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Black Diamond Rattlers
Noah Maddix
 © Copyright 2020 - All rights reserved.

It is not legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of

this document in either electronic means or in printed format.
Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of
this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the
publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons,

living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental.
 Table of Contents
Chapter One: What Happens in Vegas
Chapter Two: On the Road
Chapter Three: Not a Stripper
Chapter Four: Back to Business
Chapter Five: Learning to Tail
Chapter Six: A Very Bad Deal
Chapter Seven: Cutting Loose
Chapter Eight: On the Road Again
Chapter Nine: Under the Desert Moon
Chapter Ten: The Real World Calls
 Never give a Rattler your back…he might just strike your heart.
I caught sight of him striding along the hall to our hotel room; head down, brows
furrowed, oblivious to how devastatingly sexy he was.
One shove from my best friend and I was dragging him into the darkness of our hotel room
and commanding him. “Take it all off for me.”

Rippling muscles, and an air of danger. He had to be the entertainment…a slow slide of
his leather vest and we caught sight of it…

His gun.

Diablo was no dancer…he was dangerous.

Patched in with the deadly Black Diamond Rattlers his past was hunting him down and
this time there was no escape.

He put me on his bike and we tore along the highway of the criminal underworld.

Only there was one problem…

It was a highway I knew all too well.

My family were savages dressed in Armani.

Ruthless. Connected…and possessive of me.

Now we’re on the run, hiding from the Rattlers and my family.

