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diff --git a/old/50755-8.txt b/old/50755-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index c419257..0000000 --- a/old/50755-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1867 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Most Bitter Foe of Nations, and the Way -to Its Permanent Overthrow, by Andrew Dickson White - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: The Most Bitter Foe of Nations, and the Way to Its Permanent Overthrow - -Author: Andrew Dickson White - -Release Date: December 23, 2015 [EBook #50755] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOST BITTER FOE *** - - - - -Produced by Donald Cummings, Bryan Ness, Diane Monico, and -the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned -images of public domain material from the Google Books -project.) - - - - - - - - - - - -The most Bitter Foe of Nations, and the Way to its -Permanent Overthrow. - - -AN - -ADDRESS, - -DELIVERED BEFORE THE - -PHI BETA KAPPA SOCIETY, - -AT - -YALE COLLEGE, JULY 25, 1866, - -BY - -ANDREW D. WHITE. - - -NEW HAVEN: -THOMAS H. PEASE, 323 CHAPEL STREET. -T. J. STAFFORD, PRINTER. - -1866. - - - - - NEW HAVEN, _July 26, 1866_. - -DEAR SIR, - -The undersigned have been appointed by the PHI BETA KAPPA SOCIETY a -Committee to render you the cordial thanks of the Society for your -admirable Address, delivered last evening, and to request a copy for -the Press. - - Respectfully and truly yours, - - A. C. TWINING, - - G. P. FISHER. - -Professor WHITE. - - - STATE OF NEW YORK, - - _Senate Chamber_, - - _Albany, Aug. 30th, 1866_. - -GENTLEMEN, - -Accept my thanks for the very kind expressions regarding the Address -which, in accordance with the request conveyed by you, I forward -herewith. - - With great respect, - - Very truly yours, - - A. D. WHITE. - -Professors A. C. TWINING and - G. P. FISHER. - - - - -ADDRESS. - - -In this sacred struggle and battle of so many hundred years,--this -weary struggle of truths to be recognized,--this desperate battle -of rights to be allowed;--in this long, broad current toward more -truth and more right, in which are seen the hands of so many good and -bad and indifferent men,--and in the midst of all, and surrounding -all, the hand of very God,--what political institution has been most -vigorous against this current,--what political system has been most -noxious to political truth and right?--in short, what foe, in every -land, have right and liberty found it hardest to fight or outwit? - -Is it Ecclesiasticism?--is it Despotism?--is it Aristocracy?--is it -Democracy? - -The time allotted me this evening I shall devote to maintaining the -following Thesis: - - OF ALL SYSTEMS AND INSTITUTIONS, THE MOST VIGOROUS IN - BATTLING LIBERTY,--THE MOST NOXIOUS IN ADULTERATING - RIGHT,--THE MOST CORROSIVE IN EATING OUT NATIONALITY, HAS - BEEN AN ARISTOCRACY BASED UPON HABITS OR TRADITIONS OF - OPPRESSION. - -I shall also attempt to deduce from the proofs of this a corollary, -showing _the only way in which such an Aristocracy ever has been or -ever can be fought successfully and put down permanently_. - -Let me first give this Thesis precision. - -I do not say that Aristocracy, based upon habits and traditions -of oppression, is the foe which takes deepest hold;--Despotism -and Ecclesiasticism are dragons which get their claws far deeper -into the body politic;--for Despotism clutches more temporal, and -Ecclesiasticism more eternal interests. - -Nor do I say that Aristocracy is the enemy most difficult to find and -come at. Demoralization in Democracy is harder to find and come at; -for demoralization in Democracy is a disease, and lurks,--Aristocracy -is a foe, and stands forth--bold; Demoralization is latent, and -political doctors disagree about it,--Aristocracy is patent, and men -of average sense soon agree about it. - -But the statement is that Aristocracy, based upon oppression, is, of -all foes to liberty the most vigorous, of all foes to rights the most -noxious, and of all foes to nationality the most corrosive. - -Other battles may be longer;--but the battle with Aristocracy is the -sharpest which a nation can be called upon to wage,--and as a nation -uses its strength during the contest--and _as it uses its wits after -the contest_--so shall you find its whole national life a success or a -failure. - -For my proofs I shall not start with _a priori_ reasoning:--that -shall come in as it is needed in the examination of historical -facts. You shall have the simple, accurate presentation of facts -from history--and plain reasoning upon these facts--and from Ancient -History, rich as it is in proofs, I will draw nothing!--all shall be -drawn from the history of modern States--the history of men living -under the influence of great religious and political ideas which are -active to-day--and among ourselves. - -Foremost among the examples of the normal working of an Aristocracy -based upon the subjection of a class, I name SPAIN. I name her -first--not as the most striking example, but as one of those in which -the evil grew most naturally, and went through its various noxious -phases most regularly. - -The fabric of Spanish nationality had much strength and much beauty. -The mixture of the Barbarian element with the Roman, after the Roman -downfall, was probably happier there than in any other part of Europe. -The Visigoths gave Spain the best of all the barbaric codes. Guizot -has shown how,[1] as by inspiration, some of the most advanced ideas -of modern enlightened codes were incorporated into it. - -The succeeding history of the Spanish nation was also, in its main -sweep, fortunate. There were ages of endurance which toughened the -growing nation,--battles for right which ennobled it;--disasters which -compacted manliness and squeezed out effeminacy. - -This character took shape in goodly institutions. The city growth -helped the growth of liberty, not less in Spain than in her sister -nations. Cities and towns became not merely centres of prosperity, but -guardians of freedom.[2] - -Then came, perhaps, the finest growth of free institutions in Mediæval -Europe. - -The Cortes of Castile was a representative body nearly a hundred years -before Simon de Montfort laid the foundations of English parliamentary -representation at Leicester.[3] The Commons of Arragon had gained yet -greater privileges earlier. - -Statesmen sat in these--statesmen who devised curbs for monarchs, -and forced monarchs to wear them. The dispensing power was claimed -at an early day by Spanish Kings as by Kings of England;--but Hallam -acknowledges[4] that the Spaniards made a better fight against this -despotic claim than did the English. The Spanish established the -Constitutional principle that the King cannot dispense with statutes -centuries before the English established it by the final overthrow of -the Stuarts. - -Many sturdy maxims, generally accounted fruit of that early English -boldness for liberty, are of that earlier Spanish period. "No taxation -without representation" was a principle asserted in Castile early, -often and to good purpose. In Arragon no war could be declared,--no -peace made,--no money coined without consent of the Cortes.[5] - -The "Great Privilege of Saragossa" gave quite as many, and quite as -important liberties to Arragon as were wrested from King John for -England in the same century. - -Such is a meagre sketch of the development of society at large. As -regards the other development which goes to produce civilization--the -development of individual character, the Spanish peninsula was not -less distinguished. In its line of monarchs were Ferdinand III., -Alfonso X., James II., and Isabella;--in its line of statesmen were -Ximenes and Cisneros--worthy predecessors of that most daring of all -modern statesmen, Alberoni. The nation rejoiced too in a noble line of -poets and men of letters.[6] - -Still more important than these brilliant exceptions was the tone of -the people at large. They were tough and manly.