Every one would of course admit, if the point were put flatly to him, that power alone is not enough, but that there must be added to power, in the case of the voter, a direct interest in the choice of good men, in the case of the legislator, responsibility to the voters, in the case of both, a measure of enlightenment and honour.

What the legislatures of the worst States show is not merely the need for the existence of a sound public opinion, for such a public opinion exists, but the need for methods by which it can be brought into efficient action upon representatives who, if they are left to themselves, and are not individually persons with a sense of honour and a character to lose, will be at least as bad in public life as they could be in private.

The greatness of the scale on which they act, and of the material interests they control, will do little to inspire them.
New York and Pennsylvania are by far the largest and wealthiest States in the Union.

Their legislatures are confessedly the worst.'[131] The passage is the more impressive just because it is not written with a view to Ireland.

No one doubts that the people of the United States, both in morality and in talent, equal if they do not excel the people of any other country in the world.