They’ll have to drag us back kicking and screaming…

 Chapter One: What Happens in Vegas
Livia

The bellhop struggled to push the overladen cart out of the

elevator. My cousins and I followed behind. I was the only one to
even notice the poor kid’s plight as he struggled to get the wheels
over the lip. The three of them chatted excitedly about our weekend
in Vegas, the one they all but dragged me along for.
Only one of the dozen or so bags on the cart even belonged to
me. How could three people pack so much for a two-night trip?
When they came to pick me up, I worried they had planned to whisk
me away for a week or two, given how full the town car’s trunk was.
Once across the elevator’s lip, it was smooth sailing for the
bellhop, though a few dots of sweat appeared on his brow the
further he pushed the cart down the hall. The air conditioning could
only do so much, after all.
He set about unpacking the cart while my cousins burst through
the two-bedroom corner suite like a hurricane. By the time he
finished, a sheen of sweat had covered his brow. He trudged with
the empty cart toward the door, ignored by my cousins.
“Thank you so much,” I said before stepping in front of him and
holding out a twenty-dollar bill.
“Of course, miss.” The kid’s eyes widened as he nodded. “If you
need anything, you know where to find me.”
I waited until the door closed behind him before I turned my
attention to my cousins. The twins, Maria and Teresa, argued over
which one would have the bed closest to the windows in their room.
Had Teresa not bleached the dark, almost black hair we all shared
platinum blonde, much to her mother’s chagrin, I never would’ve
known which one won the argument.
Luciana hadn’t even considered our bedroom arrangements.
Instead, she’d already stashed every bit of complimentary toiletry
items from the bathroom into her handbag. At twenty-six, she had a
few years on all of us, more on me, and was the only one who’d
gotten hitched already. On the flight from LA, she mentioned her
plan to take all the little soaps and shampoo bottles more than once,
but I hadn’t expected her to start right away.
“You know, if you really want a bunch of tiny soaps and
shampoos, you can actually buy them.” I shook my head as she
moved to the minibar.
“Where’s the fun in that?” She rolled her eyes and cracked the
fridge door open. “Too bad these aren’t complementary.”
“Knock yourself out,” Teresa said before joining our older cousin
at the minibar, plucking a small bottle of coconut rum from the
fridge. “Livia’s dad is paying for the room, and we know he’s good
for it.”
I held my tongue, though a sigh escaped my lips. It was true
that money was of little concern to my father, at least the type of
money we were talking about here. If I bought a new car on one of
my cards, he’d raise a stink. Even drinking as much as my cousins
were known to do at the admittedly outrageous minibar prices, he
wouldn’t bat an eye. It was partially his idea that I come on the trip,
anyway.
Maria’s and Teresa’s father and older brother worked for him, as
did Luciana’s husband and father. Almost everyone in the family did,
at least the men. And me, once I got my degree and proved to my
father that I could cut it.
“You know, you guys probably should’ve chipped in on the tip
for the poor bellhop.” I frowned. “I don’t know why you guys
brought so much for such a short trip.”
“If you didn’t share our elegant Fiore features,” Maria said as
she sauntered into the room, her hips swinging exaggeratedly, “I’d
wonder if you were actually related to us sometimes.”
“Yeah,” her platinum blonde sister replied and took a quick sip
of the coconut rum before continuing. “We might only be here for
two days, but who knows what’ll happen. We have to have outfits to
fit every eventuality.”
“Plus, some of us,” Maria said and glanced at Luciana, who had
cracked open her own little bottle of liquor, ”are getting up there in
years and need a few more products to keep themselves looking
their best.”
“I’m only three years older than you.” Luciana glared at our
smirking cousin in mock outrage. “If you stick to my beauty regimen,
you’ll look just half as good as I do when you’re a geezer like me.”
Maria bounded to join the others by the minibar. Before she
passed me, she grabbed my arm and dragged me along.
“Come on, sourpuss.” She sighed. “We came here to help you
blow off some steam. You need a drink in you before we go out.”
“Out? It’s not even three in the afternoon.” Despite my verbal
objection, I accepted the tiny bottle Luciana handed me.
“Have you never been to Vegas before, Livia?” Teresa’s brow
furrowed. “Time doesn’t exist here. That’s why they don’t have any
windows or clocks in the casinos, so that no one knows what time it
is outside.”
“She only turned twenty-one a couple months ago,” her sister
answered, rolling her eyes.
The tiny bottle’s cheery label said it was a daiquiri and only had
an alcohol content of twelve percent. I flashed a smile at my eldest
cousin before opening it and taking a small sip. It wasn’t that I
hadn’t had alcohol before, but I didn’t do it too often and hadn’t
developed the tolerance that my more party-happy cousins enjoyed.
“So, we are going to get dressed to the nines and maybe play a
few slots.” Maria upended her tiny bottle of vodka. “From there, we’ll
see where the evening takes us.”
“Why do we have to get dressed up to go play the slots?” I
frowned. “We walked through the casino floor on our way in. I saw
an old lady sitting at one of those machines in a bathrobe.”
The other girls fell into a fit of giggles. My frown grew, and I bit
my lip. Then I remembered the drink in my hand and took a larger
sip.
“For someone so smart, you can be a real dumb-dumb
sometimes,” Teresa teased and pushed herself off the floor in front
of the minibar. “We aren’t going down there to play the slots. We’re
going down there to get some attention. If you really want to blow
off steam, it’s best done with a partner.”
 “Some of us are only doing that vicariously.” Luciana wiggled
her fingers, allowing her wedding ring to glitter in the light. “But I’ll
be more than happy to be your wing woman, Livia.”
“If you guys really want to help me blow off some steam, I’d
much rather just sit out by the pool and read a book.” I sipped my
too sweet drink.
“Work, work, work, work, work,” Teresa mocked. “Come on,