[7] - -No doubt there were grave national faults. Pride--national and -individual--constantly endangered quiet. Blind submission to -Ecclesiastical authority was also a fearful source of evil! Yet, -despite these, it is impossible not to be convinced, on a careful -reading of Spanish history, that the influence which tore apart -States,--which undermined good institutions,--which defeated -justice,--which disheartened effort,--which prevented resistance to -encroachments of Ecclesiasticism and Despotism--nay, which made such -encroachments a _necessity_--came from the _nobility_. - -The Spanish nobility had risen and become strong in those long -wars against the intruding Moors,--they had gained additional -strength in the wars between provinces. They soon manifested -necessary characteristics. They kept Castile in confusion by -their dissensions,--they kept Arragon in confusion by their -anti-governmental unions. - -Accustomed to lord it over inferiors, they could brook no -opposition,--hence all their influence was Anarchic; accustomed to no -profitable labor of any sort, their influence was for laziness and -wastefulness;--accustomed to look on public matters as their monopoly, -they devoted themselves to conjuring up phantoms of injuries and -insults, and plotting to avenge them. - -Every Aristocracy passes through one, and most Aristocracies through -both of two historic phases. - -The first may be called the _Vitriolic_,--the period of intense, -biting, corrosive activity,--the period in which it gnaws fiercely -into all institutions with which it comes into contact,--the period in -which it decomposes all elements of nationality. - -In Spain this first period was early developed and long continued. -Grandees and nobles bit and cut their way into the Legislative -system,--by brute force, too, they crushed their way through the -Judicial system,--by judicious mixtures of cheating and bullying they -often controlled the Executive system. - -Chapter after chapter of Mariana's history begins with the story of -their turbulence, and ends with the story of its sad results;--how -the nobles seized King James of Arragon;--how the Lara family usurped -the Government of Castile;--how the houses of Lara, Haro, Castro and -their peers are constantly concocting some plot, or doing some act to -overthrow all governmental stability. - -But their warfare was not merely upon Government and upon each -other;--it was upon the people at large. Out from their midst comes a -constant voice of indignant petitions. These are not merely petitions -from serfs. No! history written in stately style has given small place -to their cries;--but the great flood of petitions and remonstrances -comes from the substantial middle class, who saw this domineering -upper class trampling out every germ of commercial and manufacturing -prosperity. - -Such was the current of Spanish history. I now single out certain -aristocratic characteristics bedded in it which made its flow so -turbulent. - -Foremost of these was that first and most fatal characteristic of all -aristocracies based on oppression--_the erection of a substitute for -patriotism_. - -Devotion to caste, in such circumstances, always eats out love of -country. A nobility often fight for their country--often die for -it;--but in any supreme national emergency,--at any moment of moments -in national history the rule is that you are sure to find them -asking--not "What is my duty to my country?" but "_What is my duty to -my order?_" - -Every crisis in Spanish history shows this characteristic,--take one -example to show the strength of it. - -Charles the Fifth was the most terrible of all monarchic foes to the -old Spanish institutions. The nobles disliked him for this. They also -disliked him still more as a foreigner. Most of all they disliked him -because the tools he used in overturning Spain were foreigners. - -Against this detested policy the cities of the kingdom planned a -policy thoughtful and effectual. Cardinal Cisneros favored it,--the -only thing needed was the conjunction of the nobles. They seemed -favorable--but at the supreme moment they wavered. The interest of the -country was clear;--but _how as to the interests of their order_? They -began by fearing encroachments of the people;--they ended by becoming -traitors, allowed the battle of Villalar to be lost--and with it the -last chance of curbing their most terrible enemy.[8] - -Another characteristic was _the development of a substitute for -political morality_. - -These nobles were brave. The chronicles gave them plentiful supply of -chivalric maxims, and they carried these out into chivalric practices. -Their quickness in throwing about them the robes of chivalry was only -excelled by their quickness in throwing off the garb of ordinary -political morality. They could die for an idea, yet we constantly see -among them acts of bad faith--petty and large--only befitting savages. - -John Alonzo de la Cerda, by the will of the late King, had been -deprived of a certain office; he therefore betrays the stronghold -of Myorga to the new King's enemies.[9] Don Alonzo de Lara had -caused great distress by his turbulence. Queen Berengaria writes an -account of it to the King. Don Alonzo does not scruple to waylay the -messenger, murder him, and substitute for the true message a forgery, -containing an order in the Queen's hand for the King's murder.[10] -Of such warp and woof is the history of the Spanish aristocracy--the -history of nobles whose boast was their chivalry. - -How is this to be accounted for? Mainly by the fact, I think, that the -pride engendered by lording it over a subject class lifts men above -ordinary morality. If commonplace truth and vulgar good faith fetter -that morbid will-power which serf-owning gives, truth and good faith -must be rent asunder. - -The next characteristic was _the erection of a theory of easy treason -and perpetual anarchy_. - -Prescott calls this whimsical; he might more justly have called it -frightful. - -For this theory, which they asserted, maintained, and finally brought -into the national notion and custom was, that in case they were -aggrieved--_themselves being judges_--they could renounce their -allegiance, join the bitterest foes of king and nation,--plot and -fight against their country,--deluge the land in blood,--deplete the -treasury; and yet that the King should take care of the families they -left behind, and in other ways make treason pastime. - -Spanish history is black with the consequences of this theory. Mariana -drops a casual expression in his history which shows the natural -result, when he says: "The Castro family were _much in the habit_ of -revolting and going over to the Moors."[11] - -The absurdity of this theory was only equaled by its iniquity. - -For it involved three ideas absolutely fatal to any State--_the right -of peaceable secession--the right of judging in their own cause, and -the right of committing treason with impunity_. Now, any nation which -does not, when stung by such a theory, throttle it, and stamp the life -out of it, is doomed. - -Spain did not grapple with it. She tampered with it, truckled to it, -compromised with it. - -This nursed another characteristic in her nobility, which is sure to -be developed always under like circumstances. This characteristic was -_an aristocratic inability to appreciate concessions_. - -The ordinary sort of poor statesmanship which afflicts this world -generally meets the assumptions and treasons of a man-mastering caste -by concessions. The commercial and manufacturing classes love peace -and applaud concessions. But concessions only make matters worse. -Concessions to a caste, based upon traditions of oppression, are -but fuel to fire. The more privileges are given, the higher blazes -its pride, and pride is one of the greatest causes of its noxious -activity. Concessions to such a caste are sure to be received as -tributes to its superiority. Such concessions are regarded by it not -as favors but as rights, and no man ever owed gratitude for a right. - -There remained then but one way of dealing with it,--that was by -overwhelming force; and at the end of the Fifteenth Century that force -appeared. The encroachments upon regular central government produced -the same results in Spain as in the rest of Europe at about the same -time. - -To one not acquainted with previous history, but looking thoughtfully -at the fifteenth century, it must seem strange that just at that -time--as by a simultaneous and spontaneous movement--almost every -nation in Europe consolidated power in the hands of a monarch. -In France, in England, in Italy, as well as in Spain, you see -institutions, liberties, franchises, boundaries sacrificed freely -to establish despotism. You see Henry VII. in England, Louis XI. -in France, Charles V., a little later, in Germany and Italy, -Ferdinand and Isabella in Spain--almost all utterly unlovely and -unloved--allowed to build up despotisms in all cases severe, and -in most cases cruel. Why? Because the serf-owning caste had become -utterly unbearable; because one tyrant is better than a thousand. - -Then the Spanish nobility went into the next phase. Ferdinand, Charles -the Fifth, Philip the Second--three of the harshest tyrants known -to history,--having crushed out the boldness and enterprise of the -aristocracy it passed from what I have called the _Vitriolic_ into -what might be called the _Narcotic period_. - -A period this was in which the noble became an agent in stimulating -all evil tendencies in the monarch, and in stupefying all good -tendencies in the people. - -The caste spirit was a drug infused into the body politic, rendering -inert all its powers for good. Did Charles the Fifth insult and depose -Ximenes,--the nation sleepily permitted it; did Philip the Second lay -bigot plans which brought the kingdom to ruin,--the nation lazily -fawned upon him for it;[12] did Philip III. and his successors allow -the nation to sink into contempt,--there was no voice to raise it. - -Do you say that this resulted from Ecclesiasticism? I answer that -the main reason why Ecclesiasticism became so strong was because it -sheltered the lower class from the exactions of the Aristocracy. Do -you say that it resulted from Despotism? I answer that Despotism -became absolute in order to save the nation from the turbulence of the -Aristocracy.