Political Justice. He says: "The first and most important principle that
can be imagined relative to the form and structure of government, seems
to be this: that as government is a transaction in the name and for the
benefit of the whole, every member of the community ought to have some
share in its administration."

Again, "Government is a contrivance instituted for the security of
individuals; and it seems both reasonable that each man should have a
share in providing for his own security, and probable, that partiality
and cabal should by this means be most effectually excluded."

And again, "To give each man a voice in the public concerns comes
nearest to that admirable idea of which we should never lose sight, the
uncontrolled exercise of private judgment. Each man would thus be
inspired with a consciousness of his own importance, and the slavish
feelings that shrink up the soul in the presence of an imagined superior
would be unknown."

The mastery which this doctrine, whether right or wrong, has acquired
over the public mind, has produced as its natural fruit, the extension
of the right of suffrage to all the adult male population in nearly all
the states of the Union; a result which was well epitomized by President
Lincoln, in the expression, "government by the people for the people."

This extension of the suffrage is regarded by many as a source of danger
to the stability of free government. I believe it furnishes the greatest
security for free government, as it deprives the mass of the people of
all motive for revolution; and that government so based is most safe,
not because the whole people are less liable to make mistakes in
government than a select few, but because they have no interest which