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diff --git a/9996-8.txt b/9996-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c8e54d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/9996-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1987 @@ +Project Gutenberg's 'Tis Sixty Years Since, by Charles Francis Adams + +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 + + +Title: 'Tis Sixty Years Since + +Author: Charles Francis Adams + +Posting Date: December 10, 2011 [EBook #9996] +Release Date: February, 2006 +First Posted: November 6, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 'TIS SIXTY YEARS SINCE *** + + + + +Produced by Afra Ullah, Sjaani and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + + +"TIS SIXTY YEARS SINCE" + +ADDRESS OF + +CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS + + + +FOUNDERS' DAY, JANUARY 16, 1913 + + + +"'TIS SIXTY YEARS SINCE" + +In the single hour self-allotted for my part in this occasion there is +much ground to cover,--the time is short, and I have far to go. Did I +now, therefore, submit all I had proposed to say when I accepted your +invitation, there would remain no space for preliminaries. Yet something +of that character is in place. I will try to make it brief.[1] + +As the legend or text of what I have in mind to submit, I have given the +words "'Tis Sixty Years Since." As some here doubtless recall, this is +the second or subordinate title of Walter Scott's first novel, +"Waverley," which brought him fame. Given to the world in 1814,--hard on +a century ago,--"Waverley" told of the last Stuart effort to recover the +crown of Great Britain,--that of "The '45." It so chances that Scott's +period of retrospect is also just now most appropriate in my case, +inasmuch as I entered Harvard as a student in the year 1853--"sixty +years since!" It may fairly be asserted that school life ends, and what +may in contradistinction thereto be termed thinking and acting life +begins, the day the young man passes the threshold of the institution of +more advanced education. For him, life's responsibilities then begin. +Prior to that confused, thenceforth things with him become +consecutive,--a sequence. Insensibly he puts away childish things. + +[1] Owing to its length, this "Address" was compressed in delivery, +occupying one hour only. It is here printed in the form in which it was +prepared,--the parts omitted in delivery being included. + +In those days, as I presume now, the college youth harkened to inspired +voices. Sir Walter Scott belonged to a previous generation. Having held +the close attention of a delighted world as the most successful +story-teller of his own or any preceding period, he had passed off the +stage; but only a short twenty years before. Other voices no less +inspired had followed; and, living, spoke to us. Perhaps my scheme +to-day is best expressed by one of these. + +When just beginning to attract the attention of the English-speaking +world, Alfred Tennyson gave forth his poem of "Locksley Hall,"--very +familiar to those of my younger days. Written years before, at the time +of publication he was thirty-three. In 1886, a man of seventy-five, he +composed a sequel to his earlier effort,--the utterance entitled +"Locksley Hall Sixty Years After." He then, you will remember, reviewed +his young man's dreams,--dreams of the period when he + + +" ... dip't into the future, far as human eye could see, +Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be," + + +--threescore years later contrasting in sombre verse an old man's stern +realities with the bright anticipations of youth. Such is my purpose +to-day. "Wandering back to living boyhood," to the time when I first +simultaneously passed the Harvard threshold and the threshold of +responsible life, I propose to compare the ideals and actualities of the +present with the ideals, anticipations and dreams of a past now +somewhat remote. + +To say that in life and in the order of life's events it is the +unexpected which is apt to occur, is a commonplace. That it has been so +in my own case, I shall presently show. Meanwhile, not least among the +unexpected things is my presence here to-day. If, when I entered Harvard +in 1853, it had been suggested that in 1913, I,--born of the New England +Sanhedrim, a Brahmin Yankee by blood, tradition and environment--had it +been suggested that I, being such, would sixty years later stand by +invitation here in Columbia before the faculty and students of the +University of South Carolina, I should under circumstances then existing +have pronounced the suggestion as beyond reasonable credence. Here, +however, I am; and here, from this as my rostrum, I propose to-day to +deliver a message,--such as it is. + +And yet, though such a future outcome, if then foretold, would have +seemed scarcely possible of occurrence, there, after all, were certain +conditions which would have rendered the contingency even at that time +not only possible, but in accordance with the everlasting fitness of +things. For, curiously enough, personal relations of a certain character +held with this institution would have given me, even in 1853, a sense of +acquaintance with it such as individually I had with no other +institution of similar character throughout the entire land. It in this +wise came about. At that period, preceding as it did the deluge about to +ensue, it was the hereditary custom of certain families more especially +of South Carolina and of Louisiana,--but of South Carolina in +particular--to send their youth to Harvard, there to receive a college +education. It thus chanced that among my associates at Harvard were not +a few who bore names long familiarly and honorably known to Carolinian +records,--Barnwell and Preston, Rhett and Alston, Parkman and Eliot; and +among these were some I knew well, and even intimately. Gone now with +the generation and even the civilization to which they belonged, I doubt +if any of them survive. Indeed only recently I chanced on a grimly +suggestive mention of one who had left on me the memory of a character +and personality singularly pure, high-toned and manly,--permeated with a +sense of moral and personal obligation. I have always understood he died +five years later at Sharpsburg, as you call it, or Antietam, as it was +named by us, in face-to-face conflict with a Massachusetts regiment +largely officered by Harvard men of his time and even class,--his own +familiar friends. This is the record, the reference being to a marriage +service held at St. Paul's church in Richmond, in the late autumn of +1862: "An indefinable feeling of gloom was thrown over a most auspicious +event when the bride's youngest sister glided through a side door just +before the processional. Tottering to a chancel pew, she threw herself +upon the cushions, her slight frame racked with sobs. Scarcely a year +before, the wedding march had been played for her, and a joyous throng +saw her wedded to gallant Breck Parkman. Before another twelvemonth +rolled around the groom was killed at the front."[2] Samuel Breck +Parkman was in the Harvard class following that to which I belonged. +Graduating in 1857, fifty-five years later I next saw his name in the +connection just given. It recorded an incident of not infrequent +occurrence in those dark and cruel days. + +It was, however, in Breck Parkman and his like that I first became +conscious of certain phases of the South Carolina character which +subsequently I learned to bear in high respect. + +So far as this University of South Carolina was concerned, it also so +chanced that, by the merest accident, I, a very young man, was thrown +into close personal relations with one of the most eminent of your +professors,--Francis Lieber. Few here, I suppose, now personally +remember Francis Lieber. To most it gives indeed a certain sense of +remoteness to meet one who, as in my case, once held close and even +intimate relations with a German emigrant, distinguished as a publicist, +who as a youth had lain, wounded and helpless, a Prussian recruit, on +the field above Namur. Occurring in June, 1815, two days after Waterloo, +the affair at Namur will soon be a century gone. Of those engaged in +it, the last obeyed the fell sergeant's summons a half score years ago. +It seems remote; but at the time of which I speak Waterloo was +appreciably nearer those in active life than are Shiloh and Gettysburg +now. The Waterloo campaign was then but thirty-eight years removed, +whereas those last are fifty now; and, while Lieber was at Waterloo, I +was myself at Gettysburg. + +[2] DeLeon, "Belles, Beaux and Brains of the Sixties," p. 158. + +Subsequently, later in life, it was again my privilege to hold close +relations with another Columbian,--an alumnus of this University as it +then was--in whom I had opportunity to study some of the strongest and +most respect-commanding traits of the Southern character. I refer to one +here freshly remembered,--Alexander Cheves Haskell,--soldier, jurist, +banker and scholar, one of a septet of brothers sent into the field by a +South Carolina mother calm and tender of heart, but in silent suffering +unsurpassed by any recorded in the annals whether of Judea or of Rome. +It was the fourth of the seven Haskells I knew, one typical throughout, +in my belief, of what was best in your Carolinian development. With him, +as I have said, I was closely and even intimately associated through +years, and in him I had occasion to note that almost austere type +represented in its highest development in the person and attributes of +Calhoun. Of strongly marked descent, Haskell was, as I have always +supposed, of a family and race in which could be observed those virile +Scotch-Irish and Presbyterian qualities which found their +representative types in the two Jacksons,--Andrew, and him known in +history as "Stonewall." To Alec Haskell I shall in this discourse again +have occasion to refer. + +Thus, though in 1853, and for long years subsequent thereto, it would +not have entered my mind as among the probabilities that I should ever +stand here, reviewing the past after the manner of Tennyson in his +"Locksley Hall Sixty Years After," yet if there was any place in the +South, or, I may say, in the entire country, where, as a matter of +association, I might naturally have looked so to stand, it would have +been where now I find myself. + +But I must hasten on; for, as I have said, if I am to accomplish even a +part of my purpose, I have no time wherein to linger. + +Not long ago I chanced, in a country ramble, to be conversing with an +eminent foreigner, known, and favorably known, to all Americans. In the +course of leisurely exchange of ideas between us, he suddenly asked if I +could suggest any explanation of the fact that not only were the +publicists who had the greatest vogue in our college days now to a large +extent discredited, but that almost every view and theory advanced by +them, and which we had accepted as fixed and settled, was, where not +actually challenged, silently ignored. Nor did the assertion admit of +denial; for, looking back through the vista of threescore years, of the +principles of what may be called "public polity" then advanced as +indisputable, few to-day meet with general acceptance. To review the +record from this point of view is curious. + +When in 1853 I entered Harvard, so far as this country and its polity +were concerned certain things were matters of contention, while others +were accepted as axiomatic,--the basic truths of our system. Among the +former--the subjects of active contention--were the question of Slavery, +then grimly assuming shape, and that of Nationality intertwined +therewith. Subordinate to this was the issue of Free Trade and +Protection, with the school of so-called American political economy +arrayed against that of Adam Smith. Beyond these as political ideals +were the tenets and theories of Jeffersonian Democracy. That the world +had heretofore been governed too much was loudly acclaimed, and the +largest possible individualism was preached, not only as a privilege but +as a right. The area of government action was to be confined within the +narrowest practical limits, and ample scope was to be allowed to each to +develop in the way most natural to himself, provided only he did not +infringe upon the rights of others. Materially, we were then reaching +out to subdue a continent,--a doctrine of Manifest Destiny was in vogue. +Beyond this, however, and most important now to be borne in mind, +compared with the present the control of man over natural agencies and +latent forces was scarcely begun. Not yet had the railroad crossed the +Missouri; electricity, just bridled, was still unharnessed. + +I have now passed in rapid review what may perhaps