[13] - -No single Despotism, either in Church or State, could by itself -have broken that well-knit system of old Spanish liberties. It was -the growth of an oppressive caste, who by their spirit of disunion -made Despotism possible, and by their spirit of turbulence made it -necessary. - -The next nation in which I would show the working of a caste with -traditions of oppression is ITALY. - -Man-owners had cost Italy dear already. Roman serf-culture had -withered all prosperity in the country; slave service had eaten out -all manliness from the city. - -It is one of the most pregnant facts in history, and one which, so -far as I know, has never been noted, that whereas the multitude who -have written upon the subject have assigned innumerable causes for the -decline and downfall of the Roman nation, _not one of any note has -failed to name, as a cause, Roman slavery_. As to other causes they -disagree--on this alone all agree. - -The philosophers Montesquieu[14] and Gibbon,[15] the economist -Sismondi,[16] the _doctrinaire_ Guizot,[17] the republican -Michelet,[18] the eclectic Schlosser,[19] high tory Alison,[20] -moderate Merivale,[21] democrat Bancroft,[22] _quasi_ conservative, -_quasi_ liberal Charles Kingsley,[23] wide apart as the poles on all -else, agree to name as a cause of Roman ruin the system of forced -labor. - -But after the Roman downfall the straggle of Italy with her upper -caste seems singularly fortunate. At an early day her cities by -commerce became rich and strong. Then in the natural course of -things--first, free ideas, next, free institutions, next, war upon the -nobles to make them respect these ideas and institutions. - -The war of municipalities against nobles was successful. Elsewhere -in Europe cities sheltered themselves behind lords; in Italy lords -sheltered themselves in cities. Elsewhere the lord dwelt in the castle -_above_ the city; in Italy the lord was forced to dwell in his palace -_within_ the city.[24] - -The victory of freedom seemed complete. The Italian republics were -triumphant; the nobility were, to all appearance, subdued. - -But those republics made a fearful mistake. They had a great chance -to destroy caste and lost it. They allowed the old caste spirit to -remain, and that evil leaven soon renewed its work. The republics -showed generalship in war, but in peace they were outwitted. - -First, the nobles insisted on pretended rights within the city, and -stirred perpetual civil war to make these rights good.[25] - -Beaten at this they had yet a worse influence. Those great free -cities would not indeed allow the nobles to indulge in private wars, -but gradually the cities caught the infection from the nobles. The -cities caught their aristocratic spirit of jealousy,--took nobles as -leaders,--ran into their modes of plotting and fighting, and what I -have called the _Vitriolic_ period set in. - -Undoubtedly some of this propensity came from other causes, but the -main cause was this domineering aristocracy in its midst, giving tone -to its ideas. Free cities in other parts of Europe disliked each -other,--a few fought each other,--but none with a tithe of the insane -hate and rage shown by the city republics of Italy.[26] - -Hence arose that political product sure to rise in every nation where -an aristocracy shape policy, the _Spirit of Disunion_. Its curse has -been upon Italy for five hundred years. Dante felt it when he sketched -the torments of Riniero of Corneto and Riniero Pazzo,[27] and the -woes brought on Florence by the feuds of the Neri and Bianchi.[28] -Sismondi felt it when his thoughts of Italian disunion wrung from -his liberty-loving heart a longing for Despotism.[29] All Italy felt -it when Genoa, in these last years, solemnly restored to Pisa the -trophies gained in those old civil wars, and hung them up in the Campo -Santo behind the bust of Cavour. - -No other adequate reason for the chronic spirit of disunion in Italy -than the oppressive aristocratic spirit can be given. Italy was -blest with every influence for unity;--a most favorable position and -conformation, boundaries sharply defined on three sides by seas and on -the remaining side by lofty mountains, a great devotion to trade, a -single great political tradition, a single great religious tradition, -both drawing the nation toward one great central city. - -Had Italy been left to herself without the disturbing influence of -this chivalric, uneasy, plotting, fighting caste, who can doubt that -petty rivalries would have been extinguished and all elements fused -into a great, strong Nationality? - -Turn from this history and construct such a society with your own -reason. You shall find it all very simple. Put into energetic free -cities or states a body of men accustomed to lord it over an inferior -caste, whose main occupation is to brood over wrongs and to hatch -revenges, and you ensure disunion between that state and sister states -speedily. To such men every movement of a sister state is cause for -suspicion, every betterment cause for quarrel. - -But you ensure more than that. Under such circumstances _disunion is -always followed by disintegration_. They are two inevitable stages -of one disease. In the first stage the idea of country is lost; in -the second, the idea of government is lost; disintegration is closely -followed by Anarchy, and Despotism has generally been the only remedy. - -To Italy in this strait despotism was the remedy. Disunion between -_all_ Italian Republics was followed by disintegration between -factions in _each_ Italian Republic. A multitude of city tyrants rose -to remedy disintegration,--a single tyrant rose above all to remedy -disunion. - -These were welcomed because they at least mitigated anarchy. If a -Visconti or a Sforza was bad at Milan, he was better than a multitude -of tyrants. If the Scala were severe at Verona, they were less severe -than the crowd of competitors whom they put down. If Rienzi was -harsh at Rome, he was milder than the struggles of the Colonna and -Orsini,--if the Duke of Athens was at once contemptible and terrible -at Athens, he was neither so contemptible nor so terrible as the -feuds of the Cerchi and Donati. - -And when, at last, Charles the Fifth crushed all these seething -polities into a compact despotism, that was better than disunion, -disintegration and anarchy. - -This compression of anarchic elements ended the Vitriolic period of -Italian Aristocracy, but it brought on the Narcotic period. It was the -most fearful reign of cruelty, debauchery and treachery between the -orgies of Vitellius and De Sade. - -Yet those debaucheries and murders among the Borgias and later Medici, -and so many other leading families, were but types of what this second -phase of an oppressive aristocracy _must_ be. - -For the domineering caste-spirit immediately on its repression breaks -out in cruelty. This is historical, and a moment's thought will show -you that it is logical. The development of the chivalric noble into -the cruel schemer is very easily traced. - -Given such a lordling forced to keep the peace, and you have a -character which, if it resigns itself, sinks into debauchery--which, -if it resists, flies into plotting. Now both the debauchee and the -plotter regard bodies and souls of inferiors as mere counters in their -games,--hence they _must_ be cruel.[30] - -I turn now to another nation where the serf-mastering spirit wrought -out its fearful work in yet a different manner, and on a more gigantic -scale,--in a manner so brilliant that it has dazzled the world for -centuries, and blazoned its faults as virtues;--on a scale so great -that it has sunk art, science, literature, education, commerce and -manufactures,--brought misery upon its lower caste,--brought death -upon its upper caste,--and has utterly removed its nation from modern -geography, and its name from modern history. I point you to POLAND. - -Look at Polish history as painted by its admirers,--it is noble and -beautiful. You see political scenes, military scenes, and individual -lives which at once win you. - -Go back three centuries, stand on those old towers of Warsaw,--look -forth over the Plains of Volo. The nation is gathered there. Its King -it elects. The King thus elected is limited in power so that his -main function is to do justice. The whole voting body are _equals_. -Each, too, is _free_. No King, no Noble, is allowed to trench upon -his freedom. So free is each that no will of the majority is binding -upon him, except by his own consent. Here is equality indeed! Equality -pushed so far that each man is not only the equal of every other--but -of all others together;--the equal of the combined nation. - -These men are brave, hardy, and, as you have seen, free, equal, and -allowed more rights than the citizens of any republic before or -since.