were just talking about one weekend. Can you act your age for one
weekend?”
Another giggling fit took my cousins. At this rate, one weekend
would feel like an eternity. As much as I wanted to continue my
objections, I knew just how fruitless they’d be. I mean, they had
gotten me out on the trip to start with. Even my father thought it a
wonderful idea, and he usually encouraged my studious nature. If I
wanted to break into a man’s world, I had to be better than the
best.
I groaned. “If I try, will you guys stop giving me shit?”
“No,” the three of them said in unison, falling into giggles all
over again.
Yeah, it was going to be the longest weekend of my life. I
dropped to the floor next to Luciana. She nudged my elbow and
passed another daiquiri bottle, though I’d only drank a fourth of the
one in my hand.
“Knowing you, I’m sure you didn’t pack any night-on-the-town
clothes.” Maria downed another tiny bottle of vodka before hopping
up to her feet, tugging on my arm. “We are about the same size, so
I made sure to pack some stuff that’ll work for you. Time to get you
dressed.”
The unopened daiquiri bottle slipped from my fingers, but I held
on to the one I’d been sipping from. I would need a little liquid
courage to survive the next hour. Neither Teresa nor Luciana offered
any help, giggling and drinking as Maria yanked me towards the
bedroom.
“Now, I know you’re a prude,” Maria teased as she opened one
of her garment bags.
 “Just because I’m more comfortable wearing shorts or skirts
that don’t end just below my ass doesn’t make me a prude,” I shot
back.
“Fine.” She rolled her eyes and pulled out a few dresses. “You’re
not a prude, but come on. With bodies like ours, we have to show
them off. It’s, like, a civic duty.”
Finally, a joke where I joined in with the giggles. Maria held one
of the dresses in front of me. It was sleeveless and dark green with
a tight bodice and barely-there skirt. Thankfully, she shook her head
and dropped it to the bed before I objected.
“In all seriousness.” She held up the next dress, still sleeveless
but made of a silky material in a deep purple color. It draped to my
mid-thigh. “If you really want to break into the family business,
you’ll go much further if you understand the power a woman’s body
can have over men. It would be malpractice not to utilize every
resource available.”
“Just because I don’t like to expose myself as much as you and
your sister doesn’t mean I don’t see the effect I can have on men.” I
chuckled as I unbuckled my belt after kicking my shoes off. “Like I
said earlier, I’m not a prude. I’ve seduced boys before.”
“Really?” She didn’t believe me, bringing a scowl to my face.
“Where do you find the time with all that studying and training you
do?”
“I never said I had much experience,” I admitted as I kicked out
of my shorts and pulled my top off. “Just that I wasn’t a prude.”
“If you play your cards right tonight, maybe you will get a little
more experience.” She held the dress out for me to slip into. “Better
here than back home in LA. Knowing your father, he’d send a hit
squad after anyone who even thought about doing dirty deeds with
his daughter.”
Again, I wanted to object. Sure, I’d been hitting the books hard
in addition to my training regimen. Sitting out by the pool with a
paperback sounded a heck of a lot more fun and relaxing then
slutting it up to hook up with some random stranger, even with the
economics book I’d been slogging through.
 “You’re right about my dad.” I shrugged as she zipped the dress
and pushed me toward the mirror. “I was a virgin until I got to
Stanford. I’m sure everyone who works for him warned their sons
away from me to keep them from earning his wrath.”
Maria giggled while I scoped myself out. The dress was a little
shorter than I liked and more revealing up top, but I’d have been
lying if I said I didn’t love it.
“Okay, I like this one.” My nodding reflection sent locks of curly
hair dancing.
“Good, we have our first option,” answered Maria, pulling
another dress out of her garment bag. “But let’s see if we find
something you really love.”
I grabbed the little daiquiri bottle and gave it a swig before
slipping out of the purple dress. The longest weekend of my life, I
grumbled to myself as I accepted the next dress.
Forty-five minutes later, Maria finally let me free of her clutches.
I entered our suite’s main room wearing the purple dress I loved
with a made-up face I did not. Oh, I wore makeup every day, but I
hardly ever mortared it on like Maria. That was until today when she
wouldn’t take no for an answer. With the amount of eyeshadow she
had applied, I was almost afraid to close my eyes for fear that I’d
look like a raccoon when I opened them.
Luciana sat on the couch, already dressed in a much more
conservatively cut skirt than mine. She hadn’t changed her makeup
at all. She beamed at me before wolf-whistling.
“You don’t think the makeup is a bit much?” One of my hands
tugged at the hem of the skirt.
“Oh, it is totally too much, but this is Vegas.” She finished her
drink and pushed herself to her feet. “If the twins are going to take
their time, we need some ice. I’ll go get some from the machine.”
She stumbled more than once in her heels on the trip toward
the door, carrying the ice bucket in one hand. I glanced at the
minibar. More than a few empty bottles sat in the trash next to it.
Luciana and Teresa hadn’t wasted any time while Maria tortured me
with her makeup brushes.
 “Oh my God,” yelled Luciana from outside the room through the
slowly closing door. “Maria! Did you hire us a stripper?”
The door burst open, and Luciana thundered through, dragging
a man behind her. Even in her heels, he towered over her by at least
a foot. He wore a black leather vest covering his broad shoulders.
Tanned, muscular arms hung below, and one held by my eldest
cousin. A white tank hid the view of what I assumed was an equally
impressive set of abs. A well-trimmed beard covered his cheeks and
surrounded his open mouth. It matched the same chestnut color of
the oddly flattened hair on top of his head.
Given his scrunched brow and open mouth, he’d already
attempted to tell my cousin he wasn’t a stripper. As my eyes trailed
down the blue jeans wrapped around his legs, I had to admit that I
would have preferred he was one. I wanted a closer look.
 Chapter Two: On the Road
Diablo

