DEMOCRACY:

EQUALITY THE ESSENCE.

"But for Equality in Democratic communities the passion is ardent, insatiable, incessant, invincible: they call for Equality in Freedom; and if they cannot obtain that, they call for Equality in slavery. They will endure poverty, servitude, barbarism,-but they will not endure aristocracy.'

"This is true at all times and especially true in our own. All men and all powers seeking to cope with this irresistible passion will be overthrown and destroyed by it. In our age Freedom cannot be established without it, and despotism itself cannot reign without its support."-De Tocqueville.

"A love of Democracy is a love of Equality."--Montesquieu.

"The equality of citizens which commonly produces an equality in their fortunes, brings plenty and life into every part of the body politic, and extends them throughout the whole." lbid.

"The most favorable position which man can occupy as member of a political community has appeared to me to be that in which the most manifold individuality and the most original independence subsisted, with the most various and intimate union of a number of men,—a problem which nothing but THE MOST ABSOLUTE LIBERTY can ever hope to solve."-Baron W. von Humboldt.

"Their deliberations, in which every man shall decide whatever he decides for himself, and not for one subject to him whose sufferings will never affect him;-deliberations, according to which no one can hope that it shall be he who is to practise a permitted injustice, but every one must fear that he may have to suffer it; deliberations which alone deserve the name of legislation, which is something wholly different from the ordinances of combined Lords to the countless herds of their slaves ;-these deliberations will necessarily be guided by justice, and will lay the foundation of a true State.

"By the establishment of this only true State (where equality and justice prevail) the possibility of FOREIGN WAR, at least with other true States, is cut off. This law concerning the security of neighbours is necessarily a law in every State that is not a robber-State. That a whole nation should determine, for the sake of plunder, to make war on a neighbouring country is impossible; for in a State where all are equal, the plunder could not become the booty of a few, but must be equally divided amongst all, and the share of no one individual could ever recompense him for the trouble of war. Only where the advantage falls to a few oppressors, only from savages or barbarians, or from enslaved nations."-Fichte, "Vocation of Man," p. 143-5.

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CHAPTER VII.

EQUALITY THE ESSENCE OF

DEMOCRACY.

"The very essence of Democratic Government consists in the absolute sovereignty of the majority."-De Tocqueville. "A love of the republic in a Democracy, is a love of the Democracy; as the latter is that of Equality.

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Though real Equality is the very soul of a Democracy, it is so difficult to establish, that an extreme exactness in this respect would not be always convenient.

"The love of Equality in a Democracy limits ambition to the sole desire of doing greater services to our country. Hence distinctions here arise from the principle of Equality. All inequality in Democracies ought to be derived from the nature of the Government, and even from the principle of equality."-Montesquieu, v. i. pp. 52-3-7.

'The moral authority of the majority is partly based upon the notion that there is more intelligence and wisdom in a great number of men collected together than in a single individual.

"The Theory of Equality is in fact applied to the intellect of man, and human pride is thus assailed in its last retreat.". De Tocqueville.

"The People collectively considered are capable of discharging functions of which in their individual character they seem altogether unworthy.

“The People at large are yet, when collectively considered, not perhaps unworthy of Sovereignty. The excellencies of that complex entity, the public, may sometimes surpass those of the most accomplished prince or most virtuous council.". Aristotle, b. iii, p. 222.

"They will no longer endure any among them who cannot be satisfied to be on an equality with others, and so to remain. In order to protect themselves against internal violence or new oppression, all will take the same obligations."-Fichte.

We now proceed to carry the argument a step further, and to show that Equality is of the essence

of Democracy. This principle means, from the point of view of the Individual,-the completest state of Freedom. From the general point of view it means that the best possible balance of the State is that arrived at by the political equality of the All, together with those intellectual, social, and moral inequalities, gradations, and influences which will always remain.

Democracy involves Manhood-Development and Association, but one cannot fail to perceive that as these together constitute unity and strength, -the power to combine for common objects,— national self-interest must soon or late accomplish the next step-Equality.

This is the theory; and also the fact in the only Democracy that yet exists.

That which other forms of Government attain by force, and by the suppression, more or less, of the universal will and intelligence, Democracy seeks to attain by directly opposite measures,-by stimulating the one and organising the other. The formula is the "universal intelligence fully developed, and the universal will fairly and fully organised." In a word, the rights and values of the individual make the nation.

And if the hopes of Democracy be not for ever a chimera, these positions respecting it will be established in argument, as they have been by the life of the American nation.

Democracy is that kind of Government which

most completely combines the spirit or motive power, with the organisation or machinery.

It has been pointed out that this is the excellence of Democracy, that it unites manhood and organisation.

And we here repeat that the excellence of this union chiefly depends upon :

1st. Political Equality, the absence of sectional or class jealousies and weaknesses, the formation of a mighty uniform preponderating power, consisting of the aggregate manhood, with no lawmade causes of contention. Equality is essential to this uniform power, because otherwise classes must preponderate, and can never be balanced, nor can manhood be at one with manhood, or identical with Government.

2nd. That this equalily is in reality a balance, and the true natural balance. The all having a voice,—the many and the few, natural or artificial multiples of power.

3rd. That this equality is the mightiest agent in manhood-development,―that it promotes the greatest and completest variety of conditions of life.

4th. That it is the only completion of freedom as between individuals. It unites man with man.

5th. That it is the only guarantee of freedom as against the State. It is the sword and shield of the People.

6th. That inequality therefore divides into classes, destroys the natural national balance, obstructs development, and arrests the march of freedom and union. That plural voting would pre

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