The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1854-03-25
ARISToCRACY..

ARISToCRACY.
No epithets are more effective in party war
fare in this country, than the odious Names
aristocrst and monsrchist. Sociaiist "ne
aprarian would not be more odiousin Great
Britain than are those names in the Ame''
can Republic. Now we suppose tns' 'here
!. .bont q. much likelihood of an aristocra.
rio eo,e,nmenf in this country as there is OF
the triumph of red republicanism in Eng.
land. .a.a.gr sgs
The republican forms of this government,
nrovided the Union be preserved, willremain
for ages, and political equality be known here
when the strongest governments of Europe
live only in history.
But when we speak of social equality we
speak of different matter. Strange as IL
seems, social equality, which is desrer TO hu-
man nature than political equality is more
rare in Republic than under despotism.-
The strife for social distinction is more active
and hitter here than under recognized aris-
tocracy, like that of Great Britain, where
each class has its prescribed place. We are
n nation of plebeians, with aristocratic aspi-
rations Arstocracy, even in the old world,
is an cdious and senseless thing. Why should
one man be considered better than another,
because his ancestry was weather. and
mere powerful than that of the other!-
II both are good, generous and noble men,
then, if either is the more deserving it is he
who, in spite of the temptations and draw
backs of poverty and of what is called low
birth, has preserved pure and stainless the
original nobility of his nature. But not only
is the good man of rank, under European
aristocracies considered superior to the good
man of humble origin, but the most vicious
profligate who wears title is held in far
higher esteem than the most virtuous citizen
In private life. Nay, the titled fool is more
honored in society than the wisest commoner.
Can any thing be more senseless, more re-
voting, more unnatural, than rule which
elevates men whom the hand of the Creator
has marked as common in both the gifts of
the heart and intellect, over the heads of
Others who in the intellectual and moral at
tributes of their nature bear the Almighty s
own patent of nobility? All this, we say, is
odious, outrageous and abominable enough
even in the old world, when hedged round by
the advantages of antiquity, usage, educa-
ton and refinement, and when in harmony
with the form of political government. But
in Republic like ours, made up of plebeians,
whose mouths pirate of equality every day,
attempts at aristocracy are as ridiculous as
they are wicked. Not but that there must
be social divisions, and men of similar tastes
and character will associate together, but, as
was once said by an eminent Virginia states
man, these divisions fought to be perpendicu-
lar, not horizontal. Pray, what have Ameri
cans to found an aristocracy upon? Upon
family? What amount of noble blood car
any one in America boast A homeopathic
quantity indeed, not enough to stir the livel
of the reddest of red-republicans! An Anne
rcan would be justly deemed a simpletor
who should boast of noble descent, or ex
hibit a record showing that he was com
posed of better clay than common men,
Happily there are few human beings in
this land asinine enough to manifest such
pitiable weakness. But, if there is no foun-
dation fe- an aristocracy of family, that OF
wealth is even more absurd and nauseating
And this unfortunately is, and is to be, the
aristocracy of America. The golden calf is
to be the object of our social idolatry. Men
without moral worth, without intelligence
without education, without refinement, with
cut sensibility, without honesty, without
manners, without common decency, may oc-
cupy the first rank of American society in
\ all our large cities, provided they have accu-
mulated WEALTH. plate sin with gold,"-
aye, plate anything with gold,-piate the
coarsest, vilest, hardest heart ever contained
in human bosom, with "gold," and it will be
preferred in American society to the purest,
truest and brightest pearl of real merit that
was ever drawn from the ocean caves" of
Poverty.