I revved the throttle and swerved into the left-hand lane. My

bike purred, vibrating under me as we shot ahead of another semi.
The road ahead sliced a straight line through the desert scrubland as
far as the eye could see. Mountains, distant and hazy, rose to either
side, and the endless blue sky extended to every horizon with barely
a wisp of clouds to the west.
Was there anything better than being on the road? With the
wind whipping by my ears, the view, and how few cars I’d seen on
Highway 95, I couldn’t think of anywhere I’d rather be.
My bike swerved back into the right lane, but I kept my hand in
place. I kept accelerating, reaching eighty, then ninety miles per
hour. The handlebars shook as I neared a hundred, so I had to let
the throttle back down.
Damn, I’d have to figure out where the issue was if I ever
wanted to truly let my bike cut loose. Having basically built her
myself, I took great pride in my work. On the downside, I only had
myself to blame when something went wrong.
I flew past a Las Vegas fifteen-mile sign. This close to the city,
I’d have to stick closer to the speed limit. The last thing I wanted on
my first solo assignment for the club was to get pulled over. Sure, I
wasn’t carrying on my person, but they’d find my piece if they
searched my saddlebags. It was clean, though the serial numbers
had been accidentally filed off. Funny, that. It seemed to happen to
a lot of the guns around the club.
The desert gave way to more evidence of civilization as I got
closer to Vegas. The single two-lane road turned into a split
interstate before any hint of the city itself came into view. Flat as the
desert was, the horizon hid most of it. Extra power poles and exits
leading off to far-flung housing developments and a golf course, a
green oasis in all the dusty brown, were the first true evidence that
the city approached.
Having never been to Vegas myself, I’d only really known about
the strip with its neon lights, casinos, and throngs of people from
movies and books. The Vegas I entered from the north was an
endless parade of track houses on either side of the highway. It was
kind of amazing to me that they built the houses so close together
despite all the open space.
I kept my eyes on the road, and not just because I preferred
the desert scenery to the sprawl of North Vegas. The midday traffic
clogged the lanes. Back in Stockton, I’d just split the lane and zoom
between the slowed traffic, but only California allowed bikes to do
that.
Now in Vegas proper—nearer to the meet site every moment—
the worries I’d banished on the road came rushing back. The Black
Diamond Rattlers were a family, the only one I ever had after my
mother died. Like any family, there was always someone you didn’t
exactly get along with.
For me, that was Gunner, the Veep of our chapter. He rubbed
me the wrong way from the first day I met him, the caustic bastard.
No one ever explained to me where his ill will toward me came from,
but with the way he treated me for the last three years I spent as a
prospect, the feeling was more than mutual now. That didn’t even
take into account the way he treated his old lady.
That he gave me the assignment gave weight to all those
worries. I wouldn’t put it past the asshole to set me up, but of
course, I had no proof. Sending a newly patched member for such a
simple exchange wasn’t out of the ordinary, but Gunner’s
involvement left me leery.
I finally made it through the sprawl and onto the strip. This was
Vegas as I knew it from films, TV, and even books—towering hotels
gaudily decorated with neon, huge screens advertising their shows,
and façades that mimicked New York, Paris, and Venice.
Fewer people than I expected crowded the streets. An hour or
so after noon and in the middle of summer, most remained inside
the casinos’ cool comfort with their twenty-four-seven air
conditioning. I hadn’t minded the sun when I had been whipping
down the highway, but I wouldn’t mind a little air-con myself right
now with the slow going in the city.
Gunner provided a room in one of the big casinos. If anything,
that let my suspicions of him fester like an untreated wound. Why
spring on the expensive hotel room when cheap motels, further off
the strip, of course, were a dime a dozen?
Did he want to mollify me, offer a shiny trinket with one hand
while his other sunk a shiv into my belly? Either he did, or my
paranoia had gotten the best of me.
I pulled into the parking garage across the street from my
casino, a welcome relief from the sun’s brutal rays. Once I parked, I
slipped my backpack from the saddlebag and tucked the holstered
revolver into the back of my jeans. The leather vest I wore hid it
completely.
More than a few pairs of eyes flashed my way when I took the
underground concourse to the casino across the street. I’d always
been a big guy. Even as a kid, I was taller and broader than most of
my peers. Add the motorcycle club cut I wore, and the intimidation
factor skyrocketed.
When I didn’t need to play the part of the big bad biker—times
like now—it almost made me self-conscious. On the other hand,
those furtive, frightened glances and more overt actions, like that of
the sunburnt middle-aged man who jumped out of my path, excited
me. I was someone to be feared, at least assuming you crossed me.
A line was formed in front of the check-in desk. The young
Asian couple in front of me kept glancing back before whispering in
a language I couldn’t understand. The next time the man’s head
turned, I smiled warmly, or at least I thought I did. His eyes
widened, and the hushed conversation he had with his partner
sounded strained, frightened.
“Look at this line,” groaned a man behind me. “If you hadn’t
needed that extra bathroom break, we would be checked in and at
the slot machines by now.”
“I’m sorry, Carl,” replied a long-suffering feminine voice.
 “You should be,” the asshole said. “Our little getaway was
almost ruined because of your peanut-sized bladder.”
My eyes closed, and I took a deep breath, trying to call myself.
It wasn’t any of my business. In fact, if the big badass biker made a
scene, it might threaten my actual business in town. The meet was
only a few hours away. If things went sideways before then, Las
Vegas’s finest might offer me different accommodations for the
night.
“Keep up,” the man barked.
“You’re hurting me, Carl,” the woman cried.
Dammit.
My eyes opened, and I turned around. The couple in question
stood a few places behind me in the line. The middle-aged man
wore a pair of khaki shorts over his blindingly white legs. His gut,
covered by a polo shirt tucked into his shorts, hung over his belt. He
held the woman’s arm in one hand so tightly that his fingertips
turned white.
She noticed me first while he whispered furiously, close to her
ear. Her eyes widened as I sidestepped the line and dropped back.
She froze, but Carl hadn’t noticed me yet.
“You know, when a girl says stop hurting me, that means you
should let go of her.” Having not spoken since I left Stockton, my
voice came out scratchier and gruffer than usual, but it only added
to the effect.
“Mind your own damn…” the man began with the same barking
anger he’d used on the woman.
The moment his eyes reached me, his words sputtered and
stopped. He scrambled away, half dragging the woman with him
before he finally let go of her arm. I focused my glare on the weak
little man until a camera flash from behind me stole my attention.
The Asian man I’d just been behind held the camera in his now
shaking hands. This was not the scene I expected to create, but I
knew how to roll with the punches. A less threatening smile returned
to my face, and I motioned him to take another if he liked.
He smiled back and snapped another photo. After another quick
conversation in their native language, the young woman approached
me and turned to pose for a picture with me. Maybe I’d go viral on
some Chinese social media sites. After a couple more snapped
photos, she returned to her traveling partner, and the line continued
its plodding pace toward the check-in counter.
Since the man behind me hadn’t tried to manhandle his wife
again, I did what I always did when I had a few minutes to spare
and slipped the paperback out of my vest pocket. Time always
seemed to speed by when I read. No sooner had I reached the next
page before it was my turn to check in.
With about four hours to kill before the meet, I washed some of
the road dust off my face and arms once I made it to my room. After
that, I plopped down on the bed and slipped the book out again.
The clock spun like a top, but I read two more chapters before
my phone’s alarm rang. I rolled off the bed and returned the book to
its pocket with a couple hours to spare. The only thing my first
foster father left me with was a simple saying—being early is on
time, being on time is late, and being late, well, that was
unacceptable.
He burned that into my brain, just like his burning cigarette had
left the scar on my wrist. As painful a lesson as it had been, the
wisdom couldn’t be denied. I lived by it, except for when it came to
parties. Show up early to one of those, and everyone will think
you’re a weirdo.
Once I left my room, I ambled down the hall. A girl about my
age stumbled around the corner in front of me. The empty ice
bucket in her well-tanned hands sagged and almost tumbled to the
obnoxiously patterned carpet.
In the short skirt and sleeveless top, she looked dressed to go
out. Her stumble told me she’d had a few already. Just as I opened
my mouth to apologize for startling her, a wide-mouthed smile came
to her face.
“Oh my God, Maria!” She yelled, her head turned back toward
the corner she just rounded. “Did you hire us a stripper?”
“I’m not a…” I tried to correct her, but she steamrolled forward
and grabbed my arm.
customers at ease. “But now I’m curious about that personalized
recommendation.”
“Okay.” She leaned back and looked me up and down. “You’re a
tough case. Gruff on the outside, dangerous. Normally, that’d
warrant a couple shots of 151, but not for you. No, you’re more
complicated than that, more sophisticated. How about a scorpion? It
has its own hidden qualities, a little culture mixed inside.”
“Sure.” I shrugged but then shook my head. If she’s a cop, she’s
either a great actress or a drunk. “So, do you put on that little show
to snag more tips?”
“Hey, it got you to buy one of our specialty drinks, didn’t it?”
She flashed me a knowing smirk through the mirror as she mixed
the drink.
As different as she looked to Purple Dress, the smirk sent my
thoughts right back to the girl in that hotel suite. I let my guard
down for a second, and distractions tempted me off the trail.
“Touché.” I nodded when she turned and set the glass in front
of me.
The drink was bright yellow and in a tall glass shaped like a
giant Tiki head, and a round of lime perched on the rim with a
colorful umbrella stabbed through it. They didn’t serve drinks like
this at the clubhouse. I almost wanted to ask the old bartender for
one when I got back, just to see his reaction. It was fruity with a
powerful but not overwhelming punch. The flavor changed and
deepened as I swallowed.
After another small sip, I nodded to the woman and pulled my
wallet out to pay. “Much better than a couple of shots.”
I tucked my wallet back and pulled the paperback out when the
bartender moved down the bar to polish glasses. Now wasn’t the
time to read, at least not much. With my eyes on the book, I could
check my peripheral vision. Thanks to the gaudy mirror over the bar,
I saw behind me, as well. I’d know when anyone came in without
looking up.
The bartender wasn’t a cop, but the whole thing still felt off. As
the minutes ticked closer to the meet time, my stomach rumbled
with worry. At least the drink helped quell that a little.
Another random document with
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climate, upon an equal soil, freely pasture his herds and flocks where
he pleases, and love his neighbor better than himself.

