THE SECOND DUTY OF THE CITIZEN.

By JACOB ALLAN BARNETT, of Wooster University.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

Jacob Allan Barnett was born March 1, 1876, at Shady Side Plantation, La., whither his parents had moved from Springfield, Ohio, in 1870. His life until 1893 was spent at home, where he received from tutors his preliminary training. In 1893 he entered the University of Wooster preparatory department, from which he was graduated into the University class of 1900. While studying at home he was interested in elocution, and this interest continued through the preparatory and University years, when he became a member of the Irving Literary Society and a graduate of the School of Oratory. He is marked among his fellows as a winner of the "Irving Annual" declamation contest, a thorough student, a member of the college Glee Club and of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, a worker in the Y. M. C. A., and a lover of pure college athletics. Mr. Barnett left college at the end of his sophomore year, and is now engaged in sugar-planting in Calumet, Louisiana.

THE ORATION.

Delivered at the Inter-State Oratorical Contest held at Beloit, Wisconsin, May 5, 1898, taking second prize. Judges: Hon. JOHN CLARK RIDPATH, BRANDER MATHEWS,, Pres. CRAWFORD, T. C. TRUEBLOOD, Pres. HENRY WADE ROGERS, and Rev. Dr. C. W. HIATT.

The closing century leaves many problems for democracy. Their solution depends upon the will of the citizen. The gravest of these, because it makes all others more difficult, is our lack of interest in elections.

A recent important election in New York city aroused unusual interest, yet three miles of brown

stone fronts on Fifth avenue furnished only twentyeight votes. In 1889 the Legislatures of Massachusetts and Connecticut submitted to the people amendments to the State constitutions to prohibit the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors. Friends and foes of the amendments worked earnestly, yet in Massachusetts thirtyseven per cent and in Connecticut fifty-three per cent of the voters failed to vote. How many of you can name the State Representative and the State Senator from your district, together with the principles which they advocate?

We praise our heroes and talk of liberty and equality, yet we forgot De Tocqueville's last warning sentence to America. "The nations of our time," said he, "cannot prevent the conditions of men from becoming equal; but it depends upon themselves whether the principle of equality is to lead them to freedom or servitude, to knowledge or barbarism, to prosperity or wretchedness.'

The Divine Leader of nations conditions their progress upon obedience to his laws. One law is that duty and privilege are inseparable. Thirty years of war must earn Westphalia; the Regicide Court must demand the Bill of Rights; and Henry George must die to advance his principles, and to teach his countrymen devotion to civic duty. This is the law which we must learn, and under this law it is the duty, the second duty, of the American citizen to attend both primary and final elections. Doubtless we all agree that his first duty is to obey the law. But if others dis

obey the law his obedience is rendered null and void. Such official representatives must be selected as will enforce the law. Thus in order to

secure the privileges of republican government it becomes the citizen's second duty to attend the primaries, where nominations are made, as well as the elections at which they are confirmed.

In speaking of this second duty, I speak not of the right of any class to suffrage, but of the duty that suffrage itself imposes; not of the duty of the scholar in politics, but of the duty of all men; neither shall I speak of the proposed plan of nominating candidates by signed petitions instead of primary elections. Each of these subjects demands consideration, but the elective duty is most important, for political science and commonsense combine to maintain that voting is the only way to the expression of the political life of society. How shall it be known what the community thinks, feels, or wills unless this method of expression be adopted? Public opinion is not to be found in the newspaper, though the materials of it are there. It is vague in social circles, evasive amid store-box arguments, partial in caucus consultations, and individual in political orations. It is clear, deliberate, and specific only when voted.

Custom has established our system of political parties and primary election of candidates. Under this system each political party holds primary elections at which its candidates for public office are selected. A vote at the primaries belongs to

all who desire to vote for the party candidate at the final election. Here the voter selects his principles and his candidate. In theory this system is perfect, in practice it is not. Honest men too frequently fail to vote at the primaries, thus making it possible for dishonest men to nominate unworthy candidates. For nearly two hundred years we have said with Pope,

"For forms of government let fools contest,
Whate'er is best administered is best."

Yet we have not learned to apply this maxim to our republican form of government, for each citizen does not demand at the polls the best administration.

The citizen's second duty must be ranked as of the highest nobility. Voting is the demonstration of equality, because it emphasizes that supreme value in every man which makes radical distinction among men impossible. Voting is the soul of fraternity, because it acknowledges that noble moral life which makes men brothers in responsibility. Voting is liberty in its very flower and bloom; that is the political freedom which safeguards and perpetuates the liberties of person, speech, and conscience. The franchise, like the law, "hath its home in the bosom of God." None are so high as to escape its power and none so lowly as to miss its protection. Let every voter say, as he approaches the polls:

"To-day let simple manhood try

The strength of gold and land;

The wide world has not wealth to buy
The power in my right hand!"

I. Our form of government makes the elective duty of vital importance. While every country demands obedience to its laws, our government demands that its citizens, through their repreUnder the theory of privileges increase its

sentatives, make the law. republican government its duties, and the faithful discharge of those duties multiplies its benefits. The theory of republican government is not that every man is capable of self-government, but that the whole body of citizens will govern itself better than any one man can govern it; not that one man knows the interest of all, but that every man will vote for his own interest, and the interest of the majority will become the interest of all. The obligation rests upon us, when we choose to live under this republican government, to carry out this theory. How shall we do it? Education alone will not accomplish it. What shall it profit this nation that its citizens be capable of discussing public questions, if they fail to vote their convictions? Nor will simple obedience to existing law exemplify this theory. When a republic undertakes the administration of government, each citizen assumes a share of its administration; he becomes a partner in the republic. But the partnership will yield no profits unless it is managed with skill and care. No! The proof of the theory is not alone in the education of citizens, but in the use of their education at the polls; not in simple obedience to law, but in care that proper laws be made and enforced.