The Two Aristocracies of America [pp. 461-465]

THE TWO ARISTOCRACIES OF AMERICA.
the pride of his land. He, the great Critic and Interpreter of
Shakspeare, could, doubtless, have created a novel upon the
plan and with the power of Shakspeare: but Faust has no
counterpart in prose, for Wilhlelmn Meister is no more a great
novel than it is a great steeple!
Victor Hlugo is yet alive —and, dissenting vehemently, as
sons of Englishmen and Conservatives, from his frequent heresies, we can never take his great work, Les Mis6rables, into
our hands except with profound deference and unaffected emotion. Let men say what they will as to the character of this
extraordinary book, it is plainly stamped with the broad seal
of genius. Since Shakspeare wrote his Lear, no such moving
scenes of passionate humanity have thrilled the hearts of men.
ART. III.-THE TWO ARISTOCRACIES OF AMIERICA.
THE term Aristocracy is usually considered only to be strictly applicable to an hereditary nobility. To a class of men entitled to govern, not because of superior wisdomn or merit of
any kind, nor of superior wealth, but by virtue of blood or
descent. Yet the advocates of such an aristocracy contend
with great force of argument and powerful array of facts and
authorities, that an aristocracy of blood, founded, as such aristocracies always are, on the courage, bearing, wisdom, and
wealth of its original members, will furnish better and far safer
rulers, than the people at large would ever select. Practically,
this difference of opinion between the Demnocratic and Aristocratic theories of government seems compromised in Europe,
by leaving the chief executive department of government to be
filled on the principle of hereditary aristocracy of blood, whilst
most of the inferior offices, especially the legislative, shall be
selected for presumed merit, either directly or indirectly, by the
the people.
Such an aristocracy as this has never existed in our America; and no institution is so odious to us, nor so little understood by us. Yet, in thle metaphorical sense, we have thousands of aristocracies amnong us, none the less real, and many
of them far more insidious and dangerous because metaphorical. All wealth is hereditary, all a special privilege, and confers actual power-power of the most odious kind-that of conmrnanding the labor of the working classes, without paying for
it; for the rich retain their capital, only emrnploying, it as a
means or instrument to command labor without paying for it.
Wherever this process is seen, and can be understood by the
461