the United StatesCruikshank, Alfred Byron
History
Popular misgovernment in the United States
Cruikshank, Alfred Byron
Suffrage -- United States; United States -- Politics and government
Like the great artists and authors, they each
contributed an offering to civilization; they left something of value
behind them to make them remembered, were it only a little well-built
and well-designed house for someone to occupy after their departure.
Though their names are never in the mouths of platform ranters, they are
among the true patriots of America.
The manhood suffrage doctrine fails to recognize the vital political
difference heretofore referred to, originally pointed out by Sieyes,
that exists between the two classes of citizens; the one the faithful
members of the social commonwealth; the progressive workers, loyal and
active in the promotion of civilization and in sustaining the state; and
who because of such civic activity, are accounted worthy of the
suffrage; the other the non-socials; the drones; the neutrals or
disloyal and therefore ineligible for political functions of any sort;
non-producers, shirkers, wasters, and destroyers. Sieyes, who was a
statesman, publicist and member of the French National Assembly in 1792,
recognized the existence of these two clearly separated classes of
citizens, and, by a statute proposed by him and subsequently enacted,
all Frenchmen were divided accordingly into active citizens (_citoyens
actifs_), having the right to vote and hold office, and passive citizens
(_citoyens passifs_), who are excluded from both these privileges. It is
not just or fair that these latter, who are always behind the chariot of
progress, pulling backward and being carried or dragged along, impeding
the march of the race, should compel the progressive workers, the real
active citizens of the country, to expend a large part of their efforts
in overcoming their resistance.
Consider also the gross injustice and folly of inviting a large class
who have contributed nothing to the treasury of civilization to share in
its management and control, even permitting them to mismanage, misuse
and waste it. “That the tax eaters should not have absolute control over
the taxes to be expended by the tax payers would appear to be entirely
axiomatic truth in political philosophy.... That this suffrage is a
spear as well as a shield is a fact which many writers on suffrage leave
out of sight.” (_Sterne, Const. History_, p. 270.) Those who made this
country what it is are the thrifty workers, the successful business men.
Now, is it asking too much to demand that the destiny of the country
should be placed in their hands? Is it fair that government should be
put under the control of the wasteful and the foolish, that they may
burden it with debt, and bond their thrifty fellow citizens and all
future generations to pay off the obligations thus imposed upon the
nation?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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