1723. CONSTITUTION (Spanish), Suffrage.—[continued].
In the Constitution of Spain, as proposed by the late Cortes, there was
a principle entirely new to me, * * * that
no person, born after that day, should ever acquire
the rights of citizenship until he could
read and write. It is impossible sufficiently
to estimate the wisdom of this provision. Of
all those which have been thought of for securing
fidelity in the administration of the government,
constant ralliance to the principles of
the Constitution, and progressive amendments
with the progressive advances of the human
mind, or changes in human affairs, it is the most
effectual. Enlighten the people generally, and
tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will
vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.
Although I do not, with some enthusiasts, believe
that the human condition will ever advance
to such a state of perfection as that there
shall no longer be pain or vice in the world,
yet I believe it susceptible of much improvement,
and most of all, in matters of government
and religion; and that the diffusion of knowledge
among the people is to be the instrument
by which it is to be effected. The Constitution
of the Cortes had defects enough; but when
I saw in it this amendatory provision, I was satisfied
all would come right in time, under its
salutary operation.—
To Dupont de Nemours. Washington ed. vi, 592.
Ford ed., x, 24.
(M.
1816)
