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Show 20 DESPOTISl\1 influence and preserve its ascendency, was soon obliged to descend to all those arts of popularity, which when practised by their opponents, they had denounced as fit only Cor demagogues. The power of the priestly and legal hierarchy consisted in their monopoly of talent and education, and in a certain superstitious reverence wilh which they were regarded by the people. So long as these two sources of power continued in full operation, their credit could not be shaken, and their influence carried every thing before it. Dut with the progress of time, and the increasing wealth of the community, education became more general, books and periodicals were multiplied, and knowledge was disseminated. The oligarchical order lost their superiority in this respect, and with it, they lost the awe and veneration of the people. To complete their discomfiture, they quarrelled among themselves on certain points of theology; and as the dispute waxed warm, the parties to it became more intent upon destroying each other's iufluence, than upon maintaining their own. Such was the end of the oligarchical rule in New England, of which some vesligcs yet remain, but of which the life and spirit has departed. The political creed, generally and it may be said, universally, professed,- albeit the ancient regime has still many secret adherents,-is a purely deraocratic creed, and the struggle for influence and ollice between contending politicians, turns wholly upon the question, who among them are the best democrats, who arc most devoted to the interests of the people? Though the New England States formed that part of the Union which held out longest against the general reception of the democratic theory, yet the equal distribution of property, the more extensive diffusion of knowledge, and that feeling of personal independence and equality long cherished among the people, made tltcm from the bcginniug, the best adapted of all the states, to enter fully into the spirit of democracy, and to display, in tho most striking light, the advautagcs of IN Al\tEIHCA. 21 that form of ~overnment. Accordingly it may be said that the Ne\~ Encrland States, notwithstanding some gross defects in th~ir political and social systetn, afford, at this moment the most remarkable approach any where to be foun'd, toward the theoretical perfection of ideal democracy. But it was not in New England alone, that the progress of the democratical experiment met with opposi· tion. 'rhe middle states-New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania,-at the era of the revolution, contained an oligarchy of rich land-holders, .who a~s~tmcd, and for some time retained, the exclusive pohtlcal control of their respective commnnities. 'ro this landed aristocracy the lawyers joined themselves, as also the clergy, whose influence thougl_~ by no means equal to that of their brethren in New England, was far from cOl:tcmptible. 'rhe yeomanry of those states were Jll general, rude and ignorant. As there was no system of public schools, many of them were unable to read; and if they were free from some of the preJUdiCes of the New Englanders, they were far behind the.m.,. in 1<nowledcre, industry, self-respect, and that senstl.nhty of mind ~nd heart, which civilization produces. Jf the members· of the oligarchical pany in these states, could have agreed among themselves, theymi ~ht long have maintained their influence and authonty. Dut presently they quarrelled, and divided into hostile and bitter factions. Certain persons among them, whether to secure the popular favor by putting themselves forward as the champions of popular rights, or some of them perhaps, sincere converts to the creed, soon declared themselves the patrons and champions of democracy; but as they had a powerful resistance to contend against at home, and opponents who, though discomfited, still kept the fteld, lhcy were fain to yield the precedence ro Jefrerson and his southern supporters, and to be content with the second part, where they would gladly have claimed the ftrst. As to the states north· west of the Ohio, which are now beginning to occupy so conspicuous a place in the |