CHAPTER VI.

OF THE INFLUENCE OF WEALTH ON THE POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES AND INDIA.

THE early English settlements on the coast of America were made at a time when the English nation was rapidly regaining the ground lost during the civil wars, and was intent upon establishing the right to freedom of thought and of action. The settlers came prepared, each for himself, to assert the right of selfgovernment, and accordingly we find the first New England colony establishing a pure democracy. In Virginia, likewise, notwithstanding numerous difficulties, we find the most emphatic assertion of the right to freedom of thought, of action, and of trade.

The essential difference between the governments thus instituted and those of the republics of Greece and Rome, and of modern Italy, was that in the former was now, for the first time, recognised a perfect equality of political rights and duties, whereas in the latter, the rights were reserved for the few, while the duties were imposed upon the many. On a former occasion, we gave the compact entered into by the first emigrants to Massachusetts, with a view to the organization of a "civil body politic," and for the establishment of "such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as" might "be thought most convenient for the general good of the colony." It was signed by each member of the colony: by the whole people. "This was," says Mr. Bancroft," the birth-place of constitutional liberty. The middle age," he continues, "had been familiar with charters and constitutions; but they had been merely compacts for immunities, partial enfranchisements, patents of nobility, concessions of municipal privileges, or limitations of the sovereign power in

See vol. ii., p. 10.

+ History of the United States, vol. i., p. 310.

favour of feudal institutions. In the cabin of the Mayflower, humanity recovered its rights, and instituted government on the basis of equal laws for the general good." At a subsequent period, we find Roger Williams founding the colony of Rhode Island, in which "all men were equal; all might meet and debate in the popular assemblies; all might aspire to office;" and in which "the people, for a season, constituted itself its own tribune, and every public law required confirmation in the public assemblies. And so it came to pass," continues Mr. Bancroft, "that the little democracie,'t which, at the beat of the drum, or the voice of the herald, used to assemble beneath an oak, or by the open sea-side, was famous for its headiness and tumults,' its stormy town-meetings, and the angry feuds of its herdsmen and shepherds. But true as the needle to the pole, the popular will instinctively pursued the popular interest. Amidst the jarring quarrels of rival statesmen in the plantations, good men were chosen to administer the government; and the spirit of mercy, of liberality, and of wisdom, was impressed upon its legislation. Our popularitie,' say their records, 'shall not, as some conjecture it will, prove an anarchie, and so a common tyrannie; for we are exceeding desirous to preserve every man safe in his person, name, and estate." In the Constitution of Connecticut, it was provided that all who took the oath of allegiance, should be entitled to exercise the elective franchise-that representation should be apportioned according to population—and that the magistrates and legislature should be chosen annually by ballot. Here we find no reservation of privileges-no imposition of duties unaccompanied by the enjoyment of rights.

In the early period of their history, when the people were widely scattered, occupying only the superior soils, they were

History of the United States, vol. i., p. 426.

It was ordered by the whole body of freemen, and "unanimously agreed upon, that the government, which this body politic doth attend unto in this island, and the jurisdiction thereof, in favour of our prince, is a DEMOCRACIE, or popular government; that is to say, it is in the power of the body of freemen orderly as sembled, or major part of them, to make or constitute just laws, by which they will be regulated, and to depute from among themselves such ministers as shall see them faithfully executed between man and man." Copied by Mr. Bancroft, from the Records, now in Providence.-History of the United States, vol. i., p. 393.

poor, and could with difficulty defend themselves against the attacks of savages on one side, or the encroachments of the government on the other, but with the increase of population and wealth, we find the smaller settlements associating together for the formation of local institutions, with a view to the establishment of more perfect security of person and property. At another period, we find several colonies associating, and at length we find a body composed of representatives of the people of all the colonies.

The gradual manner in which this habit of association arises, where peace is preserved and security is established-where population and wealth are permitted to increase—is here beautifully illustrated. Originally composed of Roundheads and Cavaliers-Catholics, Episcopalians, and Puritans-English, Dutch, and Swedes-we find, by degrees, all these titles merged in the single one of fellow-citizen. The manner in which this tendency to union exhibited itself-the obstacles it encounteredand its steady increase until the establishment of the Federal Constitution, are so well described by a recent writer, and the subject is so interesting, that we give the following long extract, persuaded that it cannot be read without pleasure.

