14 PROHIBITION. 



the direct influence of a person's acts may extend, it is always safe 

 to give the benefit of the doubt to liberty. 



SOVEREIGN RULE OF THE MAJORITY. 



It may be claimed that a purely defensive government is inop- 

 erative in the presence of majority rule. Then so much the worse 

 for majority rule. If the majority should vote to chop off the heads 

 of the minority would it establish the unlimited right of majorities 

 to do as they please ? And would the minority be justified in return- 

 ing the same favor, when it gets to be the majoi'ity ? If not, then 

 ,is there some principle or standard of liberty, above the majority. 

 It is called a constitution. And a constitution, in limiting the powers 

 of the majority, recognizes certain rights for the minority, such as 

 the right to life, liberty, and property. But these are not rights, if 

 they conflict with the equal liberty of others to the same. The 

 equality of rights, then, is the only fundamental riglit, the greatest 

 of rights, embracing all others. A constitution, guaranteeing this, 

 would be perfect, in the nature of things, for all. But, one failing 

 in this, woukl be only a constitution for the majority, who need 

 none. It would not only be no constitution, but woi'se, an instru- 

 ment of oppression. 



The modus ojierandi of vesting sovereignty in the majority is as 

 absurd as it is unjust. Suppose the sovereign will is composed 

 of eiglit noses, and a minority consists of seven. Then, if one from 

 the eight goes over to the seven, those which previously were ruined 

 now rule, all by a majority of 07ic.' What a temptation, where ves- 

 ted interests are at stake, to buy, bribe and bulldoze that one ! Or 

 where personal rights are jeopai'dized, the result is a bolt and seces- 

 sion. If a third party be in the field, consisting of two, it will hold 

 the balance of power, and a minority rule. If from the seven one 

 should move into a ward where six constituted a majority, then what 

 was a majority in one place, would be a minority in another ; the 

 sovereign power resting in a mere comparison of numbers. If the 

 majority of voters are industrial slaves, the strongest organized so- 

 cial influence, a moneyed oligarchy, will rule. Politicians, instead 

 of statesmen, beconn! dic(! throwers ; ixflitics become an organized 

 mob, with no heart that can be appealed to, no head that can be 

 blown ofl". Great is the sovereign power, not of liberty, but of 

 noses ! It matters not whose, or of what kind, only so they can be 

 counl(Ml ! The more numerous the}' are. and the lower in the scale 

 of creation, the more republican the /orm of government! 



