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Show 106 DESPOTISM The facts of the case then, appear to be these. Not one of the slave-holding states possesses any thing like a regular system of common schools, or has made any provision at all worthy of notice, for disseminating the rudiments of education among its citizens. In': equality of wealth has produced, as a natural consequence, inequality of knowledge. This condition of things tends greatly to aggravate the social and political inequalities which prevail throughout the southern states. It is in vain that people who cannot read, boast of their political rights. 'rhere is no power more easily abused for the promotion of private ends, than the power conferred by superior knowledge. A man who cannot read, may be said to be politically blind. Those who see may miss the way, but the blind have hardly a chance to find it. Nothing is more easy than leading them into the pit, and thus making them the instruments of their own destruction. It is the extreme ignorance of those who compose what is called the democratic party at the South, which incapacitates that party from projecting and carrying through any real and useful reforms in the social polity of those states, and which converts it into the mere tool and stepping-stone of artful and ambitious men, who insinuate themselves into its confidence, and then employ that confidence for the accomplishment of their merely private ends. In the nature of things, the aristocracy of rieh planters, as they possess all the wealth and all the knowledge, will succeed, in the long run, in usurping the whole political power. As might be expected, South Carolina, the state in which slavery is most predominant, is also the state in which the aristocracy of rich planters domineers without control. Already the doctrine, sanctioned by the constitution of that state, that every freeman is entitled to vote at elections, is violently assailed by the leaders of the aristocratic faction. They insist upon a property. quahfication. It is easy to see whither this doctnne Will lead. - By the concentration of wealth in few hands, . --~~-- IN AMERICA. 107 which is the natural result of I those who possess the r . ~ avery, .the number of continue to diminish till eq~Irlte qualifications will power concentrates i~ fo a as~ the whole political in the hands of a little ol{r;:; as It n~:nv does in fact, But though the e ualitg s chy of nch slave-holders. the constitutions ofqthe sfav~~~r~~· to all freemen by more than nominal though th f<o mg states, Is httle informed generally' succeed . e ~w .wealthy and well control, and then employ it t"l ~ tammg the political vate ends, it is not ther [. o pl omote thCJr own pri~ .that the constitutidnal r~g~~~· tr b; hastily concluded valueless, or that the los o t e poor freemen are they are threatened is no: o~hthose nghts with which deprecated. Havi~g a vo~e .~;~!to be most seriously man, however humble his cond. t. ecti?ns, every fr_eetreated with a certain de f I IOn, Is sure of bcmg of the people are ca' I dgree o respect. If the mass receive for them a j~r~ ot~t t~f t~e!f votes! they still and fair speeches. Let the q IVa ent,, m kmd words to consideration and th m be depnved of this title would soon dis i . e native msolence of power under foot with atb llself, and they would be trampled exercised upon the ;rc~a~e kr_mnorslelcss violence now ac s anc the slaves. SECTION VI. 1'/te mt'[ t' lary strengt!t of t!te :Slave-!tolding States. The military t h f - teemed of the h' s ~engt o states . has ever been es-of view; since ~f i~s:l Importfl:nce. ~~ a political point states are often I I' p~n thmr military strength that against internal ~; lge II to depend for their defence particular the sla we . as external foes. In this sent an aspect of vet-holdmg states of the South pre-ex reme weakness. |
