Right and Wrong in Politics [pp. 265-293]

THE PRINCE TON RE VIE W.
authority of the state at a given moment rests, that authority
has cast upon it as its first duty the completion of the state
itself by developing all the moral possibilities latent in the
people, and to this end facilitating the acquisition of that
organized force which enables the real proclivities and intui tions of the people most easily to express themselves, and most
effectually to be converted into action. Certain practical
corollaries follow from these positions.
In the first place, the existence of SLAVERY in a state is a
certain sign either that the state has its conscience as yet only
very imperfectly developed, or else that it acts habitually and persistently in defiance of the promptings of conscience. Wherever
true slavery is found, there the cardinal political sin, as Coleridge
pointedly described it, is committed of turning a Pierson into a
thing. The denial of human rights thereby implied, even if confined to ever so small a fraction of the community, and even if
accidentally attended by every kind of modification and even humane compensation, is an outrage which can never be extenuated.
The history, indeed, not only of the most enlightened Pagan
nations, but of modern nations otherwise Christian, has shown
the terrible inertness of the ruling portion of the community
when brought face to face with classes of persons who either, by
past conquests or long-inherited traditions, are found in a condition which is very favorable to the present well-being, or at
least material enrichment, of all other persons but themselves.
Experience has shown that the temptations to moral self-delusion, and even to religious casuistry, for the purpose of forging,
pretexts for an institution incompatible with every idea of a true
humanity, with all the free moral and spiritual elements comprised in the term, are facile and ever at hand to an extent
which will probably dismay our posterity even to a greater
extent than it does our more hardened selves.
What is true of slavery is true in only a less conspicuous
degree of every denial of full political rights which is based on
any other necessity than those contained in the disabling
infirmities of age, mental infirmity, and penal disfranchisemient.
If the state has, in truth, all the essential elements of a moral
and spiritual structure, this structure can only be composed out
of the contributive humanity of every individual atom of the
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