Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1834-04-08
ALEXANDRIA,:
TUESDAY MORNING, APRIL 8, 1884.
THE POOR AGAINST THE RICH.

PoToMAc Such senseless and wicked appeals
belong only, it seems to US, to poltlcal 1actlohs
and infidel sects. Honest men and true Chris
tans stop their ears to voice which first issued
in this country from the mouth OF Fanny
Wright! Busy-bodies, Office seekers, dema-
gogues, disappointed men and bad men, may
renew the cry; but the broad PoToMAc breaks
its echoes, and the Southern country needs 1t
not There is nothing of chivalry or honor IN
it. 1t is low-mean.
The imputation of being attached to a de"
graded Glass; because man is poor and works
for his daily bread, ought to be rejected, and is
rejected with scorn and contempt by every intel
igent manin the country; and they who make the
mputation at once show how grovelling must be
their own conceptions. 1t these very things that
have contributed, in many instances to lower
the character of the real working classes in
their own opinions and consequently in the OPT
Mons of others: for let man once forget his
own selfrespect, and he will soon find others
willing and ready to forget it also.
We may be excused for referring to this mat
ter in consequence Of the nefarious use Of so
base an appeal to senseless prejudice in the po-
itics Of the country. And it is with reference
to that subject alone that we consider it. Stu
ated as Mr.. Wilde Of Ga. Island, like him,
ERASED from the people, by the people, and
with the people"-and ardently and zealously
devoted to their true interests and happiness,
we quote and adopt his sentiments delivered
in the House of Representatives, few days
ago. when he had occasion to recur to the ap-
peal we have mentioned:
"A shout has been raised by servile tongues,
and pens, and presses, that this is struggle be-
tween the poor and the rich. This most odious
cry as false as it is base, is but the echo Of that
which rose from wretches covered with the
mud and gore of Paris during the REIGN OF TER
RoR Sir, am far from rich myself compared
with many who utter this disgusting cry; am
poor, and hare abored with my own hands.
have never forgotten, and shall never forget,
the humility Of my early fortunes AM PROUD
OF IT. Sir, am man Of the people; raised
from the people, by the people, and always, |
trust, NTH the people. But l am 1t one of
those who have the people forever in their
mouths and never in their hearts. have many
good reasons for speaking Of them seldom. |
will mention but one; because as that is one of
policy, this House may give me credit for it.
When we are always telling the dear people
how much we love them, they are apt to become
a little jealous.
"Sir, have said the cry was false. Who
has the most interest in that currency, whose
arrangement spreads distress through a whole
nation, and throws thousands and tens of thous-
ands out of employment The rich man has
his capital, which he can withdraw, hoard, |
transfer to foreign lands, re-invest or consume.
The poor mans only capital is his daily labor, |
and he must dispose Of it every day, or it is |
lost to him forever. Labor is nearly the first
thing that fails when the currency is disturbed.
1t is the last thing that rises when the currency
is restored. The poor, then, are always the
greatest sufferers by deranged currency; they
have always the greatest interest in a sound
one And as the income arising from the labor
of the poor greatly exceeds in aggregate value
the income arising from the capital of the rich,
it is the poor who have the greatest as well as
the most immediate concern in the preserva-
ton Of a good currency"
Let these facts be pondered on, and then let
the warning page of History be opened and
show what heretofore has been the course of
those who have "the people always on their |
lips but never in their hearts" 1t is an awful,
a bloody, but an instructive lesson, drawn from
a disastrous epoch of the French Revolution |
The rallying cry then, too, was-the "PooR
MUST FIGHT AGAINST THE RICH" The result was
quote from most excellent speech, |
delivered before the Legislature of Massachu-
sets by Mr.. Cushing):-
"Robesperre, and his fanatical, unprincipled
associates, destroyed the generous and noble
spirited party Of the Gironde, and brought up
on the country the fearful crisis of the Reign of
Terror, by the very method which have been
and denouncing to the House. And |
what was the consequence? Who were the vic
tins of the system? Sir, never in the annals of
all time was there a more signal visitation of
justice upon the heads of bad men in vengeance
of monstrous crimes. They persisted, misera-
bly, persisted, almost to man, in the crash and
wreck of the social system. Suicide and the
scaffold did the work Of death sternly and tho
roughly upon one faction after another, as they
gained the direction Of affairs.
Their great engine Of power was to arouse the
orejudices Of the poor against the rich; little
dreamed the poor thus deluded to destruction.
hat on them would fall the great agony of the
lines. First the population of the cities, being
stripped of the means of Subsistence by the pro-
'cription of capitalists and capital, were deci-
mated by famine and disease. Next the agri-
cultural population was compelled by force, not ,
)nlV TO sustain the r,,Iblic armies but IN nrovdo