without exaggeration +be referred to as an array of conditions and theories, ideals and +policies. It remains to refer to the actual results which have come +about during these sixty years as respects them, or because of them; +and, finally, to reach if possible conclusions as to the causes which +have affected what may not inaptly be termed a process of general +evolution. Having thus, so to speak, diagnosed the situation, the +changes the situation exacts are to be measured, and a forecast +ventured. An ambitious programme, I am well enough aware that the not +very considerable reputation I have established for myself hardly +warrants me in attempting it. This, I premise. + +Let us, in the first place, recur in somewhat greater detail to the +various policies and ideals I have referred to as in vogue in the +year 1853. + +First and foremost, overshadowing all else, was the political issue +raised by African slavery, then ominously assuming shape. The clouds +foreboding the coming tempest were gathering thick and heavy; and, +moreover, they were even then illumined by electric flashes, accompanied +by a mutter of distant thunder. Though we of the North certainly did not +appreciate its gravity, the situation was portentous in the extreme. + +Involved in this problem of African slavery was the incidental issue of +Free Trade and Protection,--apparently only economical and industrial in +character, but in reality fundamentally crucial. And behind this lay +the constitutional question, involving as it did not only the +conflicting theories of a strict or liberal construction of the +fundamental law, but nationality also,--the right of a Sovereign State +to withdraw from the Union created in 1787, and developed through two +generations. + +These may be termed concrete political issues, as opposed to basic +truths generally accepted and theories individually entertained. The +theories were constitutional, social, economical. Constitutionally, they +turned upon the obligations of citizenship. There was no such thing then +as a citizen of the United States of and by itself. The citizen of the +United States was such simply because of his citizenship of a Sovereign +State,--whether Massachusetts or Virginia or South Carolina; and, of +course, an instrument based upon a divided sovereignty admitted of +almost infinitely diverse interpretation. It is a scriptural aphorism +that no man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and +love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. +And in the fulness of time it literally with us so came about. The +accepted economical theories of the period were to a large extent +corollaries of the fundamental proposition, and differing material and +social conditions. Beyond all this, and coming still under the head of +individual theories, was the doctrine enunciated by Thomas Jefferson in +the Declaration of Independence,--the doctrine that all men were created +equal,--meaning, of course, equal before the law. But the theorist and +humanitarian of the North, accepting the fundamental principle laid down +in the Declaration, gave to it a far wider application than had been +intended by its authors,--a breadth of application it would not bear. +Such science as he had being of scriptural origin, he interpreted the +word "equal" as signifying equal in the possibilities of their +attributes,--physical, moral, intellectual; and in so doing, he of +course ignored the first principles of ethnology. It was, I now realize, +a somewhat wild-eyed school of philosophy, that of which I myself was a +youthful disciple. + +But, on the other hand, beside these, between 1850 and 1860 a class of +trained and more cautious thinkers, observers, scientists and +theologians was coming to the front. Their investigations, though we did +not then foresee it, were a generation later destined gently to subvert +the accepted fundamentals of religious and economical thought, literary +performance, and material existence. The work they had in hand to do was +for the next fifteen years to be subordinate, so far as this country was +concerned, to the solution of the terrible political problems which were +first insistent on settlement; yet, as is now apparent, an initial +movement was on foot which foreboded a revolution world-wide in its +nature, and one in comparison with which the issues of slavery and +American constitutionality became practically insignificant,--in a word, +local and passing incidents. + +Finally, it remains to consider specifically the political theories +then in vogue in their relation to the individual. In this country, it +was the period of the equality of man and individuality in the +development of the type. It was generally believed that the world had +hitherto been governed too much,--that the day of caste, and even class, +was over and gone; and finally, that America was a species of vast +modern melting-pot of humanity, in which, within a comparatively short +period of time, the characteristics of all branches of Indo-Aryan origin +would resolve themselves. A new type would emerge,--the American. These +theories were also in their consequences far-reaching. Practically, 1853 +antedates all our present industrial organizations so loudly in +evidence,--the multifarious trades-unions which now divide the +population of the United States into what are known as the "masses" and +the "classes." As recently as a century ago, it used to be said of the +French army under the Empire, that every soldier carried the baton of +the Field-Marshal in his knapsack. And this ideal of equality and +individuality was fixed in the American mind. + +Not that I for a moment mean to imply that in my belief the middle of +the last century, or the twenty years anterior to the Civil War, was a +species of golden age in our American annals. On the contrary, it was, +as I remember it, a phase of development very open to criticism; and +that in many respects. It was crude, self-conscious and self-assertive; +provincial and formative, rather than formed. Socially and materially +we were, compared with the present era of motors and parlor-cars, in the +"one-hoss shay" and stove-heated railroad-coach stage. Nevertheless, +what is now referred to as "predatory wealth" had not yet begun to +accumulate in few hands; much greater equality of condition prevailed; +nor was the "wage-earner" referred to as constituting a class distinct +from the holders of property. Thus the individual was then +encouraged,--whether in literature, in commerce, or in politics. In +other words, there being a free field, one man was held to be in all +respects the equal of the rest. Especially was what I have said true of +the Northern, or so-called Free States, as contrasted with the States of +the South, where the presence of African slavery distinctly affected +individual theories, no matter where or to what extent entertained. + +Such, briefly and comprehensively stated, having been the situation in +1853, it remains to consider the practical outcome thereof during the +sixty years it has been my fortune to take part, either as an actor or +as an observer, in the great process of evolution. It is curious to note +the extent to which the unexpected has come about. In the first place, +consider the all-absorbing mid-century political issue, that involving +the race question, to which I first referred,--the issue which divided +the South from the North, and which, eight years only after I had +entered college, carried me from the walks of civil life into the +calling of arms. + +And here I enter on a field of discussion both difficult and dangerous; +and, for reasons too obvious to require statement, what I am about to +say will be listened to with no inconsiderable apprehension as to what +next may be forthcoming. Nevertheless, this is a necessary part of my +theme; and I propose to say what I have in mind to say, setting forth +with all possible frankness the more mature conclusions reached with the +passage of years. Let it be received in the spirit in which it +is offered. + +So far, then, as the institution of slavery is concerned, in its +relations to ownership and property in those of the human species,--I +have seen no reason whatever to revise or in any way to alter the +theories and principles I entertained in 1853, and in the maintenance of +which I subsequently bore arms between 1861 and 1865. Economically, +socially, and from the point of view of abstract political justice, I +hold that the institution of slavery, as it existed in this country +prior to the year 1865, was in no respect either desirable or +justifiable. That it had its good and even its elevating side, so far at +least as the African is concerned, I am not here to deny. On the +contrary, I see and recognize those features of the institution far more +clearly now than I should have said would have been possible in 1853. +That the institution in itself, under conditions then existing, tended +to the elevation of the less advanced race, I frankly admit I did not +then think. On the other hand, that it exercised a most pernicious +influence upon those of the more advanced race, and especially upon +that large majority of the more advanced race who were not themselves +owners of slaves,--of that I have become with time ever more and more +satisfied. The noticeable feature, however, so far as I individually am +concerned, has been the entire change of view as respects certain of the +fundamental propositions at the base of our whole American political and +social edifice brought about by a more careful and intelligent +ethnological study. I refer to the political equality of man, and to +that race absorption to which I have alluded,--that belief that any +foreign element introduced into the American social system and body +politic would speedily be absorbed therein, and in a brief space +thoroughly assimilated. In this all-important respect I do not hesitate +to say we theorists and abstractionists of the North, throughout that +long anti-slavery discussion which ended with the 1861 clash of arms, +were thoroughly wrong. In utter disregard of fundamental, scientific +facts, we theoretically believed that all men--no matter what might be +the color of their skin, or the texture of their hair--were, if placed +under exactly similar conditions, in essentials the same. In other +words, we indulged in the curious and, as is now admitted, utterly +erroneous theory that the African was, so to speak, an Anglo-Saxon, or, +if you will, a Yankee "who had never had a chance,"--a fellow-man who +was guilty, as we chose to express it, of a skin not colored like our +own. In other words, though carved in ebony, he also was in the image +of God. + +Following out this theory, under the lead of men to whom scientific +analysis and observation were anathema if opposed to accepted cardinal +political theories as enunciated in the Declaration as read by them, the +African was not only emancipated, but so far as the letter of the law, +as expressed in an amended Constitution, would establish the fact, the +quondam slave was in all respects placed on an equality, political, +legal and moral, with those of the more advanced race. + +I do not hesitate here,--as one who largely entertained the theoretical +views I have expressed,--I do not hesitate here to say, as the result of +sixty years of more careful study and scientific observation, the +theories then entertained by us were not only fundamentally wrong, but +they further involved a problem in the presence of which I confess +to-day I stand appalled. + +It is said,--whether truthfully or not,--that when some years ago John +Morley, the English writer and thinker, was in this country, on +returning to England he remarked that the African race question, as now +existing in the United States, presented a problem as nearly, to his +mind, insoluble as any human problem well could be. I do not care +whether Lord Morley made this statement or did not make it. I am +prepared, however, to say that, individually, so far as my present +judgment goes, it is a correct presentation. To us in the North, the +African is a comparatively negligible factor. So far as Massachusetts, +for instance, or the city of Boston more especially, are concerned, as +a problem it is solving itself. Proportionately, the African infusion is +becoming less--never large, it is incomparably less now than it was in +the days of my own youth. Thus manifestly a negligible factor, it is +also one tending to extinction. Indeed, it would be fairly open to +question whether a single Afro-American of unmixed Ethiopian descent +could now be found in Boston. That the problem presents itself with a +wholly different aspect here in Carolina is manifest. The difference too +is radical; it goes