[31] - -But leave now this magnificent body--stretching over those vast plains -beyond eye-reach. Tear yourselves away from the brave show--the flash -of jeweled sabres and crosiers--the glitter of gilded trappings--the -curvetings of noble horses between tents of silk and banners of -gold-thread. Go out into the country from which these splendid freemen -come. - -Here is indeed a revelation! Here is a body of men whom history -has forgotten. Strangely indeed--for it is a body far larger than -that assembled upon the plains of Volo. _There_ were, perhaps, a -hundred thousand; _here_ are millions. These millions are Christians, -but they are wretchedly clad and bent with labor. They are indeed -stupid,--unkempt,--degraded,--often knavish,--but they love their -country,--toil for her,--suffer for her. - -To them, in times of national struggles, all the weariness,--to them, -in times of national triumphs, none of the honor. - -These are the _serfs_ of those brilliant beings prancing and -caracoling and flashing on yonder plain of Volo--to the applauding -universe. - -Evidently then, there has been a mistake here. History and poetry have -forgotten to mention a fact supremely important. - -The _people_ of Poland are, after all, _not_ free--_not_ equal. The -voting is not voting by the _people_. Freedom and the suffrage are for -_serf-owners_,--equality is between _them_. - -No one can deny that in this governing class were many, very many -noble specimens of manhood--yielding ease and life for ideas--readily. - -Emperor Henry the Fifth of Germany had tried in vain to overcome them -by war. When the Polish ambassador came into his presence, the Emperor -pointed to his weapon, and said, "I could not overcome your nobility -with _these_;"--then pointing to an open chest filled with gold, he -said, "but I will conquer them with _this_." The ambassador wore the -chains and jewels befitting his rank. Straitway he takes off every -ornament, and flings all into the Emperor's chest together. - -Yet myriads of such men could not have averted ruin. Polish history -proved it day by day. - -It was not that these nobles were especially barbarous,--it was not -that they were effeminate. _It was simply that they maintained one -caste above another--allowing a distinction in civil and political -rights._ The system gave its usual luxuriant fruitage of curses. - -_First_ in the _material_ condition. Labor and trade were despised. -If, in the useful class, a genius arose, the first exercise of his -genius was to get himself out of the useful class. Labor was left to -serfs; trade was left to Jews. Cities were contemptible in all that -does a city honor. Villages were huddles. The idea thus implanted -remains. Of all countries, called civilized, Poland seems to-day, -materially, the most hopeless.[32] - -It may be said that this results from Russian invasions;--but it was -so _before_ Russian invasions. It may be said that it results from -Russian oppression,--but the great central districts of Russia are -just as much under the Czar, and they are thriving. It may be said -that Poland has been wasted by war;--but Belgium and Holland and the -Rhine Palatinate have been far more severely wasted, yet their towns -are hives, and their country districts gardens. - -Next, as to the _Political_ condition. - -A man-mastering caste necessarily develops the individual will -morbidly and intensely. The most immediate of political consequences -is, of course, a clash between the individual will and the general -will. - -Trouble then breaks forth in different forms in different countries. -In Spain we saw it take shape in _Secession_;--in Italy we saw it lead -to fearful territorial _Disunion_;--in Poland it first took the form -of _Nullification_. - -The nullifying spirit naturally crystallized into an institution. That -institution was the _Liberum Veto_. - -By this, in any national assemblage--no matter how great, no matter -how important,--the veto of a single noble could stop all proceedings. -Every special interest of every petty district or man had power of -life and death over the general interest. The whim, or crotchet, or -spite of a single man could and did nullify measures vital to the -whole nation. In 1652, Sizinski, a noble sitting in the national diet, -when great measures were supposed to be unanimously determined upon, -left his seat, signifying his dissent. The whole vast machinery was -stopped, and Poland made miserable.[33] - -Closely allied to this was another political consequence. - -Constant, healthful watchfulness over rights is necessary in any -republic; but there is a watchfulness which is not healthful; it is -the morbid watchfulness--the jealousy which arises in the minds of a -superior caste, _living generally in contact with inferiors, and only -occasionally in contact with equals_. - -The Polish citizen lived on his estate. About him were -inferiors,--beings who were not citizens--depending on him--doing him -homage. But when the same citizen entered that Assembly on the Plains -of Volo all this was changed. There he met his equals. Pride then -clashed with pride,--faction rose against faction. - -The result I will not state in my own words, for fear it may be -thought I warp facts to make a historical parallel. I shall translate -word for word from Salvandy: - - "_Confederations_ were now formed--armed leagues of a - number of nobles who chose for themselves a Marshal or - President, and opposed decrees to decrees, force to force; - contending diets which raised leader against leader, and - had the King sometimes as chief, sometimes as captive; - an institution deplorable and insensate, which opened to - all discontented men a legal way to set their country on - fire."[34] - -From the political causes I have named logically flowed another. - -In that perpetual anarchy, some factions must be beaten. But a class -with traditions and habits of oppression is very different, when -beaten, from a society swayed by manufacturing, commercial, and legal -interests. These last try to make some arrangement. They yield, and -fit matters to the new conditions. They are anxious to get back to -their work again. But a class with habits of domineering has its own -peculiar pride to deal with. It has leisure to brood over defeat, to -whine over lost advantages, to fret over lost consideration, and you -generally find it soon plotting more insidiously than before. - -So it was with Poland. The beaten factions did what fighting -aristocracies always do when fearful of defeat, or embittered by -it,--the vilest thing they can do, and the most dangerous--_they -intrigued for foreign intervention_. - -Of all things, this is most fatal to nationality. Going openly over -to the enemy is bad; but intrigues with foreign powers, hostile by -interest and tradition, are unutterably vile. - -Yet there is not a nation where a class pursuing separate and distinct -rights is tolerated, where such intrigues have not been frequent. More -than this, such intrigues have generally been timed with diabolic -sagacity. - -The time chosen is generally some national emergency--when the nation -is writhing in domestic misfortunes, or battling desperately against -foreign foes. The Spanish nobles chose their time for intriguing with -the Moors for their intervention, when the Spanish nation were in the -most desperate struggle--not merely for temporal power, but even for -the existence of their religion. - -In France, the nobles chose such periods as those when Richelieu was -leading the nation against all Europe and a large part of France. In -Poland, the nobles chose the times when the nation was struggling -against absolute annihilation.