OUR FARMERS.

The test of profitable farming is the state of the account at the end
of the year. Under free trade the evidence multiplies that the English
farmer comes to the end of the year with no surplus, often in debt,
bare and discontented. Their laborers rarely know the luxury of
meat, not over sixteen ounces per week,[87] and never expect to own a
rood of the soil.
But under the protective policy the American farmer holds and
cultivates his own land, has a surplus at the end of the year for
permanent investments or improvements, and educates and brings
up his sons and daughters with the advantages and comforts of good
society. There are more American houses with carpets than in any
other country of the world. I believe it will not be disputed that the
down-trodden tillers of the soil in Great Britain are not well fed; that
they are coarsely underclad, and that for lack of common-school
culture they would hardly be regarded as fit associates here for
Americans who drive their teams afield, or for the young men who
start in life as laborers upon farms. The claim that free trade is the
true policy of the American farmer would seem to be, therefore, a
very courageous falsehood.
It is an unfortunate tendency of the age that nearly one-half of the
population of the globe is concentrated in cities, often badly
governed, and sharply exposed to extravagance, pauperism,
immorality, and all the crimes and vices which overtake mankind
reared in hot-beds. I would neither undervalue the men of brilliant
parts, nor blot out the material splendor of cities, but regret to see
the rural districts depopulated for their unhealthy aggrandizement.
Free trade builds up a few of these custom-house cities, where gain
from foreign trade is the chief object sought, where mechanics,
greater in numbers than any other class, often hang their heads,
though Crœsus rolls in Pactolian wealth, and Shylock wins his pound
of flesh; but protection assembles artisans and skilled workmen in
tidy villages and towns, details many squadrons of industry to other
and distant localities, puts idle and playful waterfalls at work, opens,
builds up, and illumines, as with an electric light, the whole interior
of the country; and the farmer of Texas or of New England, of Iowa
or of Wisconsin, is benefited by such reinforcements of consumers,
whether they are by his side or across the river, at Atlanta or South
Bend, at Paterson or at Providence. The farmers own and occupy
more than nineteen-twentieths of our whole territory, and their
interest is in harmony with the even-handed growth and prosperity
of the whole country.
There is not a State whose interests would not be jeopardized by
free trade, and I should like to dwell upon the salient facts as to
Missouri, Kansas, Indiana, Alabama, Illinois, and many other States,
but I shall only refer to one. The State of Texas, surpassing empires
in its vast domains, doubling its population within a decade, and
expending over twenty million dollars within a year in the
construction of additional railroads, with a promised expenditure
within the next fifteen months of over twenty-seven millions more,
has sent to market as raw material the past year 12,262,052 pounds
of hides, 20,671,639 pounds of wool, and 1,260,247 bales of cotton.
Her mineral resources, though known to be immense, are as yet
untouched. Her bullocks, in countless herds on their way to market,
annually crowd and crop the prairies from Denver to Chicago. But
now possessed of a liberal system of railroads, how long will the
dashing spirit of the Lone Star State—where precious memories still
survive of Austin, of Houston, of Rusk, and of Schleicher—be content
to send off unmanufactured her immense bulk of precious raw
materials, which should be doubled in value at home, and by the
same process largely multiply her population? With half as many in
number now as had the original thirteen, and soon to pass our
largest States, wanting indefinite quantities of future manufactures
at home, Texas should also prepare to supply the opening trade with
Mexico, in all of its magnitude and variety, and far more worthy of
ambition than in the golden days of Montezuma.
No State can run and maintain railroads unless the way-stations,
active and growing settlements and towns, are numerous enough to
offer a large, constant, and increasing support. The through business
of long lines of railroads is of great importance to the termini, and
gives the roads some prestige, but the prosperity and dividends
mainly accrue from the local business of thrifty towns on the line of
the roads. It is these, especially manufacturing towns, which make
freight both ways, to and from, that free trade must ever fail to do,
and while through freights, owing to inevitable competition, pay little
or no profit, the local freights sustain the roads, and are and must be
the basis of their chief future value. Without this efficient local
support, cheap and rapid long transportation would be wholly
impracticable.
The Southern States, in the production of cotton, have possibly
already reached the maximum quantity that can be cultivated with
greatest profit, unless the demand of the world expands. A short crop
now often brings producers a larger sum than a full crop. The
amount of the surplus sent abroad determines the price of the whole
crop. Production appears likely soon to outrun the demand. Texas
alone has latent power to overstock the world. Is it not time,
therefore, to curtail the crop, or to stop any large increase of it, while
sure to obtain as much or more for it, and to turn unfruitful capital
and labor into other and more profitable channels of industry? The
untrodden fields, where capital and labor wait to be organized for the
development of Southern manufactures and mining, offer unrivaled
temptations to leaders among men in search of legitimate wealth.
The same facts are almost equally applicable to general
agriculture, but more particularly to the great grain-growing regions
of the West. A great harvest frequently tends to render the labor of
the whole year almost profitless, whenever foreign countries are
blessed with comparatively an equal abundance. The export of corn
last year in October was 8,535,067 bushels, valued at $4,604,840,
but the export of only 4,974,661 bushels this year brings $3,605,813.
An equal difference appears in the increased value of exports of flour.
A much larger share of crops must be consumed nearer home, if any
sure and regular market is to be permanently secured. The foreign
demand, fitful and uncertain as it is, rarely exceeds one-twentieth of
even the present home requirements, and the losses from long
transportation, incident to products of great bulk, can never be
successfully avoided except by an adequate home demand.
Farmers do not look for a market for grain among farmers, but
solely among non-producing consumers, and these it is greatly to
their interest to multiply rather than to diminish by forcing them to
join in producing or doubling crops for which there may be an
insufficient demand. Every ship-load of wheat sent abroad tends to
bring down foreign prices; and such far-off markets should be sought
only when the surplus at home is excessive or when foreign prices
are extraordinarily remunerative.
The wheat regions of the West, superb as they undoubtedly are, it
is to be feared, have too little staying character to be prodigally
squandered, and their natural fertility noticeably vanishes in the rear
unless retained by costly fertilizers almost as rapidly as new fields
open in front. Some of the Middle States as well as the New England,
though seeking fertilizers far and near, already look to the West for
much of their corn and bread; and there is written all over Eastern
fields, as Western visitors may read, the old epitaph, “As we are now
so you may be.” It will take time for this threatened decadence, but
not long in the life of nations. The wheat crop runs away from the
Atlantic coast to the Pacific, and sinks in other localities as it looms
up in Minnesota, Nebraska, and Dakota. Six years of cropping in
California, it is said, reduces the yield per acre nearly one-half.
There was in 1880 devoted to wheat culture over thirty-five million
acres, or nearly double the acreage of 1875. In twenty-five years a
hundred million people will more than overtake any present or
prospective surplus, and we may yet need all of our present
magnificent wheat fields to give bread to our own people. Certainly
we need not be in haste to slaughter and utterly exhaust the native
fertility of our fields on the cheap terms now presented.
England, with all her faults, is great, but unfortunately has not
room to support her greatness, and must have cheap food and be
able to offer better wages or part with great numbers of her people. I
most sincerely hope her statesmen—and she is never without those
of eminence—will prove equal to their great trust and to any crisis;
but we cannot surrender the welfare of our Republic to any foreign
empire. Free trade may or may not be England’s necessity. Certainly
it is not our necessity; and it has not reached, and never will reach,
the altitude of a science. An impost on corn there, it is clear, would
now produce an exodus of her laboring population that would soon
leave the banner of Victoria waving over a second-rate power.
Among the nations of the world the high position of the United
States was never more universally and cordially admitted. Our rights
are everywhere promptly conceded, and we ask nothing more. It is
an age of industry, and we can only succeed by doing our best. Our
citizens under a protective tariff are exceptionally prosperous and
happy, and not strangers to noble deeds nor to private virtues. A
popular government based on universal suffrage will be best and
most certainly perpetuated by the elevation of laboring men through
the more liberal rewards of diversified employments, which give
scope to all grades of genius and intelligence and tend to secure to
posterity the blessings of universal education and the better hope of
personal independence.
 Speech of Hon. J. D. Cameron, of Penna.

