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Show 24 DESPOTISM h f many- a cold in-by all, there lurked in the. eartsaosilent disbelief.. difference, a sneermg scep~cl~mdirect line of the Jef- With Monroe termmate . t~ e began that struggle fcrsonian succ:sswf; tnd idential chair, which has for the possessiOn o tIe pres ly kept up -a contest ever since been so pcrtH~actous ne had a larger share in the earlier part of whteh no on likely to fiuurc in than John C. Calhoun,ti.a p~:~d amusement .;'r manhistory, for the Instruc on kind. d nprincipled man, first That able, but restless a?ead~ng democrat; but that came- into J?Ubhc hfe ~ a racy in its current sense, was at ~ time when em~l~stilit to Gregtt Britain. meant little more th~n r / he did it was but Coming from South aro ma sa he was ' a thorough natural tllat he should be, a t · th th~ mere suprearistocrat; and that not coot~~~ ~:~ desired to concenmacy of one. race over an~, t l;c hands of a chosen trate all poltttcal p~wer lf hould be the chief and few, of whom he lmse s leader. . the result of his earlier experi- But satisfied by . ( 1 party was not strong ments, that the anstocr~v~c: at which he aimed, and enough to bestow that po d encounter on that side, that even If It were, het~~~r~l· he turned short about, some dangerous compe I ' f Jefferson resolved to and recollecting thef su~cess ~ment and' to summon try a new mearts 0 a vane '· ears the f the slumbers of some s1xteen Y ' b up,. rom h. h he fondly hoped to e genms of Democracy,! w IC . ervant of his poliucal able to convert mto tIe mere s schemes. . . bl and the charm worked 'I'he maglCHlll was. a e, d indistinct, ap-well. Dimly ill the dlsta~ce, ~Iazyo;~rtiolls told that pearcd a figure, whose roa pr d its stature and time and slumber had but ~~cre~~:stem prairies, the its power. One foot ~l.'~n ~ ~~ew England, it strod~ other amid the snowy I s ol and worshipped. across, the land. The ~~~~~dsr,~vthcir hearts. No- A new cnthus1asm was .. TN AI\I.EHICA. 25 thing could resist it. Those who put themselves forwJrd as the priests, the favored, the chosen of this new avatar of democratical reform, were received with confidence, 'velcomed with acclamation, and entrusted with power. So far the thing worked well, and he who had called up this apparition of democracy, succeeded in installing, as its high-priest and chosen minister, a man who had been a s lave-trader, a man who was a slave-holder, who preached liberty and equality at 'rV ashington, but who at home was the despot of the Hermitage ! His purposes thus far accomplished, he who had raised the spirit sought to Jay it. But it defies his power. Among the crowd of hypocritical worshippers and blind devotees, there are found a few whose homage is at once enlightened and sincere. 'l'hcy look upon democracy not with a stupid gaze of admiration, unable to distinguish between the apparent and the real, but with a discernment, upon which the arts of political cunning will not easily impose. Democracy, in their estimation, is not a mere phantom by whose aid the credulous may be deluded, and offices and honors be secured to the deluders; it is a real existence, a substantial thing, a powerful and essential means of advancing the public welfare. I t is to these adherents, that Democracy now entrusts herself. From being the nursling, the pupil, the instrument of Southern despotism, she is about to become a rival and an enemy. The allegiance she has so long yielded to Southern step-fathers, she will yield no longer. rrhe alliance is broken; and conscious of superior power and higher claims, Democracy demands homage and submission, where hitherto she has paid them. She prepares to act. She points in sorrow, shame and anger, to the capital turned into a slave market ; to the broad plains of the south, watered with the blood of their cultivators; and to the thousand vetty despots, each arbitrary lord and irresponsible tyrant, upon his own plantation. 3 |
