breath of the sparkling fountain-so give me officers fresh from the people, with the people's flavor upon them, with hearts warmed by gratitude to the people-then you would not see a set of dull, loafering, indolent, insipid officeholders who become official paupers and whom the people must forever feed with a spoon. No-let them go out from the people, then return to the people, and they will not forget they are parts of the people.

These are my true, real sentiments. A Republican of '76 -I want a young constitution just like old Uncle Sam's; and hope that those electors who are my way of thinking will give me their hand. THOMAS SHANLEY.

VIEWS OF "Z" ON MINORITY RULE

[September 19, 1846]

MR. EDITOR: I had the satisfaction of having an expression of sentiment from the stumps from some of the delegates, previous to the election, in regard to what they considered the essential features of a constitution. This expression embraced all the principles that have been agitated in the community, but there is one of general usage in American jurisprudence which was not discussed by the delegates, nor has it been by the people.

I allude to that plan of elective franchise adopted by the federal, and nearly all the state governments, which renders minorities competent to elect. Notwithstanding it is a well received doctrine of representative democracy that the majority ought to rule, yet, from the details of the laws regulating elections, generally, such is not actually the result.

I submit it, therefore, to the people of Wisconsin and their delegates, whether or not there shall be a provision in our constitution making a majority of the whole, instead of a plurality, necessary to elect.

Long established usages which have been sanctioned time and again by the wise and the good, I am aware, ought not

to be abolished without mature deliberation; but the science of self-government is progressive in the same ratio as is the development of the human mind; and, in the establishment of the fundamental law or new charters of government, it is not only admissible but it is imperative upon us to examine cardinal principles with freedom and candor.

Plurality is the principle that governs elections in this territory-the candidate getting the highest number of votes is elected; and how does it operate? Why, whenever there are three candidates for any one office a minority of the whole most generally elect, and whenever there are seven or more (as in Grant County this year for sheriff) the minority are sure to elect. Compare the number of the sheriff's votes with the whole number polled in the county, and you will see the operation of this principle. Thus a diminutive integral of the suffrage of Grant County, under this mode of election, constitutes a ministerial officer who legally assumes a function and enters upon the discharge of duties peculiar to the interests of the whole county.

Now, we all know the people are the source of power-we know, too, that an election is nothing but a transfer of power, and it is palpable, also, that if the principle of a majority's ruling be lost in a primary transfer of power it can never again be reached. Of what use would it be to enact law by a majority of the legislative department when the vote of a minority elected that department? The writer has seen political phenomena of this character in his native state. More than once he has seen a majority of the members of the legislature returned by minorities of their several counties, thus constituting a coördinate branch of the government of a state by a minority of its suffrage. Such have been the practical effects of the principle in other states; such effects are rendered mathematically certain whenever office-seeking becomes the rage of a community, and if there be any safety in judging the future by the past, the enormous demand for public service at the hands of the people this last canvass would certainly make out a strong case so far, at least, as this county is concerned.

Z.

SELECTIONS FROM THE MINERAL POINT
DEMOCRAT

STATE GOVERNMENT13 No. 1

[October 8, 1845]

MR. BRITT: The time has arrived when Wisconsin may with propriety assume the dignified station to which she is entitled amongst her sisters of our republican confederacy. With more than the number of inhabitants required by the Ordinance of 1787 to authorize Wisconsin to knock at the doors of Congress and demand admission into the Union, her immense resources as an agricultural, commercial, manufacturing, and mineral producing country are daily and hourly being developed to such an extent as to justify the belief that she will rank among the first of the western, and, as regards those advantages, superior to many of the eastern states.

At various times within a few years the executive of the territory has recommended that a vote of the people should be taken on the question of state government; laws have been passed on the subject; votes have been received for and against the question; but the people themselves have never hitherto asked for the measure; and this consideration, together with the fact that the votes were taken at a general election when the minds of the people were more directed to the selection of territorial and county officers than to the abstract question of state government, which never had proceeded from themselves, may well account for the result;

13 These articles on state government, published in the Mineral Point Democrat, were doubtless written by Moses M. Strong. The Democrat, established in April, 1845, was published at Mineral Point only until the close of the year; it was then removed to Madison where it reappeared as the Wisconsin Democrat, under the editorship of Beriah Brown. A complete file of the Democrat is preserved in the Wisconsin Historical Library.