On the Reduction of Revenue as Affecting the Tariff. Delivered in the

United States Senate January 16, 1882.
Mr. Cameron, of Pennsylvania. I move to take up the resolution
submitted by me in relation to internal-revenue taxes.
The motion was agreed to; and the Senate proceeded to consider
the following resolution submitted by Mr. Cameron, of
Pennsylvania, December 6, 1881:
Resolved, That in the opinion of the Senate it is expedient to
reduce the revenue of the Government by abolishing all existing
internal revenue taxes except those imposed upon high wines and
distilled spirits.
Mr. Cameron, of Pennsylvania. Mr. President, the surplus revenue
of this Government applicable to the payment of the public debt for
the year ending June 30, 1881, was $100,069,404.98.
The inference from these figures must be that if such surplus
receipts are applied to the reduction of the debt it will be paid within
ten or twelve years. The question then is: Should the people continue
to be taxed as heavily as they now are to pay it off within so short a
period? Is it wise or prudent?
No one will deny the wisdom of the legislators who inaugurated
the system of reducing the debt, or the patriotism of the people who
have endured a heavy load of taxation to pay the interest and reduce
the principal of such indebtedness. Both have been causes of wonder
to the world, and have shown the strength, honesty, and prudence
attainable under a republican form of government in matters where
it was thought to be weak. It is acknowledged that the course thus
pursued by Congress, and supported by the people, has had several
good results. The exercise of the power of the Government and the
cheerful submission to the enacting nature of the laws by the people
has had an undoubted tendency to elevate and strengthen the moral
tone of the nation, giving the people more confidence in each other,
and compelling the approval of the world. It has reduced the
principal sum of our national indebtedness until it is entirely within
the ready control of the financial ability of the people either to pay off
or to pay the interest thereon. It has established the credit of the
country, and brought it up from a position where the 6 per cent. gold
bonds of the United States before the war would not command par to
a present premium of 17 per cent, on a 4 per cent. bond, and to the
ready exchange of called 6 per cent. bonds into new ones bearing 3½
per cent. interest. It has demonstrated the ability of the country not
only to carry on a most expensive internal war, but to pay off its cost
in a time unknown to any other people; and further, that the ability
of the country to furnish men and material of war and to meet
increased financial demands is cumulative. The burden carried by
this country from 1861 to the present day has been much greater
than it would be if laid upon this nation and people from 1881 to
1900.
The burden, therefore, of the present debt would fall but lightly on
the country if the payment thereof should be for a time delayed, or
the rate at which it has been paid be decreased. It thus becomes a
question of prudence with the Government whether they will
continue the burden upon the people, or relieve them of part of it.
The burdens of general taxation borne by the people are very
onerous. They have not only the General Government to sustain, on
which devolves the expenses of legislation, of the Federal judiciary,
of the representatives of our country in all the principal governments
and cities of the world, of the management of such of our internal
affairs and conveniences as belong to Congress, the keeping up of our
Army and Navy, the erection of public buildings, the improvement of
the rivers and harbors, and many other items that require large
annual expenditures. With the increase of population and the filling
up of our unoccupied lands almost all these annual outlays and
expenses will tend to increase in place of decreasing, and all such
expenditures must be in some way met by the people of the country.
They have also to sustain their State governments with the expenses
and outlays incident to them, their legislatures, judiciaries,
penitentiaries, places of reform, hospitals, and all means of aiding
the afflicted, to sustain the common schools, to pay the cost of such
improvements of rivers, of canals, of railways, or of roads as the
States may undertake. They have also the heavy cost to meet of city
governments, of county, town and borough governments; they must
pay the inferior Legislatures, erect buildings, provide water, police,
jails, poor-houses, and build roads and take care of them.
On the liberality of the people the country depends for the building
of charitable institutions, universities, colleges, private schools of
high grade, and every variety of relief to the poor and the afflicted. In
addition to these burdens almost all the States, most of the large
cities, and many of the counties and towns in the States still labor
under the burdens of indebtedness incurred during the war to
sustain the General Government, which indebtedness, incurred on
the then value of paper currency, has now to be paid in gold. They
have not had the means at command to pay off much of such
indebtedness like the General Government, nor to refund it at a
lower rate of interest. The superior credit of the General Government
has been made partially at the expense of the local governments. I
have stated these facts that Senators might keep in mind that the
question should not be considered as merely one of our ability to
reduce our indebtedness by paying off annually one hundred
millions of dollars and by continuing our present laws for raising
revenues, as if it were but a small matter for the people to do, but it
should be considered in connection with the total burden of taxation
imposed by the revenue laws of the General Government, as well as
by those of the State and the subordinate governments within their
bounds.
There is, therefore, a strong argument to be found in these facts of
the other burdens of taxation borne by the people in favor of
reducing the amount of revenue applicable to the payment of the
public debt when it can be done without injury to the credit of the
Government and without risking in the least the ability of the
Government either to pay such indebtedness as it matures or to
interfere with the ability of the Government to fully provide for the
wants of the country as they may be developed. A complete
statement of the percentage of taxation borne by each male citizen of
the United States over twenty-one years of age in the various ways
stated would astound the Senate and the country. There is probably
no country in the world where the taxation direct and indirect is so
heavy, and only a people situated and circumstanced as the
American people are could prosper under such a burden. If no other
reason could be advanced in favor of a reduction of the amount of
moneys derived from our internal-revenue laws than this one of
reducing the burdens of the people, it would be amply sufficient, in
my judgment, to warrant the proposed reduction. Yet I will say
frankly that I have another object in wishing to have the internal
revenue reduced, and I hope before long that every vestige of that
system will cease to exist. That object is to prevent any material
change being made in the tariff upon imports as it now exists, for
upon its existence depends the prosperity, the happiness, the
improvement, the education of the laboring people of the country,
although I do not object to a careful revision of it by a competent
commission.
I want to say a word here about the arrears of pension act. This act
never should be repealed, and in my judgment it never will or can be.
It has lately been held up to contempt by that class of people who
twenty years ago were engaged in exhorting these same pensioners to
go to the front, and who now object to rewarding them; but their
opinion is not shared by the people at large; in fact, no more
essentially just law was ever placed upon the statute book. Its effect
is simply and solely to prevent the Government from pleading the
statute of limitation against its former defenders. It did not increase
the rate of pensions in any way whatever, but merely said that a man
entitled to a pension for physical injury received in Government
service should not be debarred from receiving it because he was late
in making his application. To the payment of these pensions every
sentiment of honesty and gratitude should hold us firmly committed.
My friend the Senator from Kentucky [Mr. Beck] is very honest, is
generally very astute, and has great capacity as a leader. My personal
friendship makes me desire his success, and as an individual I want
him to be the recipient of all the honors his party can bestow upon
him, but I am very sure that he is now opposing a measure that is
intended to promote the welfare of and is in accord with the wishes
of the people of the country. He is leading his party astray, he is
holding it back, he is tying it to the carcass of free trade.
 Politically I am glad that he is; on his own account I regret it. He is
opposing the principle of protection, and, in my judgment, no man
can do that and retain the support of the people. No party can to-day
proclaim the doctrine of “a tariff for revenue only” and survive.
Opposition to an earnest prosecution of the war for the suppression
of the rebellion failed to destroy the Democratic party because of the
recruits it received from the South, but opposition to the doctrine of
protection to American productions, hostility to the elevation of
American labor, no party in this enlightened day can advocate and
live. I am astonished that the Democratic party does not learn by
experience. The “tariff-for-a-revenue-only” plank in the Cincinnati
platform lost it Indiana, lost it New York, and in 1884 it will lose it
one-half of the Southern States.
The President pro tempore. The morning hour has expired. Is it
the pleasure of the Senate that unanimous consent be given to the
Senator from Pennsylvania to proceed with his remarks?
Mr. Beck. I move that unanimous consent be granted.
