law gives to such citizens as are thought worthy of possessing it. It is
easy to see that everybody cannot be permitted to vote. There must be
certain qualifications, certain marks of fitness, required of a citizen
before he can be entrusted with the right of suffrage. These
qualifications differ in the different States. In most States every male
citizen over twenty-one years of age may vote. In four States, women as
well as men exercise the right of suffrage.

But the right of voting, like every other right, has its corresponding
duty. No day brings more responsibilities than Election Day. The
American voter should regard himself as an officer of government. He is
one of the members of the electorate, that vast governing body which
consists of all the voters and which possesses supreme political power,
controlling all the governments, federal and State and local. This
electorate has in its keeping the welfare and the happiness of the
American people. When, therefore, the voter takes his place in this
governing body, that is, when he enters the polling-booth and presumes
to participate in the business of government, he assumes serious
responsibilities. In the polling-booth he is a public officer charged
with certain duties, and if he fails to discharge these duties properly
he may work great injury. What are the duties of a voter in a
self-governing country? If an intelligent man will ask himself the
question and refer it to his conscience as well as deliberate upon it in
his mind, he will conclude that he ought to do the following things:

1. To vote whenever it is his privilege.

2. To try to understand the questions upon which he votes.

3. To learn something about the character and fitness of the men
for whom he votes.

4. To vote only for honest men for office.

5. To support only honest measures.

6. To give no bribe, direct or indirect, and to receive no bribe,
direct or indirect.

7. To place country above party.

8. To recognize the result of the election as the will of the
people and therefore as the law.

9. To continue to vote for a righteous although defeated cause as
long as there is a reasonable hope of victory.

"The proudest now is but my peer,
The highest not more high;
To-day of all the weary year,
A king of men am I.

"To-day alike are great and small,
The nameless and the known;
My palace is the pe