The Constitution of the United States provides that no man shall be deprived of his right to vote on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. What right have we to attempt to deprive any man of that privilege because he does not own property and pay “direct” taxes?
Mettius Curtius said that “Rome’s best wealth was her patriotism.” Yet that patriotism was deadened and destroyed by privilege and class distinction, and Rome fell. Patriotism is unquestionably the best wealth of any nation; but it cannot be aroused or fostered in a republic by dividing the people into classes, the rulers and the ruled, on the basis of ownership of property.
Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay.
The success, progress and safety of this republic rests upon the contentment of the whole people, and that contentment depends upon justice and fair dealing. And every citizen, “unless he goes naked, eats grass, and lives in a hole in the ground,” is a taxpayer to a greater or less extent, according to the benefits he derives. He has the same interests in the national welfare; the same responsibilities; is entitled to equal rights and privileges before the law; and when we have fully realized the fact we will have established a higher standard of citizenship, we will each have more respect for ourselves and for one another, and a deeper, truer love and higher regard for our country and its institutions.
Their Joke on the President
Davenport, in N. Y. Evening Mail