The President pro tempore. The Chair hears no objection, and
the morning hour will be continued until the Senator from
Pennsylvania closes his remarks.
Mr. Cameron, of Pennsylvania. The great question of protection to
American labor will be the question which will obliterate old
dissensions and unite the States in one common brotherhood. The
Democratic party has made its last great fight. It will struggle hard,
and in its death throes will, with the aid of a few unsuccessful and
disappointed Republicans, possibly have temporary local successes,
but death has marked it for its victim, die it will, and on its tomb will
be inscribed, “Died because of opposition to the education, the
elevation, the advancement of the people.”
The historic policy of this country has been to raise its revenues
mainly from duties on imports and from the sale of the public lands.
There are many reasons in favor of this policy. It is more just and
equal in its burdens on the States and on the people; it is less
inquisitorial, less expensive, less liable to corruption; it is free from
many vexed questions which our experience of twenty years in
collecting internal revenue has developed. The internal revenue
brings the General Government in contact with the people in almost
every thing they eat, wear, or use. The collection of revenue by duties
on imports is so indirect as to remove much of the harshness felt
when the citizen comes in direct contact with the iron grip of the law
compelling him to affix a stamp to what he makes or uses. No one
will question the fact that the collection of internal duties
unfavorably affected the general morals of the nation.
The internal revenue laws were adopted by the Government as a
war measure, as an extraordinary and unusual means of raising
money for an emergency, and it is proper and in accordance with
public opinion that with the end of the emergency such policy should
cease. I cannot but think that every Senator will agree with me that
the end of the emergency has been reached. The emergency
embraced not only the time of the expenditures, but their
continuation until the debt incurred during the emergency was so
reduced as to be readily managed, if not exclusively by the ordinary
revenues of the Government, yet with a greatly reduced system of
internal revenues and for a limited time. But in determining wherein
such reduction shall be made, two great interests of the country are
to be considered:
First, the system of duties on foreign goods, wares, &c.
Second, our national banking system.
It has been proposed to meet this question of reduction by
lowering the rates of duty, and thus to continue in this country
indefinitely the use of direct and indirect taxation, supposing that
such reduction would require the prolonged continuation of internal
taxation.
The first effect of this would be to increase the revenues, as lower
duties would lead for awhile to increased importations; but
ultimately these increased importations would destroy our
manufactures and impoverish the people to the point of inability to
buy largely abroad, and when that point would be reached, we should
have no other source of revenue than internal taxes upon an
impoverished people. At first we should have more revenue than we
need, but in the end much less.
This statement of the effect of lower duties may at first seem
anomalous and questionable, but that such would be the result is
proven by the effect on the revenues of the country of the reduction
in duties in the tariff of 1846 below that of 1842. This will be evident
from the Treasury statistics of the years 1844, 1845, 1846, 1847, &c.,
which will show for the latter years a large increase of revenues. A
reduction of duties which would affect the ability of our
manufacturers to compete with foreign makers would cause a large
importation of goods, with two objects: first, to find a market, the
effect of which would be to keep the mills of England and other
countries fully employed; and, second, a repetition of the custom of
English manufacturers to put goods on our markets at low and losing
prices for the purpose of crippling and breaking down our operators.
And the increase of out national revenues would continue until our
fires were stopped, our mills and mines closed, our laborers starved,
and our capital and skill, the work of many years, lost. This time
would be marked, by a renewal of our vassalage to England. Then the
tables would be turned, our revenues would fall off with our inability
to purchase, our taxation would continue and become very onerous,
and in place of a strong, reliant, and self-supporting people,
exercising a healthful influence over the nations of the world, we
would be owned and be the servants of Europe, tilling the ground for
the benefit of its people; our laborers would be brought down to a
level with the pauper labor of Europe.
Our form of government will not permit the employment of
ignorant pauper labor. It is a government of the people, and to have
it continue to grow and prosper the people must be paid such wages
as will enable them to be educated sufficiently to realize and
appreciate the benefits of its free institutions; and knowing these
benefits, they will maintain them. If, on the other hand, it is
desirable that the revenues from duties should be decreased, and
thereby retain both kinds of taxation, the direct and the indirect, the
best possible way to do this would be to largely increase the duties on
imported goods, which would for a time decrease the imports,
thereby decreasing the amount of duties received. This tendency
would last until, through this policy, the wealth and purchasing
power of the country would so largely increase that the revenues
would again increase, both by reason of decreased cost in foreign
countries and because of the purchase by us of articles of special
beauty, skill, and luxury. It may be said (and however paradoxical it
may appear, the assertion is proven by the history of the tariff) that
while the immediate tendency with free-trade duties is to increase
imports and revenues, the ultimate result of such low duties is to
decrease the imports and revenues, due to the decreasing ability of
the country to purchase. The immediate tendency of protective tariffs
is to decrease imports and revenues, but the final result is to increase
the imports and duties, arising from the greater ability of the country
to purchase. But my intention is not to discuss at this time the
question of a tariff, but to show the effect of a change in the duties on
imports upon the revenues of the country.
I clearly recognize that while the public mind is decidedly in favor
of encouraging home manufacturers by levying what are called
protective duties, yet the people are opposed to placing those duties
so high that they become prohibitory and making thereby an
exclusive market for our manufacturers at home. It seems very clear
to my mind, in view of these statements as to the result of decreasing
or increasing the duties on our imports, that no reduction of revenue
is practicable by changes in our tariff.
The second great interest of the people, which will very shortly be
directly affected by the large and increasing surplus revenues of the
country, is the system of national banks, and this through the
decrease of the public indebtedness by the application of the annual
surplus to its payment. The large annual reduction of the public debt
will very shortly begin to affect the confidence of the public in the
continuation of the system. It will increase public anxieties and
excite their fears as to a substitution of any other system for this that
has proven so acceptable and so valuable to the country. If the
national banking system is to be worked out of existence, it will
inevitably cause serious financial trouble.
Financial difficulties among a people like those of this country,
however ill-based or slight, are always attended by disastrous
consequences, because in times of prosperity the energies and
hopefulness of the people are stretched to the utmost limits, and the
shock of financial trouble has the effect of an almost total paralysis
on the business of the country. It is certainly the part of
statesmanship to avoid such a calamity whenever it is possible.
I unhesitatingly declare and believe that the value of our system of
national banks is so great in the benefits the country derives
therefrom and the dangers and losses its continuance will avoid that
it were better to continue in existence an indebtedness equal to the
wants of the banks which the country may from time to time require
until some equally conservative plan may be offered that will enable
us to dispense with the system.
It is also important in this connection for Senators to bear in mind
that the increasing business of the country will annually require
increased banking facilities, and consequently increased bonds as the
basis on which they can be organized; and it should not be
overlooked that a possible determination by Congress to pay off by
retiring or by funding the greenbacks will create a great hiatus in the
circulating medium of the country, which can only be replaced by
additional national-bank notes based upon an equivalent amount of
public indebtedness.
In view of the statements I have made, I cannot but conclude that
the wisest and most prudent course for Congress is to leave the
question of changes in the tariff laws to be adjusted as they may from
time to time require, and to make whatever reduction of the income
of the Government that may be found desirable by reducing the
changes in the internal-revenue laws.
The national revenue laws as they now are may be greatly and
profitably changed. They are very burdensome to a heavily-taxed
people, and such burdens should be relieved wherever it is possible.
This can now be done with safety by providing that so much of the
public debt may be paid off from time to time as may not be required
to sustain the system of national banks.
I move that the resolution be referred to the Committee on
Finance.
The motion was agreed to.
 Extracts from Speech of Hon. Thomas H.
Benton,