to the heart of the mystery. + +As I have already said, the universal "melting-pot" theory in vogue in +my youth was that but seven, or at the most fourteen, years were +required to convert the alien immigrant--no matter from what region or +of what descent--into an American citizen. The educational influences +and social environment were assumed to be not only subtle, but +all-pervasive and powerful. That this theory was to a large and even +dangerous extent erroneous the observation of the last fifty years has +proved, and our Massachusetts experience is sadly demonstrating to-day. +It was Oliver Wendell Holmes, who, years ago, when asked by an anxious +mother at what age the education of a child ought to begin, remarked in +reply that it should begin about one hundred and fifty years before the +child is born. It has so proved with us; and the fact is to-day in +evidence that this statement of Dr. Holmes should be accepted as an +undeniable political aphorism. So far from seven or fourteen years +making an American citizen, fully and thoroughly impregnated with +American ideals to the exclusion of all others, our experience is that +it requires at least three generations to eliminate what may be termed +the "hyphen" in citizenship. Not in the first, nor in the second, and +hardly in the third, generation, does the immigrant cease to be an +Irish-American, or a French-American, or a German-American, or a +Slavonic-American, or yet a Dago. Nevertheless, in process of tune, +those of the Caucasian race do and will become Americans. Ultimately +their descendants will be free from the traditions and ideals, so to +speak, ground in through centuries passed under other conditions. Not so +the Ethiopian. In his case, we find ourselves confronted with a +situation never contemplated in that era of political dreams and +scriptural science in which our institutions received shape. Stated +tersely and in plain language, so far as the African is concerned--the +cause and, so to speak, the motive of the great struggle of 1861 to +1865--we recognize the presence in the body politic of a vast alien mass +which does not assimilate and which cannot be absorbed. In other words, +the melting-pot theory came in sharp contact with an ethnological fact, +and the unexpected occurred. The problem of African servitude was solved +after a fashion; but in place of it a race issue of most uncompromising +character evolved itself. + +A survivor of the generation which read "Uncle Tom's Cabin" as it week +by week appeared,--fresh to-day from Massachusetts with its Lawrence +race issues of a different character, I feel a sense of satisfaction in +discussing here in South Carolina this question and issue in a spirit +the reverse of dogmatic, a spirit purely scientific, observant and +sympathetic. And in this connection let me say I well remember +repeatedly discussing it with your fellow-citizen and my friend, Colonel +Alexander Haskell, to whom I have already made reference. Rarely have I +been more impressed by a conclusion reached and fixed in the mind of one +who to the study of a problem had obviously given much and kindly +thought. As those who knew him do not need to be told, Alexander Cheves +Haskell was a man of character, pure and just and thoughtful. He felt +towards the African as only a Southerner who had himself never been the +owner of slaves can feel. He regarded him as of a less advanced race +than his own, but one who was entitled not only to just and kindly +treatment but to sympathetic consideration. When, however, the question +of the future of the Afro-American was raised, as matter for abstract +discussion, it was suggestive as well as curious to observe the fixed, +hard expression which immediately came over Haskell's face, as with +stern lips, from which all suggestion of a smile had faded away, he +pronounced the words:--"Sir, it is a dying race!" To express the thought +more fully, Colonel Haskell maintained, as I doubt not many who now +listen to me will maintain, that the nominal Afro-American increase, as +shown in the figures of the national census, is deceptive,--that in +point of fact, the Ethiop in America is incurring the doom which has +ever befallen those of an inferior and less advanced race when brought +in direct and immediate contact, necessarily and inevitably competitive, +with the more advanced, the more masterful, and intellectually the more +gifted. In other words, those of the less advanced race have a fatal +aptitude for contracting the vices, both moral and physical, of the +superior race, in the end leading to destruction; while the capacity for +assimilating the elevating qualities and attributes which constitute a +saving grace is denied them. Elimination, therefore, became in Haskell's +belief a question of time only,--the law of the survival of the fittest +would assert itself. The time required may be long,--numbered by +centuries; but, however remotely, it nevertheless would come. God's mill +grinds slowly, but it grinds uncommon small; and, I will add, its +grinding is apt to be merciless. + +The solution thus most pronouncedly laid down by Colonel Haskell may or +may not prove in this case correct and final. It certainly is not for +me, coming from the North, to undertake dogmatically to pass upon it. I +recur to it here as a plausible suggestion only, in connection with my +theme. As such, it unquestionably merits consideration. I am by no means +prepared to go the length of an English authority in recently saying +that "emancipation on two continents sacrificed the real welfare of the +slave and his intrinsic worth as a person, to the impatient vanity of +an immediate and theatrical triumph."[3] This length I say, I cannot go; +but so far as the present occasion is concerned, with such means of +observation as are within my reach, I find the conclusion difficult to +resist that the success of the abolitionists in effecting the +emancipation of the Afro-American, as unexpected and sweeping as it was +sudden, has led to phases of the race problem quite unanticipated at +least. For instance, as respects segregation. Instead of assimilating, +with a tendency to ultimate absorption, the movement in the opposite +direction since 1865 is pronounced. It has, moreover, received the final +stamp of scientific approval. This implies much; for in the old days of +the "peculiar institution" there is no question the relations between +the two races were far more intimate, kindly, and even absorptive than +they now are. + +That African slavery, as it existed in the United States anterior to the +year 1862, presented a mild form of servitude, as servitude then existed +and immemorially had almost everywhere existed, was, moreover, +incontrovertibly proven in the course of the Civil War. Before 1862, it +was confidently believed that any severe social agitation within, or +disturbance from without, would inevitably lead to a Southern servile +insurrection. In Europe this result was assumed as of course; and, +immediately after it was issued, the Emancipation Proclamation of President +[3] Bussell's (Dr. F.W.) "Christian Theology and Social Progress." +Bampton Lectures, 1905. Lincoln was denounced in unmeasured terms by +the entire London press. Not a voice was raised in its defence. It was +regarded as a measure unwarranted in civilized warfare, and a sure and +intentional incitement to the horrors which had attended the servile +insurrections of Haiti and San Domingo; and, more recently, the +unspeakable Sepoy incidents of the Indian mutiny. What actually occurred +is now historic. The confident anticipations of our English brethren +were, not for the first time, negatived; nor is there any page in our +American record more creditable to those concerned than the attitude +held by the African during the fierce internecine struggle which +prevailed between April, 1861, and April, 1865. In it there is scarcely +a trace, if indeed there is any trace at all, of such a condition of +affairs as had developed in the Antilles and in Hindustan. The attitude +of the African towards his Confederate owner was submissive and kindly. +Although the armed and masterful domestic protector was at the front and +engaged in deadly, all-absorbing conflict, yet the women and children of +the Southern plantation slept with unbarred doors,--free from +apprehension, much more from molestation. + +Moreover, as you here well know, during the old days of slavery there +was hardly a child born, of either sex, who grew up in a Southern +household of substantial wealth without holding immediate and most +affectionate relations with those of the other race. Every typical +Southern man had what he called his "daddy" and his "mammy," his +"uncle" and his "aunty," by him familiarly addressed as such, and who +were to him even closer than are blood relations to most. They had cared +for him in his cradle; he followed them to their graves. Is it needful +for me to ask to what extent such relations still exist? Of those born +thirty years after emancipation, and therefore belonging distinctly to a +later generation, how many thus have their kindly, if humble, kin of the +African blood? I fancy I would be safe in saying not one in twenty. + +Here, then, as the outcome of the first great issue I have suggested as +occupying the thought and exciting the passions of that earlier period, +is a problem wholly unanticipated,--a problem which, merely stating, +I dismiss. + +Passing rapidly on, I come to the next political issue which presented +itself in my youth,--the constitutional issue,--that of State +Sovereignty, as opposed to the ideal, Nationality. And, whether for +better or worse, this issue, I very confidently submit, has been +settled. We now, also, looking at it in more observant mood, in a spirit +at once philosophical and historical, see that it involved a process of +natural evolution which, under the conditions prevailing, could hardly +result in any other settlement than that which came about. We now have +come to a recognition of the fact that Anglo-Saxon nationality on this +continent was a problem of crystallization, the working out of which +occupied a little over two centuries. It was in New England the process +first set in, when, in 1643, the scattered English-speaking settlements +under the hegemony of the colony of Massachusetts Bay united in a +confederation. It was the initial step. I have no time in which to +enumerate successive steps, each representing a stage in advance of what +went before. The War of Independence,--mistakenly denominated the +Revolutionary War, but a struggle distinctly conservative in character, +and in no way revolutionary,--the War of Independence gave great impetus +to the process, resulting in what was known as Federation. Then came the +Constitution of 1787 and the formation of the, so called, United States +as a distinct nationality. The United States next passed through two +definite processes of further crystallization,--one in 1812-1814, when +the second war with Great Britain, and more especially our naval +victories, kindled, especially in the North, the fire of patriotism and +the conception of nationality; the other, half a century later, +presented the stern issue in a concrete form, and at last the complete +unification of a community--whether for better or for worse is no +matter--was hammered by iron and cemented in blood. It is there now; an +established fact. Secession is a lost cause; and, whether for good or +for ill, the United States exists, and will continue to exist, a unified +World Power. Sovereignty now rests at Washington, and neither in +Columbia for South Carolina nor in Boston for Massachusetts. The State +exists only as an integral portion of the United States. That issue has +been fought out. The result stands beyond controversy; brought about by +a generation now passed on, but to which I belonged. + +Meanwhile, the ancient adage, the rose is not without its thorn, +receives new illustration; for even this great result has not been +wrought without giving rise to considerations suggestive of thought. +Speaking tersely and concentrating what is in my mind into the fewest +possible words, I may say that in our national growth up to the year +1830 the play of the centrifugal forces predominated,--that is, the +necessity for greater cohesion made itself continually felt. A period of +quiescence then followed, lasting until, we will say, 1865. Since 1865, +it is not unsafe to say, the centripetal, or gravitating, force has +predominated to an extent ever more suggestive of increasing political +uneasiness. It is now, as is notorious, more in evidence than ever +before. The tendency to concentrate at Washington, the demand that the +central government, assuming one function after another, shall