“The object of government is the protection of life, liberty, and property.  The tenure of property is established and sustained by law; it is the basis of government; it is the support of government; in proportion to its extent and security, it is the strength and power of government, and those who possess it should have the control of government.  In a republic, there can be no better standard of intelligence than the possession of property, and to give the greatest security to the government, none should, in a republic, be intrusted with the ballot, but the native, and the property-holder, or the native property-holder.  The complications of our system are scarcely understood by our own people, and to suppose that ignorant men (for such constitute the bulk of our emigrant population) shall become so intimate with it, and so much attached to it, as to constitute them, in a few years, persons to be intrusted with its control, is supposing human intelligence to be of much higher grasp than I have ever found it.  Most of these emigrants come here with preconceived prejudices toward the institutions of their native lands.  This is natural.  Most of them speak a foreign language.  This has to be overcome, before they can even commence to learn the nature and operation of our system, which is so radically dissimilar to any and all others.  These men, as the ignorant of our own people, naturally lean on some one who shall direct them, and they will blindly do his bidding.  This is an invitation to the demagogue; these are his materials, and he will aggregate and control them.  Such men are always poor, and envy makes them the enemies of the rich.  This creates an antagonism, which we see existing in every country.

“The poor are dependent for employment upon the rich; the rich are dependent upon the poor for labor.  This mutual dependence, it would be supposed, would tend to create mutual regard; but experience teaches the reverse.  The poor have nothing to sell but their labor, and there are none to buy but the rich.  Each, naturally, struggles to make the best bargain possible, and take advantage of every circumstance to effect this.  Very few are satisfied with fair equivalents, and one or the other always feels aggrieved.  Here is the difficulty.  Well, endow the laborer with the ballot, and he usurps the government; for to vote is to govern.  What is to be the consequence?  We now have, with all the means of expansion and facilities a new country of boundless extent gives to the poor for finding and making homes, many more without property than with it.  This disproportion will go on to increase until it assimilates to every old country, with a few rich and many poor.  These many will control; they will send of their own men to legislate; they will favor their friends; they will levy the taxes, which the property-holders of the country must pay; they will make the laws appropriating these taxes; all will be for the benefit of their constituency,