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Untitled Article
higher ground than will ever be occupied while the franchise ig a privilege . The old sophism has become somewhat musty * which tells us to wait till slaves possess the virtues of free men before they are emancipated . Free men are made by free institution *? . Nor are there many evils worse than invidious distinctions in society . It were better to admit a considerable number of
voters imperfectly qualified than to make all the poor below a certain standard a degraded political caste . If it be said that the good of the whole requires that only the instructed should be in a state of enfranchisement , it may be replied that their enfranchisement would , better than anything else , ensure their being instructed ; and that the brief evil produced before the realization of that result , would less detract from the good of the whole than the prolongation of the broad distinction which must exist while
any are deprived of a share in the representation . The disoon ~ nexion of voting from the opinion of the voter is the only real objection to universal suffrage . Remove that , as it may easily be removed , and there would be no harm ( a cold phrase for so immense a good ) if the apprehensions of the few from the political influence of the many led to that result of which their patriotism has stopped short , namely , the admitted safeguard of national education , the comprehension of the rising and the present generation in one great scheme of universal instruction .
After adverting to age as an electoral qualification , ( the author leans a little towards fixing a more mature age than that which constitutes legal majority , ) the following remarks are introduced , which we quote at length , because , while they reflect honour on the moral courage of the w riter , they constitute , to our apprehension , a most lucid , able , and conclusive discussion of a subject from even the mention of which the boldest reformers have usually flinched .
' The limitation of the elective franchise by sex is a more difficult subject , and surrounded with a host of prejudices ; but it surely ought to be decided by the same principles as any other restriction , and not by blind prepossessions and tyrannical prescription . The legitimate object of all government—namely , the happiness of the communitycomprehends alike male and female , as alike susceptible of pain , and pleasure ; and the principle that power wiil be uniformly exercised for the good of the parties subject to it only when it is under their control , or the control of persons who have an identity of interest * with U » em ~ selves , is eauallv applicable in the case of both sexes . The excluaiou ¦
» ^ ^ i « _ _____ of tjie female Bex from the electoral privilege can , therefore , be co _ v sistently contended for only by showing two things : first , that their interests are so closely allied with those of the male sex , and allied in such a manner , as to render the two nearly identical ; secondly , that the female sex are incompetent , from want of intelligence , to make a choice for their own good , and that on this account it would be to the advantage of the community , on the whole , to leave the selection of representative * to the stronger part of the human nice , the ditadvaaUgwi
Untitled Article
Tht Rational * of Political Representation . 40 ?
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1835, page 407, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2646/page/43/
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