[35] - -History, to one not blinded by Polish bravery, is clear here. The real -authors of the partition of Poland were not Frederick of Prussia, and -Maria Theresa of Austria, and Catherine of Prussia, but those proud -nobles who drew surrounding nations to intervene in Polish politics. - -The _Social_ condition was also affected naturally. Poland went into -the inevitable narcotic phase. Her court during the reigns of its -later Kings was a brothel, and her nobles its worthy tenants. - -What followed was natural. When the light of the last century streamed -in upon this corrupt mass, Zamoiski and men like him tried to purify -it,--to enfranchise the subordinate caste,--to work reforms. The -Polish Republic refused. Then Providence began a work radical and -terrible. - -It is sad to see those brave citizen-nobles crushed beneath brute -force of Russians, and Austrians, and Prussians. But it was well. -One Alexander the First _would have_ done, one Alexander the Second -_has_ done more good for Poland than ages of citizen serf-masters -flourishing on the Plains of Volo. - -The next nation to which I direct you is FRANCE. - -Of all modern aristocracies, hers has probably been the most -hated.[36] Guizot, in some respects its apologist, confesses this. -Eugenie de Guerin--the most angelic soul revealed to this age--herself -of noble descent--declares that the sight even of a ruined chateau -made her shudder[37] But all that history, rich as it is in -illustrations of the noxious qualities of an oppressive aristocracy, -I will pass, save as it presents the _dealing of statesmen with it_, -their attempts to thwart it and crush it. - -A succession of monarchs and statesmen kept up these attempts during -centuries. Philip Augustus, Louis VI. and Louis VII., Suger, St. -Louis, Philip the Long, all wrought well at this. - -The great thing to notice in that mediaeval French statesmanship is -that _they attacked the domineering caste in the right way_. Every -victory over it was followed not merely by setting serfs free, but by -giving them civil rights, and, to some extent, political rights. When -one of the Kings I have named gave a Charter of Community, he did not -merely make the serf a nominal freedman; he also gave him rights, and -thus wrought him into a bulwark between the central power and the rage -of the former master.[38] - -So far all was good. The great difficulty was that none of those -monarchs or statesmen obtained physical power enough to enforce this -policy throughout France. It was mainly confined to towns. - -But in the middle of the Fifteenth Century came the most persistent -man of all--Louis the Eleventh. He gained power throughout the -kingdom. If a noble became turbulent, he hunted him; if this failed, -he entrapped him. Cages, dungeons, racks, gibbets, he used in -extinguishing this sort of political vermin; and he used them freely -and beneficially. - -His policy seems cruel. Our weak women of both sexes, with whom -the tears of a murderer's mistress outweigh the sufferings of a -crime-ridden community, will think so. It was really merciful. Louis -was, probably, a scoundrel; but he was not a fool, and he saw that the -greatest cruelty he could commit would be to make concessions and try -to _win over_ the nobility. His hard, sharp sense showed him--what -all history shows--that an oppressive caste can be crushed, but that -wheedled and persuaded it cannot be. - -But Louis forgot one thing, and that the most important. Merely -to _defeat_ an aristocracy was not enough. _He forgot to provide -guarantees for the lower classes_--he forgot to put rights into their -hands which should enable them forever to check and balance the upper -class when his hand was removed. You see that this mistake is just the -reverse of that committed by previous statesmen. - -Of course then, after the death of Louis, France relapsed into her -old anarchy. Occasionally a strong King or city put a curb upon the -nobles; but, in the main, it was the old bad history with variations -ever more and more painful. - -Over a hundred years more of this sort went by, and the rule of the -nobles became utterly unbearable. The death of Henry the Fourth, in -1610, left on the throne a weak child as King, and behind the throne -a weak woman as Regent. The nobles wrought out their will completely. -They seized fortifications, plundered towns, emptied the treasury, -domineered over the monarch, and impoverished the people. Curiously -enough, too, to one who has not seen the same fact over and over -in history, the nobles, during all these outrages of theirs, were -declaiming, and groaning, and whining over their grievances and want -of rights.[39] - -Compromise after compromise was made, and to no purpose. No sooner -were compromises made than they were broken. Finally, a great -statesman, recognizing the futility of compromises, gave the -aristocracy battle. This statesman was Richelieu. - -The nobles tried all their modes of working I have shown in other -countries. They tried nullification, secession, disunion. They -intrigued for the intervention of Spain. They preferred caste to -country, and attempted to desert France at the moment of her sorest -need--at the siege of La Rochelle. - -But Richelieu was too strong for them. His victories were magnificent. -While he lived France had peace.[40] - -Yet he makes the same mistake which Louis XI. had made. He defeats the -upper caste; but he guarantees no rights to the lower caste; therefore -he gives France no barrier against that old flood of evils--save his -own hand, and when death removes that, chaos comes again. - -Mazarin now grapples with them. They give him a fearful trial. They -throw France into civil war. They pretend zeal for liberty, and form -an anarchic alliance with the poor old stupid Parliament of Paris. -They make Mazarin miserable. They throw filth upon him, then light him -up with their fireworks of wit, and set the world laughing at him. -Then they drive him out of France; but he is keen and strong, and -finally throws his nets over them, and France has another breathing -time. - -But the nobility if quiet are not a whit more beneficial--they are -virulent and cynical as ever. Mazarin commits the same fault which -Louis XI. and Richelieu had committed before him. - -His mind was keen always, bold sometimes--yet never keen enough to -see, or bold enough to try the policy of giving France a guarantee -of perpetual peace, by raising up that lower class, and giving -them rights, civil and political, which should attach them to the -legitimate government, and make them a balancing body against the -aristocracy. - -It is wonderful! Great men, fighting single-handed against thousands, -clear in foresight and insight, quick in planning, vigorous in -executing, finding every path to advantage, hurling every weighty -missile, seeing everything, daring everything, except that one simple, -broad principle in statesmanship which could have saved France from -anarchy then and from revolution afterwards. - -Gentlemen, it is a great lesson and a plain one. Diplomacy -based on knowledge of the ordinary motives of ordinary men is -strong,--statesmanship based on close study of the interests and -aims of states and classes is strong;--but there is a Diplomacy and -a Statesmanship infinitely stronger. Infinitely stronger are the -Diplomacy and Statemanship whose master is a _heart_,--a heart with an -instinct for truth and right;--a heart with a faith that on truth and -right alone can peace be fitly builded. - -Your common-place Cavour, with his deep instinct for Italian Liberty -and Unity;--your uncouth Lincoln, with his deep instinct for American -Liberty and Unity, are worth legions of compromise builders and -conciliation mongers. - -Mazarin delivered France into the hands of Louis XIV., and Louis -brought them permanently into the narcotic phase. He stupefied them -with sensuality,--attached them to his court,--made his palace the -centre of their ambition,--gave scope to their fancy, by setting -them at powdering and painting and frizzing,--gave scope to their -activity by keeping them at gambling and debauchery,--weaned them from -turbulence by stimulating them to decorate their bodies and to debase -their souls.[41] - -The central power was thus saved;--the people went on suffering as -before. - -Under the Regency of Louis XV. the nobility went from bad to worse. -Their scorn for labor made them despise not merely those who toiled in -Agriculture and Manufactures--it led them logically to openly neglect, -and secretly despise professions generally thought the most honorable. -When Racine ridiculed lawyers,[42] and when Moliere ridiculed -physicians[43] and scholars,[44] they but yielded to this current. - -Wise men saw the danger. Laws were passed declaring that commerce -should not be derogatory to nobility. Abbé Coyer wrote a book to -entice nobles into commerce. It had a captivating frontispiece, -representing a nobleman elegantly dressed going on board a handsome -merchant ship.[45] All in vain. The serf-mastering traditions were too -strong. - -The Revolution comes. The nobles stand out against the entreaties -of Louis XVI.