"
There are no passages in this speech of Gladstone that can
be cited as among the best examples of the great style of
the orator. But there are several that give a good idea of
his manner, and show something of the argument in two or
three sentences: "I am not at all ashamed of having said,
and I will say it again, that this is a choice of evils. I do not
say that the proposal for a secret ballot is open to no objections
whatever. I admit that open voting has its evils as well
as its merits. One of these merits is that it enables a
man to discharge a noble duty in the noblest possible manner.
But what are its demerits? That by marking his vote you expose
the voter to be tempted through his cupidity and through his
fears. We propose, by secret voting, to greatly diminish
the first of these, and we hope to take away the second. We
do not believe that the disposition to bribe can operate with
anything like its present force when the means of tracing
the action of the man bribed are taken away, because men will
not pay for that they do not know they will ever receive.
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