become +imperial, the cry for the national enactment of laws, whether relating +to marital divorce or to industrial combinations,--all impinge on the +fundamental principle of local self-government, which assumed its +highest and most pronounced form in the claim of State Sovereignty. I am +now merely stating problems. I am not discussing the political ills or +social benefits which possibly may result from action. Nevertheless, +all, I think, must admit that the tendency to gravitation and +attraction is to-day as pronounced and as dangerous, especially in the +industrial communities of the North, as was the tendency to separation +and segregation pronounced and dangerous seventy years ago in the South. + +To this I shall later return. I now merely point out what I apprehend to +be a tendency to extremes--an excess in the swinging of our +political pendulum. + +We next come to that industrial factor which I have referred to as the +issue between the Free Trade of Adam Smith and Protection, as inculcated +by the so-called American school of political economists. The phases +which this issue has assumed are, I submit, well calculated to excite +the attention of the observant and thoughtful. I merely allude to them +now; but, in so far as it is in my power to make it so, my allusion will +be specific. I frankly acknowledge myself a Free-Trader. A Free-Trader +in theory, were it in my power I would be a Free-Trader in national +practice. There has been, so far as I know, but one example of absolute +free trade on the largest scale in world history. That one example, +moreover, has been a success as unqualified as undeniable. I refer to +this American Union of ours. We have here a country consisting of fifty +local communities, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from +tropical Porto Rico to glacial Alaska, representing every conceivable +phase of soil, climate and material conditions, with diverse industrial +systems. With a Union established on the principle of absolutely +unrestricted commercial intercourse, you here in South Carolina, and +more especially in Columbia, are to-day making it, so to speak, +uncomfortable for the cotton manufacturer in New England; and I am glad +of it! A sharp competition is a healthy incentive to effort and +ingenuity, and the brutal injunction, "Root hog or die!" is one from +which I in no way ask to have New England exempt. When Massachusetts is +no longer able to hold its own industrially in a free field, the time +will, in my judgment, have come for Massachusetts to go down. With +communities as with children, paternalism reads arrested development. +One of the great products of Massachusetts has been what is generically +known as "footwear." Yet I am told that under the operation of absolute +Free Trade, St. Louis possesses the largest boot and shoe factory in its +output in the entire world. That is, the law of industrial development, +as natural conditions warrant and demand, has worked out its results; +and those results are satisfactory. I am aware that the farmer of +Massachusetts has become practically extinct; he cannot face the +competition of the great West: but the Massachusetts consumer is greatly +advantaged thereby. So far as agricultural products are concerned, +Massachusetts is to-day reduced to what is known as dairy products and +garden truck; and it is well! Summer vegetables manufactured under glass +in winter prove profitable. So, turning his industrial efforts to that +which he can do best, even the Massachusetts agriculturalist has +prospered. On the other hand, wherever in this country protection has +been most completely applied, I insist that if its results are analyzed +in an unprejudiced spirit, it will be pronounced to have worked +unmitigated evil,--an unhealthy, because artificially stimulated and too +rapid, growth. Let Lawrence, in Massachusetts, serve as an example. Look +at the industrial system there introduced in the name of Protection +against the Pauper Labor of Europe! No growth is so dangerous as a too +rapid growth; and I confidently submit that politically, socially, +economically and industrially, America to-day, on the issues agitating +us, presents an almost appalling example of the results of hot-house +stimulation. + +Nor is this all, nor the worst. There is another article, and far more +damaging, in the indictment. Through Protection, and because of it, +Paternalism has crept in; and, like a huge cancerous growth, is eating +steadily into the vitals of the political system. Instead of supporting +a government economically administered by money contributed by the +People, a majority of the People to-day are looking to the government +for support, either directly through pension payments or indirectly +through some form of industrial paternalism. Incidentally, a profuse +public expenditure is condoned where not actually encouraged. +Jeffersonian simplicity is preached; extravagance is practised. As the +New York showman long since shrewdly observed: "The American people +love to be fooled!" + +But I must pass on; I still have far to go. As respects legislation, I +have said that sixty years ago, when my memories begin, the American +ideal was the individual, and individuality. This, implied adherence to +the Jeffersonian theory that heretofore the world had been governed too +much. The great secret of true national prosperity, happiness and +success was, we were taught, to allow to each individual the fullest +possible play, provided only he did not infringe on the rights of +others. How is it to-day? America is the most governed and legislated +country in the world! With one national law-making machine perpetually +at work grinding out edicts, we have some fifty provincial mills engaged +in the same interesting and, to my mind, pernicious work. No one who has +given the slightest consideration to the subject will dispute the +proposition that, taking America as a whole, we now have twenty acts of +legislation annually promulgated, and with which we are at our peril +supposed to be familiar, where one would more than suffice. Then we +wonder that respect for the law shows a sensible decrease! The better +occasion for wonder is that it survives at all. We are both legislated +and litigated out of all reason. + +Passing to the other proposition of individuality, there has been, as +all men know and no one will dispute, a most perceptible tendency of +late years towards what is known as the array of one portion of the +community--the preponderating, voting portion--against another--the more +ostentatious property-holding portion. It is the natural result, I may +say the necessary as well as logical outcome, of a period of too rapid +growth,--production apportioned by no rule or system other or higher +than greed and individual aptitude for acquisition. I will put the +resulting case in the most brutal, and consequently the clearest, shape +of which I am capable. Working on the combined theories of individualism +controlled and regulated by competition, it has been one grand game of +grab,--a process in which the whole tendency of our legislation, +national or state, has during the last twenty years been, first, to +create monopolies of capital and, later, to bring into existence a +counter, but no less privileged, class, known as the "wage-earner." + +Of the first class it is needless to speak, for, as a class, it is +sufficiently pilloried by the press and from the hustings. Much in +evidence, those prominent in it are known as the possessors of +"predatory wealth"; "unjailed malefactors," they are subjects of +continuous "grilling" in the congressional and legislative committee +rooms. The effort to make them "disgorge" is as continual as it is +noisy, and, as a rule, futile. It constitutes a curious and in some +respects instructive exhibition of misdirected popular feeling and +legislative incompetence. None the less, the existence of a monopolist +class calls for no proof at the bar of public opinion. Not so the other +and even more privileged class,--the so-called "wage-earner"; for, +disguise it as the trades-unionist will, angrily deny it as he does, the +fact remains that to-day under the operation of our jury system and of +our laws, the Wage-earner and the member of the Trades-Union has become, +as respects the rest of the community, himself a monopolist and, +moreover, privileged as such. Practically, crimes urged and even +perpetrated in behalf of so-called "labor" receive at the hands of +juries, and also not infrequently of courts, an altogether excessive +degree of merciful consideration. At the same time, both here and in +Europe Organized Labor is instant in its demand that immunity, denied +to ordinary citizens, and those whom it terms "the classes," shall by +special exemption be conferred upon the Labor Union and upon the +Wage-earner. The tendency on both sides and at each extreme to +inequality in the legislature and before the law is thus manifest. + +Viewing conditions face to face and as they now are, no thoughtful +observer can, in my judgment, avoid the conviction that, whether for +good or ill, for better or for worse, this country as a community has, +within the last thirty years--that is, we will say, since our centennial +year, 1876--cast loose from its original moorings. It has drifted, and +is drifting, into unknown seas. Nor is this true of English-speaking +America alone. I have already quoted Lord Morley in another connection. +Lord Morley, however, only the other day delivered, as Chancellor of +Manchester University, a most interesting and highly suggestive +address, in which, referring to conservative Great Britain, he thus +pictured a phase of current belief: "Political power is described as +lying in the hands of a vast and mobile electorate, with scanty regard +for tradition or history. Democracy, they say, is going to write its own +programme. The structure of executive organs and machinery is undergoing +half-hidden, but serious alterations. Men discover a change of attitude +towards law as law; a decline in reverence for institutions as +institutions." + +While, however, the influences at work are thus general and the +manifestations whether on the other side of the Atlantic or here bear a +strong resemblance, yet difference of conditions and detail +--constitutional peculiarities, so to speak--must not be +disregarded. One form of treatment may not be prescribed for all. In our +case, therefore, it remains to consider how best to adapt this country +and ourselves to the unforeseeable,--the navigation of uncharted waters; +and this adaptation cannot be considered hi any correct and helpful, +because scientific, spirit, unless the cause of change is located. +Surface manifestations are, in and of themselves, merely deceptive. A +physician, diagnosing the chances of a patient, must first correctly +ascertain, or at least ascertain with approximate correctness, the seat +of the trouble under which the patient is suffering. So, we. + +And here I must frankly confess to small respect for the +politician,--the man whose voice is continually heard, whether from the +Senate Chamber or the Hustings. There is in those of his class a +continual and most noticeable tendency to what may best be described as +the _post ergo propter_ dispensation. With them, the eye is fixed on the +immediate manifestation. Because one event preceded another, the first +event is obviously and indisputably the cause of the later event. For +instance, in the present case, the cause or seat of our existing and +very manifest social, political and financial disturbances is attributed +as of course to some peculiarity of legislation, either a subtreasury +bill passed in the administration of General Jackson, or a tariff bill +passed in the administration of Mr. Taft, or the demonetization of +silver in the Hayes period,--that "Crime of the Century," the +Crucifixion of Labor on the Cross of Gold! Once for all, let me say, I +contemplate this school of politicians and so-called "thinkers" with +sentiments the reverse of respectful. In plain language, I class them +with those known in professional parlance as quacks and charlatans. Not +always, not even in the majority of cases, does that which preceded bear +to that which follows the relation of cause and effect. A marked example +of this false attribution is afforded in more recent political history +by the everlasting recurrence of the statement that American prosperity +is the result of an American protective system. Yet in the Protectionist +dispensation, this has become an article of faith. To my mind, it is +undeserving of even respectful consideration. + +If I were asked the cause of that change, little short of +revolutionary, if indeed in any respect short of it, which has