"There are few subjects on which the mind is more exposed to the unperceived intrusion of erroneous notions, than the relations, during the colonial period, between the different communities which now make up the Union. The complicated frame-work of our system has been, for about half a century, acquiring strength and solidity, from the imperceptible processes of time; there is a constant concurrence in the national legislature, which creates a fellowship between remote sections; there are the million of interchanges, arising from an active commercial spirit-the progress of the arts is speeding and facilitating intercourse to an extent never dreamed of— and beside all such relations of a political and social character, we are, it is to be hoped, every day realizing more and more the community of our possession in the fame of our ancestry, and all that is glorious in our common history. The course of events has been to supply with an increasing abundance the elements that make up a nation's heart. But all this has a tendency to dazzle and confuse our thoughts, when directed to an early period of the formation of the Union. We are apt to presume that it was brought about with little difficulty-that it was an easy result, and just what might have been anticipated.

This, on a little reflection, is perceived to be a serious misapprehension. The formation of the Union was a slow-a laborious and reluctant process. The period of transition from the original state of political severalty to the present political combination, was a space of time not shorter than a century and a-half. It began with the first suggestion of that little local coalition styled the New. England Confederacy, in 1637, and came down to the declaration of independence, which completed the Union, (for, let it be remembered, that in transferring the states from their colonial condition, it gave independence to the states in union,) or if a later date be preferred, down to the time when the union was confirmed and made 'more perfect' by the adoption of the Federal Constitution. During this whole period the processes of combination were at work-silently, imperceptibly seldom thought of, and never fully appreciated. It did not enter into the heart of man to conceive to what great results every thing was tending. The association of these distinct communities was not the result of political sagacity. According to our apprehensions, the mind of man had but little to do with it, or was at best but a very subordinate agent. But is this a suggestion, it may be inquired, designed to disparage the union-a reason for doubting its expediency, and calling in question its value? No: when we intimate that it was not the product of human forethought and political wisdom and experience-that it cannot be traced to any premeditated plan the idea of any one man, or the concert of any one body of men, we are far from meaning to imply that it was the work of chance. A wiser spirit was at work for us,' and if there is one circumstance which, more than another, should impress deeply upon the heart of every thoughtful citizen of this republic the value of the union, it is this very fact, that it was not by the mind of man alone that it was wrought. The union in truth was not made, but it grew. It grew as the tree grows, as the forest grows. Of no political result may it be more emphatically asserted, that God gave the increase. Let any one examine the colonial and revolutionary history of our country, with reference to the formation of the Union-let him observe how conflicting interests were undergoing a reconciliationhow discordant feelings were gradually attuning to a better harmony-how those who were to one another strangers, were becoming familiar friends-how the sentiment of brotherhood was by degrees finding a place in the bosoms of the members of different coloniesand let him reflect, too, that all this was going on as if it were only incidental to other events, the actors in which were unconscious of VOL. III.-24

their tendencies--and if he is not labouring under the infidel's malady -that 'thick drop serene' which so fearfully clouds the intellectual sight-he will perceive the hand of Providence shaping the roughhewn ends-governing and guiding the current of things towards an unthought-of channel.

"It is not our purpose to discuss the difficulties that were overcome in the establishment of a union among the colonies. We wish to advert to the subject only so far as is necessary to place the student of history in the true position to understand the importance of the convocation of the Congress of 1774. At the present day we have become so familiar with the recurrence of conventions, composed of delegates from the several sections of the country, brought together for every variety of purpose-ecclesiastical and politicalmoral, agricultural, literary, and fanatical-that we are prone to take it for granted that it was equally easy for our forefathers to join their heads together in council. It might, we have no doubt, be shown, on the contrary, that the colonies never came together except when constrained to do so by a sense of common danger. The seeds of union were few, and sown in no very congenial soil. It would seem as if the chief, if not the only, impulse to any concert of action, was the security of their common safety. The presence of a savage foe on the New England frontier, with some additional apprehensions from other neighbours, was the motive of that small eastern confederacy to which we have already alluded; and when the danger passed away, the feeble ties which held those few colonies together in an imperfect league, fell away also. When, at another period, a war was anticipated between Great Britain and her colonies, on one side, and France on the other, the apprehension of it, enforced, too, by suggestions and promptings from the British ministry, produced nothing more than the abortive plan of the Albany Congress, in 1754. Again, when danger threatened from a new quarter-royalty grasping more tightly its trans-Atlantic realm-when the hand of the mother country was first rudely laid on the lusty children that had grown up with so little of her fostering care-the result was only a few weeks joint deliberation in the Stamp Act Congress at New York. Even at a later period, when the measures of Parliament and the ministry had become very much the settled colonial policy of the parent country, the Congress of 1774 closed its brief session with a contingent adjournment, that left it doubtful whether the colonies would again be found acting in concert. It was not until the wearied patience of the people was worn out, and the outraged sense of free