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Show 100 DESPOTISI\J to. the prudent and industrious, a resource fumcien: not only for support, bnt for the accnmu auon o wealth. When labor is not honorable, the mass ~f ~he citizens rather than degrade themselves by sub~ntttm g to it, will be content with the. m ~ rcst ~ubststcncc. 'rhus it happens that in countnes Ill W~ltch slav?r.y has existed for a considerable length of t~l!lc, the Citizen ..; ; are divided into two cla.sscs, of wlu~h the fi:st and mnch the smaller, ~ompnscs a few nch propnctors who at the same time ~ rc large slave-holders, while the second class contams the great mass of the f ople persons of little property, or none at aiL re~.,~~: wa~ the state of society in all the republics o.f ancient Greece. rrhose republics were c~nstan~ly dtvided into two parties or factions. The ohgarch1cal or aristocratic party, composed of the few n ch and thm immediate connections and dependents, and the democratic party, as it was called, composed of the bulk of oor freemen, headed and led on by so~e a~blt10us ~cserter from the aristocratic ranks. 'I hch1story of ancient Greece consists for the n:ost part, m th~ n;1~~~ tual strttO'O'}e of these two partJCs. In gener , aristocrat\~ party had the ascen~ency; when the opposite faction came into power,, It. was only. by a sort of accident commonly of very !Jm1ted duratiOn. . T'his serves to explain a cunons part of ancwn ~ history to which we have no parallel in m?d~rn ti.me~, nam'e!y the frequent projects for an artJficJal dJslnf b~ttion ~f property, and of laws for the renus.s~o~l o dehts It was clearly perceived by many po!I\JCJaJlS of a~tiqnity, that a ccrta.i~ cqualitr of w~alt 1 ~:~~ absolutely essential to po!JtJcal equal1ty. 'lhcy l d ;hat the nominal equal ity of all the CJ tJzcns amoun e to 'but little so long as all the wealth of th~ slate wa: possessed by a few, and the great bulk of ·t 1e c,n~~~ not o~ly had nothing, but we~e even ~ecplfo~nab~lishthe few rich. lienee the vano~ts _p_rOJCC~. unt of ing debts, prohibiting. n s~uy, hmttJ_ng t eo~~~ and property which any mdJvJdual mJght .P :· 'ealth making new and equal distributions of existmg w . IN AMERICA. 101 But these schemes did not touch the root of the eviL So long as slavery existed, it was a natural and inev~ itable consequence that all property, however equally it might at first be divided, should presently concen~ trate in the hands of a few, leaving the mass, idle and poor,-poor, because idle. The operation of the same cause is very evident in the history of the Roman Republic. A few patricians were possessed of enormous wealth, conn ting their slaves by tens of thousands, and owning almost entire provinces, while the great bulk of the citizens were in a state of the most deplorable poverty, depending for their support upon distributions of corn from the public granaries, upon gratuities bestowed upon the commonality by the ambitious rich, and on the pay and plunder of the military service. Such are some of the instances which history affords, of the natural effect of slavery in concentrating wealth in a few hands, and in reducing the mass of the free to poverty and political degradation. History also furnishes instances of the contrary process, by which liberty has given a spring to industry, and has thus operated to disseminate wealth, and to create an intermediate body between the rich and the poor, a body which with the increase of civilization and knowledge, is destined perhaps to embrace the great mass of mankind. About the tenth centnry of the christian era the greater part of Europe was reduced' by a combination of causes, to a most barbarous con..t dition. A few great lords, who were in fact little better than so many Tartar or African chiefs of the present day, possessed all the land, the only sort of property which remained in existence. This land was cultivated by slaves. The mass of the free population depended for its support upon the bounty of the feudal ehJCfs, which bounty was' repaid by the constant attendance and warlike services of those .who receivod it. The sole occupation of tho free was, hunting and war. In this state of thin~s we can discover no element 9* b |