--the statesmanship of Turgot, the financial skill of -Necker,--the keenness of Sieyes,--the boldness of Mirabeau. The very -existence of France is threatened; but they have erected, as nobles -always do, their substitute for patriotism. They stand by their order. -Royalty yields to the third estate,--the clergy yield, the nobility -will not. - -They are at last scared into momentary submission to right and justice -and the spirit of the age. On the memorable Fourth of August they -renounce their most hideous oppressions. - -There is no end of patriotic speeches by these converts to liberty. -The burden of all is the same. They are anxious to give up their -oppressions. It is of no use to struggle longer, they are beaten, they -will yield to save France.[46] Artists illustrate the great event, -some pathetically, some comically.[47] The millennium seems arrived, a -_Te Deum_ is appointed. Yet plain common sense Buchez notes one thing -in all this not so pleasant. In these "transports and outpourings," -(_transports et l'effusion de sentiments genereux_,) one very -important thing has been forgotten. _The nobles forget to give, and -the people forget to take--guarantees._[48] - -Woe to the people who trust merely the word of an upper caste -habituated to oppression! Woe to the statesmen who do not at once -crystallize such promises into constitutional and legislative acts! - -These nobles shortly regretted their concessions and sought to evade -them.[49] The aristocrats whom they represented soon denied the right -of their deputies to make these concessions, and soon after repudiated -them.[50] - -How could it be otherwise? When you speak of concessions by a caste -habituated to oppression, you do not mean that they give away a -single, simple, tangible thing, and that _that_ is the end of it;--not -at all. You mean that they give up old habits of thought,--habits -of action. You mean that every day of their lives thereafter they -are to give up a habit, or a fancy, or a comfort. No mere promises -of theirs to do this can be trusted. There must be guarantees fixed -immutably, bedded into the constitution,--clamped into the laws. That -same anchoring of liberties, and not "_transports et l'effusion de -sentiments genereux_," is statesmanship. - -These concessions were not thus secured. The old habits of oppression -again got the upper hand. The upper class became as hostile to liberty -and peace as ever. - -Then thundered through France the Revolution. It _must_ come;--that -great and good French Revolution which did more to advance mankind in -ten years than had been done politically in ten centuries,--which cost -fewer lives to establish great principles than the Grand Monarque had -flung away to gratify his whimsies! The right hand of the Almighty was -behind it. - -I refuse at the will of English Tory historians to lament more -over the sufferings that besotted caste of oppressors brought upon -themselves during those three years, than over the sufferings they -brought upon the people during three times three centuries.[51] - -The great thing was now partially done which Louis XI. and Richelieu -had left entirely undone. The lower class were not merely freed from -serfdom; they received guarantees of full civil rights.[52] - -So far all was well, but at another point the constituent assembly -stumbled. They were not bold enough to give full _political_ rights. -They thought the peasantry too ignorant--too much debased by a long -servitude, to be entrusted with political rights,--therefore they -denied them, and invented for them "passive citizenship."[53] - -It was skillfully devised, but none the less fatal. The denial -of political rights to the enfranchised was one of the two great -causes of the destruction of the Constitution of 1791, and of the -inauguration of the Reign of Terror. - -Political rights could not be refused long. As they could not be -obtained in peace the freed peasantry never allowed France rest until -it gained them by long years of bloodshed and anarchy. Revolution -after revolution has failed of full results. Dynasty after dynasty has -failed to give quiet until a great statesman in our own time, Napoleon -III., has been bold enough to make suffrage universal. - -Whatever the first French Revolution failed to do, it failed to do -mainly by lack of bold faith in giving _political_ rights;--whatever -it succeeded in doing, it succeeded by giving full _civil_ rights. - -When Louis XVIII. was brought back by foreign bayonets, the nobility -also came back jubilant; all seemed about to give France over to -her old caste of oppressors. The revolution was gone, its great -theories were gone, its great men were swept away by death and by -discouragement worse than death. - -But one barrier stood between France and all her old misery. That -barrier stood firm; it was the enfranchised peasantry--possessing -civil rights and confiscated property in land. Against these the whole -might of the nobility beat in vain. - -Peace came, and with peace prosperity. France had been fearfully -shattered by ages of evil administration and false political economy; -she had been devastated by wars without and within; she had been -plundered of an immense indemnity by the allies; the best of her -people had been swept off by conscriptions; but under the distribution -of lands to the former serfs, and the full guarantee of civil rights -and the germs of political rights, the nation showed an energy in -recuperation and a breadth of prosperity never before known in all -her history. - -There are other nations which, did time allow, might be summoned -before us to aid our insight into the tendencies of castes habituated -to oppression. - -I might show from the annals of Germany how such a caste, having -dragged the country through a thousand years of anarchy, have left -it in chronic disunion,--the loss of all natural consideration, and -oft-recurring civil wars, one of which is now devastating her.[54] - -I might show from the history of Russia how the despotism of the -Autocrat has been made necessary to save the empire from a worse -foe--from a serf-mastering aristocracy. And I might go further and -show how the statesmanship which has emancipated the lower class in -Russia has recognized the great truth that the nation is not safe -against the aristocracy--that no barrier can stand against them except -the enfranchised endowed with rights and lands.[55] - -But I am aware that an objection to this estimate of the noxious -activity of an Aristocracy may be raised from the history of England. - -It may be said that there the course of the nobles has been -different--that some of the hardest battles against tyrants have been -won by combination of nobles, that they have laid the foundations -of free institutions, that, under monarchs who have hated national -liberty, nobles have been among the foremost martyrs. - -Let us look candidly at this. - -It is true that the Earl of Pembroke and the Barons of England led -the struggle for Magna Charta; it is true that the Earl of Leicester -and his associate barons summoned the first really representative -Parliament;[56] it is true that Surrey and Raleigh and Russell -suffered martyrdom at the hands of tyrants. - -It is true, moreover, that English nobles have not generally been so -turbulent in what I have called the Vitriolic period, nor so debased -in the Narcotic period, as most other European Aristocracies. They -were, indeed, very violent in the wars of the Roses,--many of them -were very debased under Charles the Second, and again under the first -and last Georges, and it is quite likely will be again under that very -unpromising ruler, Albert Edward, who seems developing the head of -George the Third and the heart of George the Fourth[57]--but they have -never been quite so violent or debased as the Continental nobles at -similar periods. - -But all this, so far from weakening the thesis I support, strengthens -it--nay, clenches it. - -For the nobility of England, less than any other in Europe, was based -upon the oppression of a subject class. From the earliest period -when law begins to be established in England we find that the serf -system begins to be extinguished. The courts of law quietly adopted -and steadily maintained the principle that in any question between -lord and serf the presumption was in favor of the inferior's right to -liberty rather than the superior's right to property.[58] The whole -current set that way, and we find growing in England that middle -class, steady and sturdy by the possession of rights, which won -Agincourt and Crecy and Marston Moor and Worcester,--which made her -country a garden and her cities marts for the world.