"Do, you mean that Americans
buy votes?"
The professor smiled again. "Oh no; I only mean that they sell them. Well,
I don't wonder that they rather prefer to blink the fact; but it is a
fact, nevertheless, and pretty notorious."
"Good heavens!" cried the Altrurian. "And what defence have they for such
treason? I don't mean those who sell; from what I have seen of the
bareness and hardship of their lives, I could well imagine that there
might sometimes come a pinch when they would be glad of the few dollars
that they could get in that way; but what have those who buy to say?"
"Well," said the professor, "it isn't a transaction that's apt to be
talked about much on either side."
"I think," the banker interposed, "that there is some exaggeration about
that business; but it certainly exists, and I suppose it is a growing evil
in the country. I fancy it arises, somewhat, from a want of, clear
thinking on the subject. Then there is no doubt but it comes, sometimes,
from poverty. A man sells his vote, as a woman sells her person, for
money, when neither can turn virtue into cash. They feel that they must
live, and neither of them would be satisfied if Dr.
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