occurred +in the material condition of the American people, and consequently in +all its theories and ideals, within the last thirty years, I should +attribute it to a wholly different cause. Mr. Lecky some years ago, in +his book entitled "Liberty and Democracy," made the following statement, +in no way original, but, as he put it, sufficiently striking: "The +produce of the American mines [incident to the discoveries made by +Columbus] created, in the most extreme form ever known in Europe, the +change which beyond all others affects most deeply and universally the +material well-being of men: it revolutionized the value of the precious +metals, and, in consequence, the price of all articles, the effects of +all contracts, the burden of all debts." + +In other words, referring to the first half of the sixteenth +century,--the sixty years, we will say, following the land-fall of +Columbus,--the historian attributed the great change which then occurred +and which stands forth so markedly in history, to the increased +New-World production of the precious metals, combined with the impetus +given to trade and industry as a consequence of that discovery, and of +the mastery of man over additional globe areas. Now, dismissing from +consideration the so-called American protective system, likewise our +currency issues and, generally, the patchwork, so to speak, of +crazy-quilt legislation to which so much is attributed during the last +thirty years, I confidently submit that in the production of the results +under discussion, they are quantities and factors hardly worthy of +consideration. The cause of the change which has taken place lies far +deeper and must be sought in influences of a wholly different nature, +influences developed into an increased and still ever increasing +activity, over which legislation has absolutely no control. I refer, of +course, to man's mastery over the latent forces of Nature. Of these +Steam and Electricity are the great examples, which, because always +apparent, at once strike the imagination. These, as tools, it is to be +remembered, date practically from within one hundred years back. It may, +indeed, safely be asserted that up to 1815, the end of the Wars of +Napoleon and the time of your Professor Lieber, steam even had not as +yet practically affected the operations of man, while electricity, when +not a terror, was as yet but a toy. Commerce was still exclusively +carried on by the sailing ship and canal-boat. The years from the fall +of Napoleon to our own War of Secession--from Waterloo to +Gettysburg--were practically those of early and partial development. Not +until well after Appomattox, that is, since the year 1870,--a period +covering but little more than the life of a generation,--did what is +known to you here as the Applied Sciences cover a range difficult to +specialize. As factors in development, it is safe to say that those +three tremendous agencies--Steam, Electricity, Chemistry--have, so to +speak, worked all their noticeable results within the lifetime of the +generation born since we celebrated the Centennial of Independence. The +manifestations now resulting and apparent to all are the natural outcome +of the use of these modern appliances, become in our case everyday +working tools in the hands of the most resourceful, adaptive, ingenious +and energetic of communities, developing a virgin continent of +undreamed-of wealth. Naturally, under such conditions, the advance has +been not only general and continuous, but one of ever increasing +celerity. So Protection and the Currency become flies on the fast +revolving wheel! + +But what has otherwise resulted?--An unrest, social, economical, +political. Not contentment, but a lamentation and an ancient tale of +wrong! We hear it in the continual cry over what is known as the +increased cost of living, and feel its pressure in the higher standard +of living. What was considered wealth by our ancestors is to-day hardly +competence. What sufficed for luxury in our childhood barely now +supplies what are known as the comforts of life. Take, for instance, the +motor,--the automobile. I speak within bounds, I think, when I say there +are many fold more motors to-day racing over the streets, the highways +and the byways of America than there were one-horse wagons thirty-five +years ago. Six hundred, I am told, are to be found within the immediate +neighborhood of Columbia; and, since I have been here I have seen in +your streets just one man on horse-back! These figures and that +statement tell the tale. A few years only back, every Carolinian rode +to town, and the motor was unknown. A single illustrative example, this +could be duplicated in innumerable ways everywhere and in all walks +of life. + +The result is obvious, and was inevitable. Entered on a new phase of +existence, the world is not as it was in the days of Columbus, when a +single new continent was discovered containing in it what we would now +regard as a limited accumulation of the precious metals. It is, on the +contrary, as if, in the language of Dr. Johnson, "the potentiality of +wealth" had been revealed "beyond the dreams of avarice"; together with +not one or two, but a dozen continents, the existence and secrets of +which are suddenly laid bare. The Applied Sciences have been the +magicians,--not Protection or the Currency. + +And still scientists are continually dinning in our ears the question +whether this state of affairs is going to continue,--whether the era of +disturbance has reached its limit! I hold such a question to be little +short of childish. That era has not reached its limits, nor has it even +approximated those limits. On the contrary, we have just entered on the +uncharted sea. We know what the last thirty years have brought about as +the result of the agencies at work; but as yet we can only dimly dream +of what the next sixty years are destined to see brought about. +Imagination staggers at the suggestion. + +What, then, has been of this the inevitable consequence,--the +consequence which even the blindest should have foreseen? It has +resulted in all those far-reaching changes suggested in the earlier part +of what I have said to-day, as respects our ideals, our political +theories, our social conditions. In other words, the old era is ended; +what is implied when we say a new era is entered upon? + +To attempt a partial answer to the query implies no claim to a prophetic +faculty. Whether we like to face the fact or not, far-reaching changes +in our economical theories and social conditions are imminent, involving +corresponding readjustments in our constitutional arrangements and +political machinery. Tennyson foreshadowed it all in his "Locksley Hall" +seventy years ago:--"The individual withers, and the world is more and +more." The day of individualism as it existed in the American ideal of +sixty years since is over; that of collectivism and possibly socialism +has opened. The day of social equality is relegated to what may be +considered a somewhat patriarchal past,--that patriarchal past having +come to a close during the memory of those still in active life. + +And yet, though all this can now be studied in the political discussion +endlessly dragging on, strangely and sadly enough that discussion +carries in it hardly a note of encouragement. It is, in a word, +unspeakably shallow. And here, having sufficiently for my present +purpose though in hurried manner, diagnosed the situation,--located the +seat of disturbance,--we come to the question of treatment. Involving, +as it necessarily does, problems of the fundamental law, and a +rearrangement and different allocation of the functions of government, +this challenges the closest thought of the publicist. That the problem +is here crying aloud for solution is apparent. The publications which +cumber the counters of our book-stores, those for which the greatest +popular call to-day exists--treatises relating to trade interests, to +collectivism, to socialism, even to anarchism--tell the tale in part; in +part it is elsewhere and otherwise told. Only recently, in once Puritan +Massachusetts, processions paraded the streets carrying banners marked +with this device, more suggestive than strange:--"No master and no God!" + +What are the remedies popularly proposed? In that important branch of +polity known as Political Ethics, or, as he termed them, Hermeneutics, +which your Professor Lieber sixty years ago endeavored to treat of, what +advance has since his time been effected?--Nay! what advance has been +effected since the time, over two thousand years, of his great +predecessor, Aristotle? I confidently submit that what progress is now +being made in this most erudite of sciences is in the nature of that of +the crab--backwards! In the discussions of Aristotle, the problem in +view was, how to bring about government by the wisest,--that is, the +most observant and expert. In other words, government, the object of +politics, was by Aristotle treated in a scientific spirit. And this is +as it should be. Take, for example, any problem,--I do not care whether +it is legal or medical or one of engineering: How successfully dispose +of it? Uniformly, in one way. Those problems are successfully solved, if +at all, only when their solution is placed in the hands of the most +proficient. Judged by the discussions of to-day, what advance has in +politics been effected? Do the _Outlook_ and the _Commoner_ imply +progress since the Stagirite? Not to any noticeable extent. We are, on +the contrary, fumbling and wallowing about where the Greek pondered and +philosophized. + +Democracy, as it is called, is to-day the great panacea,--the political +nostrum; as such it is confidently advocated by statesmen and professors +and even by the presidents of our institutions of the advanced +education. "Trust the People" is the shibboleth! "Let the People rule!" +"The cure for too much Liberty is more Liberty!" To Democracy plain and +simple--Composite Wisdom--I frankly confess I feel no call,--no call +greater than, for instance, towards Autocracy or Aristocracy or +Plutocracy. Taken simply, and applied as hitherto applied, all and each +lead to but one result,--failure! And that result, let me here predict, +will, in the future, be the same in the case of pure Democracy that, in +the past, it was in the case of the pure Autocracy of the Caesars, or +the case of the pure Aristocracy of Rome or of the so-called Republics +of the Middle Ages. A political edifice on shifting sands. + +Yet, to-day what do we see and hear in America? Tell it not in Gath; +publish it not in the streets of Askalon I Two thousand years after the +time of Aristotle, we see a prevailing school working directly back to +the condition of affairs which existed in the Athenian agora under the +disapproving eyes of the father of political philosophy. Panaceas, +universal cure-alls, and quack remedies--the Initiative, the Referendum, +and the Recall are paraded as if these--nostrums of the mountebanks of +the county fair--would surely remedy the perplexing ills of new and +hitherto unheard-of social, economical, and political conditions. +Democracy! What is Democracy? Democracy, as it is generally understood, +I submit, is nothing but the reaching of political conclusions through +the frequent counting of noses; or, as Macaulay two generations ago +better phrased it, "the majority of citizens told by the head";--the +only question at just this juncture being whether, in order to the +arriving at more acceptable results, both sexes shall be "told," instead +of one sex only. Moreover, I with equal confidence make bold to suggest +that while conceded, and while men have even persuaded themselves that +they have faith in it, and really do believe in this "telling" of noses +as the best and fairest attainable means of reaching correct results, +yet in so doing and so professing they simply, as men are prone to do, +deceive themselves. In other words, victims of their own cant, they +preach a panacea in which they really do not believe. Nor of this is +proof far to seek. _Vox populi, vox Dei_! If you extend the application +of this principle by a single step, its loudest advocates draw back in +alarm from the inevitable. They seek refuge in the assertion--"Oh! That +is different!" For instance, take a concrete case; so best can we +illustrate. + +One of the greatest scientific triumphs reached in modern times--perhaps +I might fairly say the greatest--is the discovery of the cause of yellow +fever, and its consequent control. As a result of the studies, the +patient experimentation and self-sacrifice of the wisest,--that is, the +most observant and expert,--the amazing conclusion was reached that not +only the yellow fever but the innumerable ills of