th. It was the attempt to secure to the Black
citizens of the South the political rights given them by the
constitution. The sacrifice may have been necessary; many of the wisest
Americans hold that it was so. But we may suspect that even amongst
those who, as a matter of policy, approve the course pursued by the
Federal Government in the South since 1876, qualms are occasionally felt
as to some of its results. The able writer who sets American Home Rule
before Englishmen as an example for imitation says with the candour
which marks his writings: "I do not propose to defend or explain the way
in which" the Native Whites "have since then" (1876) kept the Government
"in their hands by suppressing or controlling the Negro vote. This is
not necessary to my purpose."[24] It is however necessary for the
purpose of weighing the effect of American experience to bear this
"suppression" constantly in mind; it has deprived the Negroes of
political rights which possibly they had better never have received, and
has falsified the result of Presidential elections. When we are told
that the South votes solid for a Democratic President, we must remember
that in the Southern States the Negro vote is "controlled"; and that in
reckoning the number of votes to which a State is entitled in virtue of
its population, the Negro voters of the South are counted for as much as
the uncontrolled White voters of the North. Whether this state of things
will always be contentedly borne by the Northern States is a matter on
which a foreigner can form no opinion. It is a condition of affairs
which does not conduce to respect for law, and the satisfaction with
which thoughtful Americans regard a policy founded on the tolerance of
illegality confirms the belief suggested by other circumstances, that
deference to opinion tends in the United States to undermine respect for
law; it certainly does not tend to show that self-government has much
connection with justice.

The argument, in short, from the good effects of self-government
appears, when examined, either to be an argument which tells far more
strongly in favour of Separation than of Home Rule, or else to be an
argument which shows only that England might gain some immediate
advantage from shutting her eyes to injustice committed by an Irish
government.

[Sidenote: 5. Argument from Coercion Acts.]

_The argument from the necessity for Coercion Acts_.--Coercion Acts are
(according to popular apprehen