The Americans of the North alone showed that civilized men may some day fight without resorting to the rules of barbarians; and when the war was over the same men did what perhaps no nation ever did before after a mortal struggle: they forebore to take away the life even of the leading rebel.1

Probably no victorious army in the world ever committed so little outrage upon property and life, and especially in the treatment of women. And when the work

was done, when, with not a dollar of indemnity demanded, not an acre of land confiscated, not one life lost by proscription, the vast armies melted into the employments of peace, the hand of friendship was promptly extended by the people, if not by the government. Hardly a generation has passed, and scarcely a trace of bitterness remains. The Southern man at the North, the Northern man at the South, is received with cordiality and listened to with respect, while the vanquished, for the most part, are ready to admit that the result of the conflict was almost as much a gain for them as for the victors. The only rivalry now is in material progress, which, however it may be derided or denounced, is better than the thirst for revenge on one side, and the fear of it on the other, which would keep a million of men permanently under arms. A firm conviction is justified that the spirit which did these things is just as available to-day for the victories of peace as it then was for those of war, that it can be made use of for reforms which would immensely increase the purity and efficiency of government, in the nation, the states, and the cities. Why it is not, and how it may be so made use of, it is the object of this book to examine.

1 “Popular Progress in England,” p. 541.

ONE

CHAPTER III

ORGANIZATION IN DEMOCRACY

NE thing may be said of universal, or adult manhood, suffrage, that whereas the whole world seems to be tending towards it, no step backward has taken place except through armed force. In this country, at all events, it may be predicted with confidence that, while restrictions as to education or length of residence may be required, no considerable pecuniary qualifications for voting will ever be enforced unless as a result of fierce civil wars. In fact, such a thing seems to imply a contradiction in terms. It is charged that the poor and ignorant multitude vote away the property of the rich, or, what is perhaps worse, vote for bad and corrupt men for office. By what process is this multitude to be induced to vote away its power of doing so? It seems to be the part of wisdom, therefore, instead of denouncing a wide suffrage as an evil on general principles, to study it scientifically like any other social or physical problem. Further than this, even if we admit all of evil that can be said of it, if this evil is inevitable it seems better, in place of helpless lamentation, to see whether anything, and what, can be done to mitigate it and obtain whatever of good the institution contains with the minimum of detriment.

Votes of men are worth counting, since men's instincts, where these can be deciphered, are wise and human, and well deserve attending to.1

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1 Carlyle, Latter-day Pamphlets," chapter on Parliaments.

In all cases of applied mechanics, the first requisite is to investigate the nature of the force to be employed. Water power requires one kind of machinery, steam power another, and electricity a third. A man would be thought foolish who should set up steam machinery to be worked by the force of water, or electric apparatus expecting to run it with steam. Again, all natural forces require mechanical contrivances of some kind. A small stream in New England often furnishes the working power for considerable mills, while the mighty force of Niagara, as far as any mechanical purpose is concerned, has till recently flowed uselessly to waste.1 Public opinion is an immense force, and so is steam, but it would be idle to build a fire under a kettle and raise a cloud of steam to dissipate itself in the air. That any useful result may be obtained, a cylinder and a piston rod with appropriate gearing are indispensably necessary. The present contention is, that, so far as popular government has failed, the main cause has been in defective machinery, so that public opinion is brought to bear either not at all or so imperfectly that what is assumed to be the will of the people is in fact only that of a comparatively small number of political managers, more or less dishonest, who avail themselves of the forms of government to carry out their private schemes and purposes, by virtue of a nominal expression of the popular will.

What are the elements of this force which we call public opinion? There is a mass of individuals from a few thousands in the smaller cities up to more than seventy millions of the nation. The extremes are represented by the highest degree of intellectual and moral culture, and the lowest of mental and physical abasement. The numbers of either, however, are comparatively small. Even

1 Of course, for the purpose of this illustration, æsthetic considerations may be left out of the account.

in East London recent investigations have led to the statement that the criminal and degraded classes form really but a small percentage, the great mass consisting of selfsupporting work- and trades-people. The multitude between the extremes is made up of persons who, as Macaulay said, are neither very good nor very bad. They lead for the most part narrow and busy lives, absorbed in procuring support for themselves and their families, and having very little time for thought or sympathy outside of the charmed circle of their personal interests. Perhaps the best, as well as the largest, fraction consists of those who are under the pressure of constant strain to provide for others near and dear to them. Statisticians tell us that less than five per cent of the population are placed beyond the need of daily exertion. It may be doubted whether more than five per cent of these regard their wealth as anything but a means of ministering to their own personal gratification, or see in it any more obligation to public spirit, or patriotism, or self-sacrifice, than the mass below them. Of course the mainspring which moves the whole multitude, with a few rare exceptions, is self-interest as they understand it, and it is perhaps well for the world that it is so, as it would be impossible for men to act together at all unless there was some principle or motive common to all, upon which they can rely with confidence. No doubt this idea of self-interest, often grievously misunderstood, leads men to do wrong and unwise things, but is it too much to assume that, so far as they can understand it, the great majority of men prefer good to evil? Pure depravity is very rare. For example, there are thousands of railway trains rushing about the country at night at from twenty to fifty miles an hour. Nothing could be easier, without the smallest risk of detection, than to place obstructions upon the track, yet such a thing is almost absolutely unknown. The "spoils system" of

office-seeking has been one of our greatest political evils, not yet by any means eradicated, yet it does not imply a want of moral purpose in the people. The proportion of the people who ever expect office, or think of obtaining it, is very small. The political use of offices is extremely offensive in its details, and distinctly contrary to the interest of the great mass of the people. Probably nobody would charge that the mass of the people deliberately and consciously support that system. The trouble is either that they do not understand the nature and effect of the evil, or else that they do not know how, or will not exert themselves sufficiently, to apply the remedy. The problem to be solved, therefore, with regard to this and all other political questions is, first, how they can be presented so that the great multitude, with the minimum of time and attention which they can afford to give, can be made to understand them, and then how such, even limited, exertion as they can be induced to make on behalf of these questions can be so guided as to produce the most immediate, potent, and visible effects.

asm.

Now after self-interest there are two motive forces common to almost all humanity. The first is moral enthusiThere are very few persons who are not stirred with more or less of emotion on hearing of some act of heroic self-sacrifice or disinterested virtue. A fireman who saves a woman or child at the risk of his own life, a bankrupt who voluntarily surrenders all his property for the benefit of his creditors, or who after years of toil and self-denial calls his old creditors together and pays them principal and interest, a statesman who sacrifices an obvious personal advantage for the sake of a principle, never fails to call forth admiration. What an immense force was the love of and devotion to the Union in our Civil War! Witness also the religious enthusiasms which have so often swept over the world. Political questions, there