the flesh known under +the caption of "malarial," were due to causes hitherto unsuspected, +though obvious when revealed,--to the existence in the atmosphere of a +venomous insect, in comparison with the work of which the ravages on +mankind of the entire carnivorous and reptile creation were of +comparatively small account. The mosquito flew disclosed, the +atmospheric viper,--a viper most venomous and deadly. How was the +disclosure brought about? What was the remedy applied? Was the discovery +effected through universal suffrage? Was the remedy sought for and +decided upon by the Initiative, or through a Referendum at an election +held on the Tuesday succeeding the first Monday of a certain month and +year? Had recourse in this case been had to the panacea now in greatest +political vogue, we all know perfectly well what would have followed. +History tells us. The quarantine, as it is called, would have been +decreed, and a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer appointed. The +mosquito, quite ignored, would then have gone on in his deadly work. We +all equally well know that the man, even the politician or the +statesman, who had suggested a solution of that problem by a count of +noses would have been effaced with ridicule. Even the most simple minded +would have rejected that method of reaching a result. Yet the ilia of +the body politic, too, are complicated. Indeed, far more intricate in +their processes and more deceitful in their aspects, they more deeply +affect the general well-being and happiness than any ill or epidemic +which torments the physical being, even the mosquito malaria. Yet the +ills of the body politic, the complications which surround us on every +side,--for these the unfailing panacea is said to lie in universal +suffrage, that remedy which is immediately and of course laughed out of +court if suggested in case of the simpler ills of the flesh. + +This, I submit, is demonstration. The true remedy is not to be sought in +that direction in the one case any more than the other. + +There is a considerable element of truth, though possibly a not +inconsiderable one of exaggeration, in this statement from a paper I +recently chanced upon in the issue of the sober and classical _Edinburgh +Review_ for October last,--a paper entitled "Democracy and +Liberalism":--"History testifies unmistakably and unanimously to the +passion of democracies for incompetence. There is nothing democracy +dislikes and suspects so heartily as technical efficiency, particularly +when it is independent of the popular vote." But to-day, what is +politically proposed by our senatorial charlatans and the mountebanks of +the market-place? The Referendum, the constant and easy Recall, the +everlasting Initiative are dinned into our ears as the cure-alls of +every ill of the body politic. On the contrary, I submit that, while in +the absence of any better method as yet devised and accepted, the +process of reaching results by a count of the "majority told by the +head" of the citizens then present and voting has certain political +advantages, yet, for all this, as a final, scientific, political +process, it is unworthy of consideration. A passing expedient, it in no +degree reflects credit on twentieth-century intelligence. + +And now I come to the crux of my discussion. Thus rejecting results +reached by the ballot as now in practical use, a query is already in the +minds of those who listen. At once suggesting itself and flung in my +face, it is asked as a political poser, and not without a sneer,--What +else or better have I to propose? Would I advise a return to old and +discarded methods,--Heredity, Caste, Autocracy, Plutocracy? I +respectfully submit this is a question no one has a right to put, and +one I am not called upon to answer. Again, let me take a concrete case. +Once more I appeal to the yellow fever precedent. The first step towards +a solution of a medical, as of a political, problem is a correct +diagnosis. Then necessarily follows a long period devoted to +observation, to investigation and experiment. If, in the case of the +yellow fever, a score of years only ago an observer had pointed out the +nature of the disease and the manifest inadequacy of current theories +and prevailing methods of prevention and treatment, do you think others +would have had a right to turn upon him and demand that he instantly +prescribe a remedy which should be not only complete, but at once +recognized as such and so accepted? In the present case, as I have +already observed, from the days of Aristotle down through two and twenty +centuries, men had been experimenting in all, to them, conceivable ways, +on the government of the body politic, exactly as they experimented on +the disorders of the physical body. But only yesterday was the source of +the yellow fever, for instance, diagnosed and located, and the proper +means of prevention applied. The cancer and tuberculosis are to-day +unsolved problems. By analogy, they are inviting subjects for an +Initiative and a Referendum! Yet would any person who to-day, standing +where I stand, expressed a disbelief, at once total and contemptuous, of +such a procedure as respects them, be met by a demand for some other +panacea of immediate and guaranteed efficiency? And so with the body +politic. I here to-day am merely attempting a diagnosis, pointing out +the disorders, and exposing as best I can the utter crudeness and +insufficiency of the market-place remedies proposed. Have you a right, +then, to turn on me, and call for some other prescription, warranted to +cure, in place of the nostrums so loudly advertised by the sciolists and +the dabblers of the day, and by me so contemptuously set aside? I +confess I am unable to respond, or even to attempt a response to any +such demand. I am not altogether a quack, nor is this a county fair. + +"Paracelsus," so denominated, was one of Robert Browning's earlier +poems. In it he causes the fifteenth-century alchemist and forerunner of +all modern pharmaceutical chemistry, to declare that as the result of +long travel and much research + + +"I possess +Two sorts of knowledge: one,--vast, shadowy, +Hints of the unbounded aim.... +The other consists of many secrets, caught +While bent on nobler prize,--perhaps a few +Prime principles which may conduct to much: +These last I offer." + + +So, _longo intervallo_, I have a few suggestions,--the result of an +observation extending, as I said at the beginning, over the lives of two +generations and a connection with many great events in which I have +borne a part,--a part not prominent indeed, and more generally, I +acknowledge, mistaken than correct. My errors, however, have at least +made me cautious and doubtful of my own conclusions. I submit them for +what they are worth. Not much, I fear. + +What, then, would I do, were it in my power to prescribe alterations and +curatives for the ills of our American body politic, of which I have +spoken; or, more correctly, the far-reaching disturbances manifestly due +to the agencies at work, to which I have made reference? Let us come at +once to the point, taking the existing Constitution of the United States +as a concrete example, and recognizing the necessity for its revision +and readjustment to meet radically changed conditions,--conditions +social, material, geographical, changed and still changing. + +It was Mr. Gladstone who, years ago, made the often-quoted assertion +that the Constitution of the United States was "the most wonderful work +ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man." I do +not think he was far wrong; though we, of course, realize that the +Federal Constitution was a growth and in no degree an inspiration. That +Constitution has through a century and a quarter stood the test of time +and stress of war, during a period of almost unlimited growth of the +community for which it was devised. It has outlasted many nationalities +and most of the dynasties in existence at the time of its adoption; and +that, too, under conditions sufficiently trying. I, therefore, regard it +with profound respect; and, so regarding it, I would treat it with a +cautious and tender hand. Not lightly pronouncing it antiquated, what +changes would I make in it if to-morrow it were given me to prescribe +alterations adapting it to the altered conditions which confront us? I +do not hesitate to say, and I am glad to say, the changes I would +suggest would be limited; yet, I fancy, far-reaching. + +And, in the first place, let us have a clear conception of the end in +view. That end is, I submit, exactly the same to-day which Aristotle had +in view more than twenty centuries ago. It is, not to solve all +political problems, but to put political problems as they arise in the +hands of those whom he termed the "best,"--but whom we know as the most +intelligent, observant and expert,--to be, through their agency, in the +way of ultimate solution. If, adopting every ill-considered and +half-fledged measure of so-called reform which might be the fancy of the +day, we incorporated them in our fundamental law, but one thing could +result therefrom,--ultimate confusion. The Constitution is neither a +legislative crazy-quilt nor a receptacle of fads. To make it such is in +every respect the reverse of scientific. The work immediately in hand, +therefore, is to devise such changes in the fundamental law as will tend +most effectually to bring about the solution of issues as they may +arise, by the most expert, observant and reliable. This accomplished, if +its accomplishment were only practicable, all possible would have been +done; and the necessary and inevitable readjustment of things would, in +politics as in medicine and in science, be left to solve itself as +occasion arose. Provision cannot be made against every contingency. + +This premised, the Constitution of the United States is an instrument +through which powers are delegated by several local communities to a +central government. The instrument, it was originally held, should be +strictly construed and the powers delegated limited; and in this +respect, with certain alterations made obviously necessary to meet +changed conditions, I would return to the fundamental idea of +the framers. + +In saying this I feel confidence also that here in South Carolina at +least I shall meet with an earnest response. The time is not yet remote +when local self-government worked salvation for South Carolina, as for +her sister States of the Confederacy. You here will never forget what +immediately followed the close of our Civil War. As an historic fact, +the Constitution was then suspended. It was suspended by act of an +irresponsible Congress, exercising revolutionary but unlimited powers +over a large section of the common country. You then had an +illustration, not soon to be forgotten, of concentration of legislative +power. An episode at once painful and discreditable, it is not necessary +here to refer to it in detail. Appeal, however, was made to the +principle of local self-government,--it was, so to speak, a recurrence +to the theory of State Sovereignty. The appeal struck a responsive, +because traditional, chord; and it was through a recurrence to State +Sovereignty as the agency of local self-government that loyalty and +contentment were restored, and, I may add, that I am here to-day. +Ceasing to be a Military Department, South Carolina once more became a +State. Not improbably the demand will in a not remote future be heard +that State lines and local autonomy be practically obliterated. In that +event, I feel a confident assurance that, recurring in memory to the +evil days which followed 1865, the spirit of enlightened conservatism +will assert itself here and in the sister States of what was once the +Confederacy; and again it will prevail. In the future, as in the past, +you in South Carolina at least will cling to what in 1876 proved the ark +of your social and political salvation. + +Taking another step in the discussion of changes, the Constitution is +founded on that well-known distribution and allocation of powers first +theoretically suggested by Montesquieu. There is a division, accompanied +by a mutual limitation of authority, through the Judiciary, the +Executive, and the Legislative. As respects this allocation, how would I +modify that instrument? I freely say that the tendency of my thought, +based on observation, is to conservatism. I have never yet in a single +instance found that when the people of this or any other country +accustomed to parliamentary government desired a thing, they failed to +obtain it within a reasonable limit of time. Hasty changes are wisely +deprecated; but I think I speak within limitation when I say that +neither in the history of Great Britain,--the mother