[59] - -It is because England had so little of a serf-ruling caste in her -history that she has been saved from so many of the calamities which -have befallen other nations. - -And there is another great difference between England and other -nations, a difference of tremendous import. She has not stopped after -making her lower classes nominally free. She has given them full civil -rights and a constantly increasing share of political rights. Thus she -has made them guardians of freedom. This is the great reason why her -nobility have not destroyed her. This enfranchised class has been a -barrier against aristocratic encroachment. - -And yet in so far as the upper caste of England have partaken of -traditions and habits of oppression they have deeply injured their -country. Not a single great modern measure which they have not -bitterly opposed. - -The Repeal of the Corn Laws, the Abolition of Tests, the Reform Bill, -the improvement of the Universities--these and a score more of great -measures nearly as important, they have fought to the last.[60] - -To them is mainly due that grasping of lands which has brought so much -misery on the working class.[61] - -To them is due that cold-blooded dealing with Lafayette and Bailly and -other patriots of the French Revolution, which finally resulted in the -Brunswick Manifesto and the Reign of Terror. - -To them and their followers is due that most stupid crime which any -nation ever committed in its foreign policy--the bitter, cowardly -injustice toward our own Republic in its recent struggle. - -This is what the _remnant_ of caste-spirit in England has -accomplished, and it is only because it has not been habituated to -oppression by serf-owning, and because it was held in check by a lower -class possessing civil and political rights, that it was not frightful -in turbulence and debauchery. - -So stands modern history as it bears upon the thesis I have proposed. - -It shows a man-mastering caste, even when its man-mastering has passed -from a fact into a tradition, to be the most frequent foe and the most -determined with which nations have to grapple. By its erection of a -substitute for patriotism, it is of all foes the most intractable; -by its erection of a substitute for political morality, the most -deceptive; by its proneness to disunion and disintegration, the most -bewildering; by its habit of calling for the intervention of foreign -powers, the most disheartening; by its morbid sensitiveness over -pretended rights, the most watchful; in its unscrupulousness, the most -determined; by its brilliancy, the most powerful in cheating the world -into sympathy. - -But history gives more than this. To the thesis I have advanced it -gives, as you have seen, a corollary. Having shown what foe to right -and liberty is most vigorous and noxious, it shows how alone that foe -can be conquered and permanently dethroned. The lesson of failures and -successes in the world's history points to one course, and to that -alone. - -Here conquest cannot do it; spasmodic severity cannot do it; wheedling -of material interests, orating up patriotic interests, cannot do it. -History shows just one course. _First, the oppressive caste must be -put down at no matter what outlay of blood and treasure; next, it -must be kept dethroned by erecting a living, growing barrier against -its return to power, and the only way of erecting that barrier is by -guaranteeing civil rights in full, and political rights at least in -germ, to the subject class._ - -Herein is written the greatness or littleness of nations--herein -is written the failure or success of their great struggles. In all -history, those be the great nations which have boldly grappled with -political dragons, and not only put them down but _kept_ them down. - -The work of saving a nation from an oligarchy then is two fold. It -is not finished until both parts are completed. Nations forget this -at their peril. Nearly every great modern revolution wherein has -been gain to liberty has had to be fought over a second time. So it -was with the English Revolution of 1642. So it was with the French -Revolutions of 1789 and 1830. What has been gained by bravery has -been lost by treachery. Nations have forgotten that vigorous fighting -to gain liberty must be followed by sound planning to secure it. - -What is this sound planning? Is it superiority in duplicity? Not at -all; it is the only planning which insists on frank dealing. Is it -based on cupidity? Not at all; it is based on Right. Is it centered -in Revenge? Not at all; its centre is Mercy and its circumference -is Justice. It may say to the discomfited oppressor, you shall have -Mercy; but it must say to the enfranchised, you shall have Justice. - -Acknowledging this, Suger and the great mediaeval statesmen succeeded; -ignoring this, Louis. XI., Richelieu, and a host of great modern -statesmen failed. - -To keep the haughty and turbulent caste of oppressors in their proper -relations, the central authority in every nation has been obliged to -form a close alliance with the down-trodden caste of workers. If these -have been ignorant it has had to instruct them; if they have been -wretched, it has had to raise them; and the simple way--nay, the only -way to instruct and raise them has been to give them rights, civil and -political, which will force them to raise and instruct themselves. - -But it may be said that some subject classes are _too low_ thus to be -lifted--that there are some races too weak to be thus wrought into a -barrier against aristocracy. I deny it. For history denies it. The -race is not yet discovered in which the average man is not better and -safer with rights than without them. - -Think you that _your_ ancestors were so much better than _other_ -subject classes? Look into any town directory. The names show an -overwhelming majority of us descendants of European serfs and -peasantry. I defy you to find any body of men more degraded and stupid -than our ancestors. - -Do you boast Anglo-Saxon ancestry?--look at Charles Kingsley's picture -in Hereward of the great banquet, the apotheosis of wolfishness and -piggishness; or look at Walter Scott's delineation in Ivanhoe of Gurth -the swine-herd, dressed in skins, the brass collar soldered about his -neck like the collar of a dog, and upon it the inscription, "Gurth -the born thrall of Cedric." - -Do you boast French ancestry?--look into Orderic Vital, or Froissart, -or De Comines, and see what manner of man was your ancestor, "_Jacques -Bonhomme_"--kicked, cuffed, plundered, murdered, robbed of the honor -of his wife and the custody of his children, not allowed to wear good -clothing,[62] not recognized as a man and a brother,[63] not indeed in -early times recognized as a man at all.[64] - -Do you boast German ancestry?--look at Luther's letters and see how -the unutterable stupidity of your ancestors vexed him. - -Yet from these progenitors of yours, kept besotted and degraded -through centuries by oppression, have, by comparatively a few years of -freedom, been developed the barriers which have saved modern states. - -Is it said that this bestowal of rights on the oppressed is dangerous? -History is full of proofs that the faith in Heaven's justice which has -led statesmen to solve great difficulties by _bestowing_ rights has -proved far more safe than the attempt to evade great difficulties by -_withholding_ rights.[65] - -Is it said that the anarchic tendencies of an oppressive caste can be -overcome by compromise and barter? History shows that the chances in -trickery and barter are immensely in their favor. - -Is it said that the era of such dangers is past--that _civilization_ -will modify the nature of oppressive castes? That is the most -dangerous delusion of all. In all annals, a class, whether rough -citizens as in Poland, or smooth gentlemen as in France, based on -traditions or habits of oppression, has proved a _reptile caste_. -Its coat may be mottled with romance, and smooth with sophistry, and -glossy with civilization;--it may wind itself gracefully in chivalric -courses; but its fangs will be found none the less venomous, its -attacks none the less cruel, its skill in prolonging its reptile life, -even after seeming death wounds, none the less deceitful. - -Is it said that to grapple with such a reptile caste is dangerous? -History shows not one example where the plain, hardy people have -boldly faced it and throttled it and not conquered it. - -The course is plain, and there it but one. Strike until the reptile -caste spirit is scotched; then pile upon it a new fabric of civil and -political rights until its whole organism of evil is crushed forever. - -For this policy alone speaks the whole history of man,--to this policy -alone stand pledged all the attributes of God. - - * * * * * - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 1: History of Civilization in Europe. Third Lecture.] - -[Footnote 2: Sempere, _Histoire des Cortes d'Espagne_, Chap. 6.] - -[Footnote 3: Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella. Introduction, p. 48.] - -[Footnote 4: Hallam's Hist. of Middle Ages, Vol. 2, p. 30.] - -[Footnote 5: Robertson's Introduction to Life of Charles V., Section -3d; also Prescott.] - -[Footnote 6: What an effect this early liberty had in stimulating -thought