logic works well; only there are some omitted factors. Human nature
has made some progress. Hospitality to new ideas, and patience with
divergent ones, are two of the surest fruits of later civilization.

Again, the majority have not always tyrannized in proportion to their
power. They did not, in the Dutch Republic, when William of Orange
followed the hideous persecutions of Phillip II. with the
establishment of religious liberty. The Church of England was in the
majority when it abandoned its acts of tyranny. Congregationalism was
still in the ascendancy when it ceased to banish Baptists and to whip
Quakers. The Rhode Island Baptists had plenty of majority when they
pioneered the empire of religious freedom in America. And the Maryland
Roman Catholics had things their own way, when in an age of
persecution they resolved to be hospitable to other beliefs. Indeed,
in our American life especially, the generosity and long-suffering of
majorities are among the most notable features. On the other hand it
may with truth be said that the worst tyrannies have been on the part
of minorities. In the old world the oppressive minorities have usually
been hereditary or ecclesiastical interests. In our country the ruling
minorities have been determined, and self-assertive classes who would
not brook the wisdom or the sense of justice of the majority. It was
the regnant minority which rushed the South into secession. It was
that same minority which had for half a century before over-ridden the
whole nation. It was the Tammany minority which ruled the Democracy.
It is the minority of syndicates, corporations, and vested interests
which crowned itself in our Billion Congress, and is spreading itself
in our legislatures. Are the very occurrences, of which so much has
been made exhibitions, of the tyranny of all the people; or, are they
not rather, with one exception, instances where a graceless minority
has resolved either slyly or boldly to ignore the people? In short,
the charge in the phrase "tyranny of the majority" has but the least
justification in the course of government. There has been in history
no power which has tyrannized less than the political majority. In
modern times, at least, the most violent acts of despotic outrage have
been the attempts to ride down the will of the political majority. "In
the light of history, and in the face of the wrongs of the present,"
to use the editor's words, it might be well to consider so