Samuel
Bailey, of Mr. Hare, and many other of the most powerful political
thinkers of this age and country (not to speak of others), will make
its way to all minds not rendered obdurate by selfishness or
inveterate prejudice; and that, before the lapse another generation,
the accident of sex, no more than the accident of skin, will be deemed
a sufficient justification for depriving its possessor of the equal
protection and just privileges of a citizen.
Chapter 9
Should there be Two Stages of Election?
IN SOME representative constitutions the plan has been adopted of
choosing the members of the representative body by a double process,
the primary electors only choosing other electors, and these
electing the member of parliament. This contrivance was probably
intended as a slight impediment to the full sweep of popular
feeling; giving the suffrage, and with it the complete ultimate power,
to the Many, but compelling them to exercise it through the agency
of a comparatively few, who, it was supposed, would be less moved than
the Demos by the gusts of popular passion; and as the electors,
being already a select body, might be expected to exceed in
intellect and character the common level of their constituents, the
choice made by them was thought likely to be more careful and
enlightened, and would in any case be made under a greater feeling
of responsibility, than election by the masses themselves.
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