can be seen in a few moments by glancing over the pages of -Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature.] - -[Footnote 7: For some statements as to hardy characteristics of -Spanish peasantry, see Doblado's Letters from Spain. Letter 2.] - -[Footnote 8: Sempere, p. 205.] - -[Footnote 9: Mariana Hist. of Spain.] - -[Footnote 10: Mariana, History of Spain.] - -[Footnote 11: Mariana, History of Spain, XIII., 11.] - -[Footnote 12: "There probably never lived a prince who, during so long -a period, was adored by his subjects as Philip II. was." Buckle, Vol. -II., page 21. This explains the popularity of Henry VIII. of England -better than all Froude's volumes, able as they are.] - -[Footnote 13: All this examination into Aristocratic agency in -Spanish decline is left out of Buckle's Summary. He passes at once to -Ecclesiasticism and Despotism; but the unprejudiced reader will, I -think, see that this statement is supplementary to that. In no other -way can any man explain the fatuity of the Spaniards in throwing away -these old liberties.] - -[Footnote 14: _Grandeur et Décadence des Romains_; English translation -of 1784; pp. 109-10. Compare also _L'Esprit des Lois_, liv. xiv., -chap. 1.] - -[Footnote 15: Decline and Fall of Roman Empire, chap. 2.] - -[Footnote 16: Fall of Roman Empire, last part of chap. 1.] - -[Footnote 17: _Histoire de la Civilisation en France_, 2mc Leçon.] - -[Footnote 18: History of Roman Republic, Book III., chap. 1.] - -[Footnote 19: Schlosser, _Weltgeshichte für das Deutsche Volk_; vol. -iv., xiv., 1.] - -[Footnote 20: Essay on the Fall of Rome; Essays, vol. iii., p. 445.] - -[Footnote 21: History of the Romans, vol. vii., pp. 480-81.] - -[Footnote 22: Bancroft's Miscellanies.] - -[Footnote 23: The Roman and the Teuton--Lectures delivered before the -University of Cambridge, p. 20.] - -[Footnote 24: Guizot, _Civilisation en Europe, 10me Leçon_; also -Trollope's History of Florence, vol. 1., chap. 2.] - -[Footnote 25: Trollope's History of Florence, as above.] - -[Footnote 26: Any historical student can easily satisfy himself of the -truth of this statement by comparing the cases given by Barante in -his _Hist. des Ducs de Bourgogne_ with those given by Sismondi in the -_Hist. des Républiques Italiennes_.] - -[Footnote 27: _Inferno_; canto xii., 138.] - -[Footnote 28: _Ibid_; canto vi., 60.] - -[Footnote 29: _Histoire des Républiques Italiennes_, vol. x.] - -[Footnote 30: For the working out of this principle by French and -English nobilities into cruelties more frightful and inexcusable than -any known to the Inquisition, see Orderic Vital Liv. XII. and XIII., -also Barante's _Histoire des Ducs de Bourgogne_.] - -[Footnote 31: For examples of the brilliant side of Polish history -presented, and dark side forgotten, see Chodzko _La Pologne Historique -Monumentale et Pittoresque_. For fair summaries, see Alison's Essay, -and his chapter on Poland, in the History of Europe--the best chapter -in the book. The main authorities I have followed are Rulhière and -Salvandy.] - -[Footnote 32: This statement is based upon my own observations in -Poland in the years 1855-6.] - -[Footnote 33: Rulhière, _Anarchie de Pologne_. Vol. I., page 47.] - -[Footnote 34: Salvandy, _Vie de Jean Sobieski_. Vol. I., page 115.] - -[Footnote 35: The effects of Polish anarchy at home and intrigue -abroad are pictured fully in a few simple touches in the "_Journal du -Voyage de Boyard Chérémétieff_." (_Bibliotheque Russe et Polonaise._) -Vol. IV., page 13.] - -[Footnote 36: To understand the causes of this deep hatred, see -Monteil, _Histoire des Français des divers Etats, Epitre 22_.] - -[Footnote 37: St. Beuve, _Causeries de Lundi_. Also Matthew Arnold's -Essays.] - -[Footnote 38: Guizot, _Civilisation en France, 19me Leçon_; also -_Hüllman's, Staedtewesen des Mittelalters_. Vol. III., Chapter 1.] - -[Footnote 39: For these preposterous complaints and claims see the -_Cahiers de doléances_ quoted in Sir James Stephens' Lectures.] - -[Footnote 40: Some details of Richelieu's grapple with the aristocracy -I have given in the Atlantic Monthly, Vol. ix., page 611.] - -[Footnote 41: For samples of the _mental_ calibre of French nobility -under this regime, see case of Baron de Breteuil, who believed that -Moses wrote the Lord's Prayer. Bayle St. John's translation of St. -Simon, Vol. I., p. 179. For sample of their _moral_ debasement, see -case of M. de Vendome. _Ibid._, Vol. I., p. 187.] - -[Footnote 42: In _Les Plaideurs_.] - -[Footnote 43: _In Le Médecin Malgré lui_, and other plays.] - -[Footnote 44: _In Le Marriage Forcé._] - -[Footnote 45: _La Noblesse Commerçante._ London, 1756.] - -[Footnote 46: For general account, see _Mignet_, or _Louis Blanc_, -or _Thiers_. For speeches in detail, see _Buchez et Roux, Histoire -Parlémentaire_, Vol. II., pp. 224-243.] - -[Footnote 47: _Challamel Histoire-Musée de la République Française_, -Vol. I., pp. 72-75, where some of these illustrations can be found.] - -[Footnote 48: _Buchez and Roux_, Vol. II., p. 231.] - -[Footnote 49: _Mignet_, Vol. I.] - -[Footnote 50: _Histoire de la Révolution Française par Deux Amis de la -Liberté_, Vol. II., p. 228.] - -[Footnote 51: Any American, whose ideas have been wrested Torywise by -Alison, can satisfy himself of the utter inability of an English Tory -to write any history involving questions of liberty, by simply looking -at Chancellor Kent's notes attached to the chapter on America in the -American reprint of Alison's History of Europe.] - -[Footnote 52: _Constitution de 1791, Titre Premier._] - -[Footnote 53: _Constitution de 1791_, Titre III., Sect. 2, Art. 1.] - -[Footnote 54: Any one wishing to see how that inevitable moral -debasement came upon the German aristocracy, and in general what the -oppressive caste came to finally, can find enough in the 2d vol. of -Menzel's History of Germany.] - -[Footnote 55: Gerbertzoff, _Hist. de la Civilisation en Russie_. -Haxthausen, _Etudes sur la Russie_. A full sketch of the Rise and -Decline of the serf system in Russia I have attempted in the Atlantic -Monthly, Vol. X., page 538.] - -[Footnote 56: _Creasy's History of English Constitution_;--but Hume -says of Leicester's Parliament, that it was in the intention of -reducing forever both the King and the people under the arbitrary -power of a very narrow tyranny, which must have terminated either in -anarchy or in violent usurpation and tyranny. Hist. of England, Chap. -XII.] - -[Footnote 57: I perhaps do the last two Georges injustice. Neither of -them would have publicly insulted men of letters and science as the -Prince of Wales has several times done recently.] - -[Footnote 58: Creasy, Chap. IX.] - -[Footnote 59: Fischel on English Constitution, Chap. I., pp. 9, 11. -Also Stephens' Edition of De Lolme.] - -[Footnote 60: For best account of this, see May's Constitutional -History.] - -[Footnote 61: See Kay's Social Condition of English People.] - -[Footnote 62: Among the grievances put forth by the nobles at the -States General of 1614, one was that the wives of the common people -wore too good clothing; another was that an orator of the third -estate had dared call the nobles their brothers. Sir James Stephens' -Lectures.] - -[Footnote 63: Among the grievances put forth by the nobles at the -States General of 1614, one was that the wives of the common people -wore too good clothing; another was that an orator of the third -estate had dared call the nobles their brothers. Sir James Stephens' -Lectures.] - -[Footnote 64: For a very striking summary of this see Henri Martin's -_Hist. de France_, vol. v., p. 193.] - -[Footnote 65: I know of but one plausible exception to this rule--that -of the failure of Joseph II. in his dealings with the Rhine provinces. -The case of Louis XVI. is no exception, for he was always taking back -secretly what he had given openly.] - - * * * * * - - -Transcriber's Notes - - -Minor punctuation errors have been silently corrected. Footnotes have -been reindexed with numbers and moved to the end of the document. - -In Footnote 17: "2mc" is a possible typo for "2me." - (Orig: _Histoire de la Civilisation en France_, 2mc Leçon.) - -In Footnote 18: Changed "Boook" to "Book." - (Orig: History of Roman Republic, Boook III., chap. 1.) - - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Most Bitter Foe of Nations, and -the Way to Its Permanent Overthrow, by Andrew Dickson White - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOST BITTER FOE *** - -***** This file should be named 50755-8.txt or 50755-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/7/5/50755/ - -Produced by Donald Cummings, Bryan Ness, Diane Monico, and -the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned -images of public domain material from the Google Books -project.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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