lenge their point of view. We cannot afford to be
governed as we have been governed in the last generation, by men who
occupy so narrow, so prejudiced, so limited a point of view.

The government of our country cannot be lodged in any special class. The
policy of a great nation cannot be tied up with any particular set of
interests. I want to say, again and again, that my arguments do not touch
the character of the men to whom I am opposed. I believe that the very
wealthy men who have got their money by certain kinds of corporate
enterprise have closed in their horizon, and that they do not see and do
not understand the rank and file of the people. It is for that reason that
I want to break up the little coterie that has determined what the
government of the nation should do. The list of the men who used to
determine what New Jersey should and should not do did not exceed half a
dozen, and they were always the same men. These very men now are, some of
them, frank enough to admit that New Jersey has finer energy in her
because more men are consulted and the whole field of action is widened
and liberalized. We have got to relieve our government from the domination
of special classes, not because these special classes are bad,
necessarily, but because no special class can understand the interests of
a great community.

I believe, as I believe in nothing else, in the average integrity and the
average intelligence of the American people, and I do not believe that the
intelligence of America can be put into commission anywhere. I do not
believe that there is any group of men of any kind to whom we can afford
to give that kind of trusteeship.

I will not live under trustees if I can help it. No group of men less than
the majority has a right to tell me how I have got to live in America. I
will submit to the majority, because I have been trained to do
it,--though I may sometimes have my private opinion even of the majority.
I do not care how wise, how patriotic, the trustees may be, I have never
heard of any group of men in whose hands I am willing to lodge the
liberties of America in trust.

If any part of our people want to be wards, if they want to have guardians
put over them, if they want to be taken care of, if they want to be
children, patronized by the government, why, I am sorry, because it will
sap the manhood of America. But I don't believe they do. I believe they
want to stand on the firm foundation of law and ri