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The

South Atlantic Quarterly.

The Independent Voter in the South

BY EDWIN MIMS,

Professor of English Literature in Trinity College

The details of the last presidential election and of the more recent state and municipal elections are so fresh in the minds of all men as not to call for a recital or even summary in this place. The most significant result in both elections was the triumph of the independent voter. Surely at a time when 2,000,000 men vote one way for president and another way for governor, and when the people can so far forget partisan ties and issues as they did in New York and Philadelphia, the independent voter may be said to have come into his own. The term once used in scorn-the name "mugwump" being used to express that scorn-has come to be a badge of honor and a symbol of glory. The party boss, like the millionaire grafter, stands today discredited in the eyes of the nation. Brave and honest leaders in both parties-men who are not afraid to antagonize the corrupt men in their respective parties-and the independent leaders, not allied with any party, are in the ascendency. Amid all the other revelations of dishonesty and graft during the past year, this sweeping triumph of political reform is one to make men rejoice.

Such a triumph of morality and the will of God-universally conceded and commented on-is but another evidence that democracy may be trusted to get at the right men and to decide great questions of public moment. When moral issues can be clearly defined, and the best men of a community or a nation take an aggressive part in politics, the masses of the people may be counted upon to do the right thing. The condition always is that men of light and leading may not lose their sense of responsibility, and prove the truth of Burke's

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