"
Obviously this maxim was binding upon every school of political
thought. But it presented peculiar difficulties to the democrats.
Those who believed in class government could fairly claim that in the
court of the king, or in the country houses of the gentry, men did
know each other's characters, and as long as the rest of mankind was
passive, the only characters one needed to know were the characters of
men in the ruling class. But the democrats, who wanted to raise the
dignity of all men, were immediately involved by the immense size and
confusion of their ruling class--the male electorate. Their science
told them that politics was an instinct, and that the instinct worked
in a limited environment. Their hopes bade them insist that all men in
a very large environment could govern. In this deadly conflict between
their ideals and their science, the only way out was to assume without
much discussion that the voice of the people was the voice of God.
The paradox was too great, the stakes too big, their ideal too
precious for critical examination. They could not show how a citizen
of Boston was to stay in Boston and conceive the views of a Virginian,
how a Virginian in Virginia could have real opinions about the
government at Washington, how Congressmen in Washington could have
opinions about China or Mexico. For in that day it was not possible
for many men to have an unseen environment brought into the field of
their judgment.
Pages:
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271