A Southern Republic and a Northern Democracy [pp. 283-290]

A Southern Republic and a Northern Democracy.
tending its roots through every ramification of our system, moulds every feature,
and unites every constituent memrber, until,
as we are at present constituted, there is
no.possible ground upon which to erect a
wall of division between separate classes
and interests. In that sense, in which one
is an aristocrat, every citizen may become
an aristocrat, inasmuch as all are interested
in the security of that institution which
creates the aristocracy.
The North carrying out to its legitimate
conclusion, the pernicious doctrine of the
-Declaration of Independence, that " all
men are born free and equal," recognizing
no distinction whatever of race, intellect,
or character, witnesses in its fullest developinent, that never-ending conflict of
classes, between the rich and the poor,.
those who has e accumulated property,
and the breadless pauper, the "codfish"
element, and the idle, starving "ssans culottes." And this perpetual strife between
the conservative elements, property and
intelligence, and the revolutionary materials, ignorance and indigence, will continue
to agitate Northern society, until the
bloody drama of the Parisian massacres
shall be re-enacted in the streets of their
cities, and a whirlwind of passion and
strife shalla 1 sweep over their land, with such
scenes of bloodshed and desolation, as
have never been rivalled, save in the annals of revolutionary France.
spects, the inferior of the governing class,
and who, if not " conscriptr glebre," are, at
least, entirely subservient to the will of
the governing race. Slavery at the Nortla
is a deliber ate s yste m of o ppre ssion by a
class over those who are intellectually,
morally, and politically, their equlals. At
the South it is a benevolent system of tutelage by a superior over an inferior race.
The difference is similar to that of the
condition of Rome before and after the admission of the aliens, freed-men, and
slaves, to the rolls of citizenship. The
latter condition, with all its faction, tumult, and corruption, clearly pictures the
present phase of Northern society. while
the South, like that original "Popuilus Romanus," is pure and unidefile(l; her patrician blood uncorrupted by the degenerate
current of an inferior rate.
This view, which wre did not design to
be elaborate, will, we trust, answer its purpose, not only to indicate the "irrepressible conflict" between the social establishment of the two sections, but to demonstrate that, differing not so muchi in their
actual political frame work, as in their
characteristic social features, the Nortlh
anti the South now represent, the one a
social anaI political Democracy, the other
a social Aristocracy.
It may be suggested that we are incoiusistent in thus characterizing as a Democracy, a political condition which has resulted in Lincoln's despotism, a palpable
and violent usurpation of tyrannical power.
We see nothing inconsistent in the establishment of an usurped tyranny, following
a tri'umph of Democracy.'History teaches,
that the one is the entirely legitimate, if
not inevitable sequel of the other. It is a
noticeable fact, verified in the history of
almost every violent despotism, that the
tyrant began his usurpation with an affectation of extreme solicitude for the rights
of the people. Julius Caesar, the most
detestable of tyrants, and worst of men, at
the very moment of marching his army
into Italy, with the completion of every
preparation for the possession of absolute
power, protested that his mission was the
restoration of the Tribunition authority,
the great palladium of popular privilege.
IMA'Y
286
The South, on the other band, by a fortunate dispensation o Providence, has, in
place of that t-,-irbulent factious element.
known at the North as the 11 workinb,
class," and devoted to the menial pursuits
of bondsman in all countries where slavery is tolerated, a class of population noted
for its wantef enterprise, intellect, or any
quality which could inalce it a disturbing
element of society, and peculiarl? adapted
to a condition of absolute subordination,
by a characteristic docility, and inability
to provide for its own wants when beyond
the control of the superior race.
Then in the De)-iiocracy of the Nortb.l
we witness slavery no less than in the Aristocracy of. the South., The difference,
Ilowever, is essential. Slavery at the
South embraces those who are, ifi all re