On Proposed Amendments of the Constitution in relation to the

election of President and Vice-President, Delivered in the U. S.
Senate Chamber, A. D. 1824.
He said:—The evil of a want of uniformity in the choice of
Presidential electors, is not limited to its disfiguring effect upon the
face of our government, but goes to endanger the rights of the
people, by permitting sudden alterations on the eve of an election,
and to annihilate the rights of the small States, by enabling the large
ones to combine, and to throw all their votes into the scale of a
particular candidate. These obvious evils make it certain that any
uniform rule would be preferable to the present state of things. But,
in fixing on one, it is the duty of statesmen to select that which is
calculated to give to every portion of the Union its due share in the
choice of a chief magistrate, and to every individual citizen a fair
opportunity of voting according to his will. This would be effected by
adopting the District System. It would divide every State into
districts equal to the whole number of votes to be given, and the
people of each district would be governed by its own majority, and
not by a majority existing in some remote part of the State. This
would be agreeable to the rights of individuals: for in entering into
society, and submitting to be bound by the decision of the majority,
each individual retained the right of voting for himself wherever it
was practicable, and of being governed by a majority of the vicinage,
and not by majorities brought from remote sections to overwhelm
him with their accumulated numbers. It would be agreeable to the
interests of all parts of the States; for each State may have different
interests in different parts; one part may be agricultural, another
manufacturing, another commercial; and it would be unjust that the
strongest should govern, or that two should combine and sacrifice
the third. The district system would be agreeable to the intention of
our present constitution, which, in giving to each elector a separate
vote, instead of giving to each State a consolidated vote, composed of
all its electoral suffrages, clearly intended that each mass of persons
entitled to one elector, should have the right of giving one vote,
according to their own sense of their own interest.
The general ticket system now existing in ten States, was the
offspring of policy, and not of any disposition to give fair play to the
will of the people. It was adopted by the leading men of those States,
to enable them to consolidate the vote of the State. It would be easy
to prove this by referring to facts of historical notoriety. It
contributes to give power and consequence to the leaders who
manage the elections, but it is a departure from the intention of the
constitution; violates the rights of the minorities, and is attended
with many other evils.
The intention of the constitution is violated because it was the
intention of that instrument to give to each mass of persons, entitled
to one elector, the power of giving an electoral vote to any candidate
they preferred. The rights of minorities are violated, because a
majority of one will carry the vote of the whole State. The principle is
the same, whether the elector is chosen by general ticket, or by
legislative ballot; a majority of one, in either case, carries the vote of
the whole State. In New York, thirty-six electors are chosen; nineteen
is a majority, and the candidate receiving this majority is fairly
entitled to receive nineteen votes; but he counts in reality thirty-six:
because the minority of seventeen are added to the majority. These
seventeen votes belong to seventeen masses of people, of 40,000
souls each, in all 680,000 people, whose votes are seized upon, taken
away, and presented to whom the majority pleases. Extend the
calculation to the seventeen States now choosing electors by general
ticket or legislative ballot, and it will show that three millions of
souls, a population equal to that which carried us through the
Revolution, may have their votes taken from them in the same way.
To lose their votes is the fate of all minorities, and it is theirs only to
submit; but this is not a case of votes lost, but of votes taken away,
added to those of the majority, and given to a person to whom the
minority was opposed.
 He said, this objection (to the direct vote of the people) had a
weight in the year 1787, to which it is not entitled in the year 1824.
Our government was then young, schools and colleges were scarce,
political science was then confined to few, and the means of diffusing
intelligence were both inadequate and uncertain. The experiment of
a popular government was just beginning; the people had been just
released from subjection to an hereditary king, and were not yet
practiced in the art of choosing a temporary chief for themselves. But
thirty-six years have reversed this picture; thirty-six years, which
have produced so many wonderful changes in America, have
accomplished the work of many centuries upon the intelligence of its
inhabitants. Within that period, schools, colleges, and universities
have multiplied to an amazing extent. The means of diffusing
intelligence have been wonderfully augmented by the establishment
of six hundred newspapers, and upwards of five thousand post-
offices. The whole course of an American’s life, civil, social, and
religious, has become one continued scene of intellectual and of
moral improvement. Once in every week, more than eleven thousand
men, eminent for learning and for piety, perform the double duty of
amending the hearts, and enlightening the understandings, of more
than eleven thousand congregations of people. Under the benign
influence of a free government, both our public institutions and
private pursuits, our juries, elections, courts of justice, the liberal
professions, and the mechanical arts, have each become a school of
political science and of mental improvement. The federal legislature,
in the annual message of the President, in reports of heads of
departments, and committees of Congress, and speeches of
members, pours forth a flood of intelligence which carries its waves
to the remotest confines of the republic. In the different States,
twenty-four State executives and State legislatures, are annually
repeating the same process within a more limited sphere. The habit
of universal travelling, and the practice of universal interchange of
thought, are continually circulating the intelligence of the country,
and augmenting its mass. The face of our country itself, its vast
extent, its grand and varied features, contribute to expand the
human intellect and magnify its power. Less than half a century of
the enjoyment of liberty has given practical evidence of the great
moral truth, that under a free government, the power of the intellect
is the only power which rules the affairs of men; and virtue and
intelligence the only durable passports to honor and preferment. The
conviction of this great truth has created an universal taste for
learning and for reading, and has convinced every parent that the
endowments of the mind and the virtues of the heart, are the only
imperishable, the only inestimable riches which he can leave to his
posterity.
This objection (the danger of tumults and violence at the elections)
is taken from the history of the ancient republics; and the tumultuary
elections of Rome and Greece. But the justness of the example is
denied. There is nothing in the laws of physiology which admits a
parallel between the sanguinary Roman, the volatile Greek, and the
phlegmatic American. There is nothing in the state of the respective
countries, or in the manner of voting, which makes one an example
for the other. The Romans voted in a mass, at a single voting place,
even when the qualified voters amounted to millions of persons.
They came to the polls armed, and divided into classes, and voted,
not by heads, but by centuries.
In the Grecian republics all the voters were brought together in a
great city, and decided the contest in one great struggle.
In such assemblages, both the inducement to violence, and the
means of committing it, were prepared by the government itself. In
the United States all this is different. The voters are assembled in
small bodies, at innumerable voting places, distributed over a vast
extent of country. They come to the polls without arms, without
odious instructions, without any temptation to violence, and with
every inducement to harmony.
If heated during the day of election, they cool off upon returning to
their homes, and resuming their ordinary occupations.
But let us admit the truth of the objection. Let us admit that the
American people would be as tumultuary at this presidential election
as were the citizens of the ancient republics at the election of their
chief magistrates. What then? Are we thence to infer the inferiority
of the officers thus elected, and the consequent degradation of the
countries over which they presided? I answer no. So far from it, that
I assert the superiority of these officers over all others ever obtained
for the same countries, either by hereditary succession, or the most
select mode of election. I affirm those periods of history to be the
most glorious in arms, the most renowned in arts, the most
celebrated in letters, the most useful in practice, and the most happy
in the condition of the people, in which the whole body of the citizens
voted direct for the chief officer of their country. Take the history of
that commonwealth which yet shines as the leading star in the
firmament of nations. Of the twenty-five centuries that the Roman
state has existed, to what period do we look for the generals and
statesmen, the poets and orators, the philosophers and historians,
the sculptors, painters and architects, whose immortal works have
fixed upon their country the admiring eyes of all succeeding ages? Is
it to the reign of the seven first kings?—to the reigns of the emperors,
proclaimed by the prætorian bands?—to the reigns of the Sovereign
Pontiffs, chosen by a select body of electors in a conclave of most
holy cardinals? No.—We look to none of these, but to that short
interval of four centuries and a half which lies between the expulsion
of the Tarquins, and the re-establishment of monarchy in the person
of Octavius Cæsar. It is to this short period, during which the
consuls, tribunes, and prætors, were annually elected by a direct vote
of the people, to which we look ourselves, and to which we direct the
infant minds of our children, for all the works and monuments of
Roman greatness; for roads, bridges, and aqueducts, constructed; for
victories gained, nations vanquished, commerce extended, treasure
imported, libraries founded, learning encouraged, the arts
flourishing, the city embellished, and the kings of the earth humbly
suing to be admitted into the friendship, and taken under the
protection of the Roman people. It was of this magnificent period
that Cicero spoke, when he proclaimed the people of Rome to be the
masters of kings, and the conquerors and commanders of all the
nations of the earth. And, what is wonderful, during this whole
period, in a succession of four hundred and fifty annual elections, the
people never once prepared a citizen to the consulship who did not
carry the prosperity and glory of the Republic to a point beyond that
at which he had found it.
It is the same with the Grecian Republics. Thirty centuries have
elapsed since they were founded; yet it is to an ephemeral period of
one hundred and fifty years only the period of popular elections
which intervened between the dispersing of a cloud of petty tyrants,
and the coming of a great one in the person of Philip, King of
Macedon, that we are to look for that galaxy of names which shed so
much lustre upon their country, and in which we are to find the first
cause of that intense sympathy which now burns in our bosoms at
the name of Greece.
These short and brilliant periods exhibit the great triumph of
popular elections; often tumultuary, often stained with blood, but
always ending gloriously for the country.
Then the right of suffrage was enjoyed; the sovereignty of the
people was no fiction. Then a sublime spectacle was seen, when the
Roman citizen advanced to the polls and proclaimed: “I vote for Cato
to be consul;” the Athenian, “I vote for Aristides to be Archon;” the
Hebran, “I vote for Pelopidas to be Bœotrach;” the Lacedemonian, “I
vote for Leonidas to be first of the Ephori,” and why not an
American citizen the same? Why may he not go up to the poll and
proclaim, “I vote for Thomas Jefferson to be President of the United
States?” Why is he compelled to put his vote in the hands of another,
and to incur all the hazards of an irresponsible agency, when he
himself could immediately give his own vote for his own chosen
candidate, without the slightest assistance from agents or managers?
But I have other objections to these intermediate electors. They are
the peculiar and favorite institution of aristocratic republics, and
elective monarchies. I refer the Senate to the late republics of Venice
and Genoa; of France, and her litter; to the Kingdom of Poland; the
empire of Germany, and the Pontificate of Rome. On the contrary, a
direct vote by the people is the peculiar and favorite institution of
democratic republics; as we have just seen in the governments of
Rome, Athens, Thebes, and Sparta; to which may be added the
principal cities of the Amphyctionic and Achaian leagues, and the
renowned republic of Carthage when the rival of Rome.
I have now answered the objections which were brought forward
in the year ’78. I ask for no judgment upon their validity of that day,
but I affirm them to be without force or reason in the year 1824.
Time and EXPERIENCE have so decided. Yes, time and experience,
the only infallible tests of good or bad institutions, have now shown
that the continuance of the electoral system will be both useless and
dangerous to the liberties of the people, and that the only effectual
mode of preserving our government from the corruptions which have
undermined the liberties of so many nations, is, to confide the
election of our chief magistrates to those who are farthest removed