of Parliaments--nor +in the history of the United States, has any modification which the +people, on sober second thought, have considered to be for the best, +long been deferred. Action, revolutionary in character, has not, as a +rule, been needful, or, when taken, proved salutary. This is a record +and result that no careful student of our history will, I take it, deny. + +Such being the case, so far as our Judiciary is concerned, I do not +hesitate to say I would adhere to older, and, as I think, better +principles, or revert to them where they have been experimentally +abandoned. It took the Anglo-Saxon race two centuries of incessant +conflict to wrest from a despotic executive, practically an autocracy, +judicial independence. That was effected through what is known as a +tenure during good behavior, as opposed to a tenure at the will of the +monarch. This, then, for two centuries, was accepted as a fundamental +principle of constitutional government. Of late, a new theory has been +propounded, and by those chafing at all restraint--constitutionally +lawless in disposition--it is said the Recall should also be applied to +the Judiciary. Having, therefore, wrested the independence of the +Judiciary from the hand of the Autocrat, we now propose to place it, in +all trustfulness, in the hands of the Democrat. To me the proposition +does not commend itself. It is founded on no correct principle, for the +irresponsible democratic majority is even more liable to ill-considered +and vacillating action than is the responsible autocrat. In that matter +I would not trust myself; why, then, should I trust the composite +Democrat? In the case of the Judiciary, therefore, I would so far as the +fundamental law is concerned abide by the older and better considered +principles of the framers. + +Next, the Executive. Again, we hear the demand of Democracy,--the +Recall! Once more I revert to the record. This Republic has now been in +working operation, and, taken altogether, most successful operation, +for a century and a quarter. During that century and a quarter we have +had, we will say, some five and twenty different chief magistrates. +There is an ancient and somewhat vulgar adage to the effect that the +proof of a certain dietary article is in its eating. Apply that homely +adage to the matter under consideration. What is the lesson taught? It +is simply this,--during a whole century and a quarter of existence there +has not been one single chief executive of the United States to whom the +arbitrary Recall could have been applied with what would now be agreed +upon as a fortunate result. In the Andrew Johnson impeachment case was +it not better that things were as they were? On the other hand, every +one of the seven independent, self-respecting Senators who then by a +display of high moral courage saved the country from serious prejudice +would have been recalled out-of-hand had the Recall now demanded been in +existence. Its working would have received prompt exemplification; as it +was, the recall was effected in time, and after due deliberation. The +delay occasioned no public detriment. In this life, experience is +undeniably worth something; and the experience here referred to is +fairly entitled to consideration. No political system possible to devise +is wholly above criticism,--not open to exceptional contingencies or to +dangers possible to conjure up. Such have from time to time arisen in +the past; in the future such will inevitably arise. This consideration +must, however, be balanced against a general average of successful +working; and I confidently submit that, weighing thus the proved +advantage of the system we have against the possibilities of danger +which hereafter may occur, but which never yet have occurred, the scale +on which are the considerations in favor of change kicks the beam. + +In view, however, of the growth of the country, the vastly increased +complexity of interests involved, the intricacy and the cost of the +election processes to which recourse is necessarily had, I would +substitute for the present brief tenure of the presidential office--a +tenure well enough perhaps in the comparatively simple days which +preceded our Civil War--a tenure sufficiently long to enable the +occupant of the presidential chair to have a policy and to accomplish at +least something towards its adoption. As the case stands to-day, a +President for the first time elected has during his term of four years, +one year, and one year only, in which really to apply himself to the +accomplishment of results. The first year of his term is necessarily +devoted to the work of acquiring a familiarity with the machinery of the +government, and the shaping of a policy. The second year may be devoted +to a more or less strenuous effort at the adoption of the policy thus +formulated. As experience shows, the action of the third and fourth +years is gravely affected--if not altogether perverted from the work in +hand--by what are known as the political exigencies incident to a +succession. Manifestly, this calls for correction. The remedy, however, +to my mind, is obvious and suggests itself. As the presidency is the +one office under our Constitution national in character, and in no way +locally representative, I would extend the term to seven years, and +render the occupant of the office thereafter ineligible for reëlection. +Seven years is, I am aware, under our political system, an unusual term; +and here my ears will, I know, be assailed by the great "mandate" +cackle. The count of noses being complete, the mind of the composite +Democrat is held to be made up. It only remains to formulate the +consequent decree; and, with least possible delay, put it in way of +practical enforcement. Again, I, as a publicist, demur. It is the old +issue, that between instant action and action on second thought, +presented once more. Briefly, the experience of sixty years strongly +inclines me to a preference of matured and considerate action over that +immediate action which notoriously is in nine cases out of ten as +ill-advised as it is precipitate. Only in the field of politics is the +expediency of the latter assumed as of course; yet, as in science and +literature and art so in politics, final, because satisfactory, results +are at best but slowly thrashed out. As respects wisdom, the modern +statute book does not loom, monumental. Its contemplation would indeed +perhaps even lead to a surmise that reasonable delay in formulating his +"mandate" might, in the case of the composite Democrat as in that of the +individual Autocrat, prove a not altogether unmixed, and so in the end +an intolerable, evil. + +Thus while a change of the Executive and Legislative branches of the +government might not be always simultaneously effected, by selecting +seven years as the presidential term the election would be brought +about, as frequently as might be, by itself, uncomplicated by local +issues connected with the fortunes or political fate of individual +candidates for office, whether State, Congressional, or Senatorial; and +during the seven years of tenure, four, at least, it might reasonably be +anticipated, would be devoted to the promotion of a definite policy, in +place of one year in a term of four, as now. If also ineligible for +reelection, there is at least a fair presumption that the occupant of +the position might from start to finish apply himself to its duties and +obligations, without being distracted therefrom by ulterior personal +ends as constantly as humanly held in view. + +Having thus disposed of the Judiciary and the Executive, we come to the +Legislative. And here I submit is the weak point in our American +system,--manifestly the weak point, and to those who, like myself, have +had occasion to know, undeniably so. I am here as a publicist; not as a +writer of memoirs: so, on this head, I do not now propose to dilate or +bear witness. I will only briefly say that having at one period, and for +more than the lifetime of a generation, been in charge of large +corporate and financial interests, I have had much occasion to deal with +legislative bodies, National, State and Municipal. That page of my +experiences is the one I care least to recall, and would most gladly +forget. I am not going to specify, or give names of either localities or +persons; but, knowing what I know, it is useless to approach me on this +topic with the usual good-natured and optimistic, if somewhat unctuous +and conventional, commonplaces on general uprightness and the tendency +to improved conditions and a higher standard. I know better! I have seen +legislators bought like bullocks--they selling themselves. I have +watched them cover their tracks with a cunning more than vulpine. I have +myself been black-mailed and sandbagged, while whole legislative bodies +watched the process, fully cognizant at every step of what was going on. +This, I am glad to say, was years ago. The legislative conditions were +then bad, scandalously bad; nor have I any reason to believe in a +regeneration since. The stream will never rise higher than its source; +but it generally indicates the level thereof. In this case, I can only +hope that in my experience it failed so to do. Running at a low level, +the waters of that stream were deplorably dirty. + +That the legislative branch of our government has fallen so markedly in +public estimation is not, I think, open to denial. To my mind, under the +conditions I have referred to, such could not fail to be the case. It +has, consequently, lost public confidence. Hence this popular demand for +immediate legislation by the People,--this twentieth-century appeal to +the Agora and Forum methods which antedate the era of Christ. It is true +the world outgrew them two thousand years ago, and they were discarded; +but, living in a progressive and not a reactionary period, all that, we +are assured, is changed! The heart is no longer on the right-hand side +of the body. To secure desired results it is only necessary to start +quite fresh, as a mere preliminary discarding all lessons of experience. + +Such reasoning does not commend itself to my judgment. On the contrary, +the failure of the American legislative to command an increasing public +confidence, while both natural and obvious, is, if my observation guides +me to conclusions in any degree correct, traceable to two reasons. So +far as government is concerned, the law-making branch is assumed to be +made up of the wisest and the most expert. Meanwhile, it is as a matter +of fact chosen by the process I have not over-respectfully referred to +as the counting of noses; and, moreover, by an unwritten law more +binding than any in the Statute Book, that counting of noses is with us +localized. In other words, when it comes to the choice of our +law-makers, reducing provincialism to a system we make the local +numerical majority supreme, and any one is considered competent to +legislate. He can do that, even if by common knowledge he is incompetent +or untrustworthy in every other capacity. Localization thus becomes the +stronghold of mediocrity, the sure avenue to office of the second-and +third-rate man,--he who wishes always to enjoy his share of a little +brief authority, to have, he also, a taste of public life. In this +respect our American system is, I submit, manifestly and incomparably +inferior to the system of parliamentary election existing in Great +Britain, itself open to grave criticism. In Great Britain the public man +seeks the constituency wherever he can find it; or the constituency +seeks its representative wherever it recognizes him. The present Prime +Minister of Great Britain, for instance, represents a small Scotch +constituency in which he never resided, but by which he was elected more +than twenty years ago, and through which he has since consecutively +remained in public life. On the other hand, look at the waste and +extravagance of the system now and traditionally in use with us. To get +into public life a man must not only be in sympathy with the majority of +the citizens of the locality in which he lives, but he must continue to +be in sympathy with that majority; or, at any election, like Mr. Cannon +in the election just held, where for any passing cause a majority of his +neighbors in the locality in which he lives may fail to support him, he +must go into retirement. I cannot here enlarge on this topic, vital as I +see it; I have neither space nor time, and must, therefore, needs +content myself with the "hints" of Paracelsus. I will merely say that as +an outcome this localized majority system practically disfranchises the +more intelligent and the more disinterested, the more individual and +independent of every constituency. It reduces their influence, and +negatives their action. It operates in like fashion everywhere. My +field of observation has been at home, here in America; but it has been +the same in France. For instance, while preparing this address I came +across the following in that most respectable sheet, the London +_Athenaum_. A very competent Frenchman was there criticising a recent +book entitled "Idealism in France." Reference was by him made to what, +in France, is known as the "_scrutin d'arrondissement,"_ or, in other +words, the district representative system. The critic declares that this +system has there "created a party machine which has brought the country +under the sway of a sort of Radical-Socialist Tammany, and bound +together the voter and the deputy by a tie of mutual corruption, the +candidate promising Government favors to the elector in return for his +vote, and the elector supporting the candidate who promises most. Hence +a policy in which ideas and ideals are forgotten for personal and local +interests, as each candidate strives to outbid his rivals in the bribes +that he offers to his constituents. Hence, finally, a general lowering +in the tone of French home politics, every question being made +subservient by the deputies to that of their reëlection." + +I would respectfully inquire if the above does not apply word for word +to the condition of affairs with which we are familiar in America. + +But let me here again cite a concrete case, still fresh in memory; +nothing in abstract discussion tells so much. Take the late Carl +Schurz. If there was one man in our public life since 1865 who showed a +genius for the parliamentary career, and who in six short years in the +United States Senate--a single term--displayed there constructive +legislating qualities of the highest order, it was Carl Schurz. Yet at +the end of that single senatorial term, for local and temporary reasons +he failed to obtain the support of a majority, or the support of +anything approaching a majority, of those composing the constituency +upon which he depended. Consequently he was retired from that +parliamentary position necessary for the accomplishment, through him, of +best public results. Yet at that very time there was no man in the +United States who commanded so large and so personal a constituency as +Carl Schurz; for he represented the entire Germanic element in the +United States. Distributed as that element was, however, with its vote +localized under our law, unwritten as well as statutory, there was no +possibility of any constituency so concentrating itself that Carl Schurz +could be kept in the position where he could continue to render services +of the greatest possible value to the country. I, therefore, confidently +here submit a doubt whether human ingenuity could devise any system +calculated to lead to a greater waste of parliamentary ability, or more +effectually keep from the front and position of influence that +legislative superiority which was the arm of Aristotle to secure. +"Cant-patriotism," as your Francis Lieber termed it; and, on this +score, he waxed eloquent. "Do we not live in a world of cant," he wrote +from Columbia here to a friend at the North seventy-five years ago, +"that cant-patriotism which plumes itself in selecting men from within +the State confines only. The truer a nation is, the more essentially it +is elevated, the more it disregards petty considerations, and takes the +true and the good from whatever quarter it may come. Look at history and +you find the proof. Look around you, where you are, and you find it +now." And, were Lieber living to-day, he would find a striking +exemplification of the consequences of a total and systematic disregard +of this elementary proposition in studying the United States Senate from +and through its reporters' gallery. The decline in the standards of that +body, whether of aspect, intelligence, education or character, under the +operation of the local primary has been not less pronounced than +startling. The outcome and ripe result of "cant-patriotism," it affords +to the curious observer an impressive object-lesson,--provincialism +reduced to a political system; what a witty and incisive French writer +has recently termed the "Cult of Incompetence." Speaking of conditions +prevailing not here but in France, this observer says:--"Democracy in +its modern form chooses its' delegates in its own image.... What ought +the character of the legislator to be? The very opposite, it seems to +me, of the democratic legislator, for he ought to be well-informed and +entirely devoid of prejudice." Taken as a whole, and a few striking +individual exceptions apart, are those composing the Senate of the +United States conspicuous in these respects? They certainly do not so +impress the casual observer. That, as a body, they increasingly fail to +command confidence and attention is matter of common remark. Nor is the +reason far to seek. It would be the same as respects literature, science +and art, were their representatives chosen and results reached through a +count of noses localized, with selection severely confined to +home talent. + +I am well aware of the criticism which will at once be passed on what I +now advance. Local representation through choice by numerical majorities +within given confines, geographically and mathematically fixed, is a +system so rooted and intrenched in the convictions and traditions of the +American community that even to question its wisdom evinces a lack of +political common-sense. It in fact resembles nothing so much as the +attempt to whistle down a strongly prevailing October wind from the +West. The attempt so to do is not practical politics! In reply, however, +I would suggest that such a criticism is wholly irrelevant. The +publicist has nothing to do with practical politics. It is as if it were +objected to a physician who prescribed sanitation against epidemics that +the community in question was by custom and tradition wedded to filth +and surface-drainage, and could not possibly be induced to abandon them +in favor of any new-fangled theories of soap-and-water cleanliness. So +why waste time in prescribing such? Better be common-sensed and +practical, taking things as they are. In the case suggested, and +confronted with such criticism, the medical adviser simply shrugs his +shoulders, and is silent; the alternative he knows is inescapable. After +a sufficiency of sound scourgings the objecting community will probably +know better, and may listen to reason; in a way, conforming thereto. So, +also, the body politic. If Ephraim is indeed thus joined to idols, the +publicist simply shrugs his shoulders, and passes on; possibly, after +Ephraim has been sufficiently scourged, he may in that indefinite future +popularly known as "one of these days" be more clear sighted and wiser. + +None the less, so far as our national parliamentary system is concerned, +could I have my way in a revision of the Constitution, I would increase +the senatorial term to ten years, and I would, were such a thing within +the range of possibility, break down the system of the necessary +senatorial selection by a State of an inhabitant of the State. If I +could, I would introduce the British system. For example, though I never +voted for Mr. Bryan and have not been in general sympathy with Mr. +Roosevelt, yet few things would give me greater political satisfaction +than to see Mr. Bryan, we will say, elected a Senator from Arizona or +Oregon, Mr. Roosevelt elected from Illinois or Pennsylvania, President +Taft from Utah or Vermont. They apparently best represent existing +feelings and the ideals prevailing in those communities; why, then, +should they not voice those feelings and ideals in our highest +parliamentary chamber? + +As respects our House of Representatives, it would in principle be the +same. I do not care to go into the rationale of what is known as +proportional representation, nor have I time so to do; but, were it in +my power, I would prescribe to-morrow that hereafter the national House +of Representatives should be constituted on the proportional basis,--the +choice of representatives to be by States, but, as respects the +nomination of candidates, irrespective of district lines. Like many +others, I am very weary of provincial nobodies, "good men" locally known +to be such! + +As I have already said, in parliamentary government all depends in the +end on the truly representative character of the legislative body. If +that is as it should be, the rest surely follows. The objective of +Aristotle is attained. + +Exceeding the limits assigned to it, my discussion has, however, +extended too far. I must close. One word before so doing. Why am I here? +I am here,--a man considerably exceeding in age the allotted threescore +and ten--to deliver a message, be the value of the same greater or less. +I greatly fear it is less. I would, however, impart the lessons of an +experience stretching over sixty years,--the results of such observation +as my intelligence has enabled me to exercise. I do so, addressing +myself to a local institution of the advanced education. Why? Because, +looking over the country, diagnosing its conditions as well as my +capacity enables me, observing the evolution of the past and +forecasting, in as far as I may, the outcome, I am persuaded that the +future of the country rests more largely in the hands of such +institutions as this than in those of any other agency or activity. Do +not say I flatter; for, while I can hope for no advancement, I think I +have not overstated the case; I certainly have not overstated my +conviction. There has been no man who has influenced the course of +modern thought more deeply and profoundly than Adam Smith, a Professor +in a Scotch University of the second class. So here in Columbia seventy +years ago, Francis Lieber prepared and published his "Manual of +Political Ethics." Adam Smith and Francis Lieber were but +prototypes--examples of what I have in mind. The days were when the +Senate of the United States afforded a rostrum from which thinkers and +teachers first formulated, and then advanced, great policies. Those +days, and I say it regretfully, are past. Unless I am greatly mistaken, +however, a new political force is now asserting itself. I have recently, +at a meeting of historical and scientific associations in Boston, had my +attention forcibly called to this aspect of the situation now shaping +itself. I there met young men, many, and not the least noticeable of +whom, came from this section. They inspired me with a renewed confidence +in our political future. Essentially teachers,--I might add, they were +publicists as well as professors. Observers and students, they actively +followed the course of developing thought in Europe as in this country. +Exact in their processes, philosophical and scientific in their methods, +unselfish in their devotion, they were broad of view. It is for them to +realize in a future not remote the University ideal pictured, and +correctly pictured, from this stage by one who here preceded me a short +six months ago. They, constituting the University, are the "hope of the +State in the direction of its practical affairs; in teaching the lawyer +the better standards of his profession, his duty to place character +above money making; in teaching the legislator the philosophy of +legislation, and that the constructive forces of legislation carefully +considered should precede every effort to change an existing status; in +teaching those in official life, executive and judicial, that demagogy, +and theories of life uncontrolled by true principles, do not make for +success, when final success is considered, but that, if they did lead to +success, they should be avoided for their inherent imperfection.... The +province of the University is to educate citizenship in the abstract." + +It is the presence of this class, to those composing which I bow as +distinctly of a period superior to mine, that you owe my presence +to-day,--whatever that presence may be worth. I regard their existence +and their coming forward in such institutions as this University of +South Carolina, as the arc of the bow of promise spanning the political +horizon of our future. + +Through you, to them my message is addressed. + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's 'Tis Sixty Years Since, by Charles Francis Adams + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 'TIS SIXTY YEARS SINCE *** + +***** This file should be named 9996-8.txt or 9996-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/9/9/9996/ + +Produced by Afra Ullah, Sjaani and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +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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