world
the cause of independence by such appeals as they thought would have
effect; and certainly the appeal to the sense of equal rights before God
and the law is the most powerful that can be addressed to the masses of
any people. This is the very essence of American democracy, that one man
should have just as large opportunity as any other to make the most of
himself, to come forward and achieve high standing in any calling to
which he is inclined. To do this the bars of privilege have one by one
been thrown down, the suffrage has been extended to every man, and
public office has been opened to any one who can persuade his
fellow-voters or their representatives to select him.

But there is another side to the successful operations of democracy. It
is not enough that equal opportunity to participate in making and
enforcing the laws should be vouchsafed to all--it is equally important
that all should be capable of such participation. The individuals, or
the classes, or the races, who through any mental or moral defect are
unable to assert themselves beside other individuals, classes, or races,
and to enforce their right to an equal voice in determining the laws and
conditions which govern all, are just as much deprived of the privilege
as though they were excluded by the constitution. In the case of
individuals, when they sink below the level of joint participation, we
recognize them as belonging to a defective or criminal or pauper class,
and we provide for them, not on the basis of their rights, but on the
basis of charity or punishment. Such classes are exceptions in point of
numbers, and we do not feel that their non-participation is a flaw in
the operations of democratic government. But when a social class or an
entire race is unable to command that share in conducting government to
which the laws entitle it, we recognize at once that democracy as a
practical institution has in so far broken down, and that, under the
forms of democracy, there has developed a class oligarchy or a race
oligarchy.

Two things, therefore, are necessary for a democratic government such as
that which the American people have set before themselves: equal
opportunities before the law, and equal ability of classes and races to
use those opportunities. If the first is lacking, we have legal
oligarchy; if the second is lacking, we have actual oligarchy disguised
as democracy.

Now it must be observed that, compared with the first two cent