New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-06-17

| own labor, made production and accumulation the
| business Of their lives; men not ashamed to work
with their own hands, but who dgnifed manual
labor by cOnjoiniDg with it a perpetual exercise OF
the intellect applied to solve the problem of making
| two spears Of grass grow where one grew before,
or the conelative problem of turning two spindles
| with the same power that had TUNED one; it was
ttese laboriDg producing, accommodating, intelligent
Industrious, ndefatigable men that built up Athens
that opened the way for her architects, painters,
SCULPTOR dramatists historians, orators, philoso
Pliers; ttat studded all the shores Of the Medter
| ranean with cities which reflected more or less
fully The gories Of Athens; and which in Alex indria
Antioch and 50 many other famous capitals, gave
to barbarous empires seats and centers of cvlllza-
tion ard by the diffusion Of the intelligence aud
guilty alton which originated with them, contributed
q chief share to the glores of the Roman Empire
| aid Of Roman civilization.
The civilization Of modern Europe had precisely
the same source 1t took its origin with the towns
many of them as Europe began to be delivered
from barbarian iproad and ravage-reyi7ing as
| it were from the ruits of the old Roman munich
pates; at frtt little better than places Of refuge
| fer runaway serfi, expanding afterward into rich
| and populous communities, whch, in the case
of the Lombard towns Of Italy, the Hanse towns
of Germany ard the cities of Flanders, became
distinct and self.governed political communities,
| whence industry and civilization have gradually
| been diTused-the advancement Of Europe keep
ing exact step with the growing influence and
numbers Of the men who produce And
- ANA
1t is our great mass of productive citizens, men
who CON bine hand labor with hesd labor, which
has caused these United States in hundred years
past wonderfully to Outgrow and to cast into the
shade in population, wealth and social Importance,
the once famous but now eclipsed Mexico, Brazil
and Peru.
Unfortunately, however, all republics, whether
in ancient or modern times, have been cursed with
the presence of another class to which all their
nisfortunes and the final extinction of republican
liberty is uniformly to be traced. This class has
always and everywhere consisted Of body Of landed
prtprietOrs whOee domains have been cultivated by
either slaves or strs, and who, however they may
for time have consented to take on the character
of simple citizens and to put themselves on par
with the men who labor, have always felt con-
tempt, i'll concealed openly avowed, for all In
dusrious pursuits, and have claimed that as supe-
rior class having leisure and capacity for political
affair." it belonged to them to govern the State. to
fill all the principal Offices, civil and military, to
control its policy and its legislation with view to
their own special interests-in one word, to be
INF sers and to reduce the industrious and laborOus
producers to the position Of their subjects.
From the earliest to the latest times, the whole
history of republican communities will be found
10 consist in the struggle between these two
classt s-on the pari 6! the Industrious producing
citizens a struggle to retain the political control
of the society which they themselves have created
and which all its prosperity and all its great
nets to them; a struggle the part of the aristO
cratic class to gain the administration Of affairs
to reduce the laboripg citizens to an inferior posi-
tion, finally to deprive them of their political
rights, and to quarter Themselves in the shape of
Office. holders, civil military, on the community
for support.
In this struggle, as the melancholy hstory-Over
and over again repeated-of the downfall of repub-
licsn Liberty shows, the arstOcrats have enjoyed
three great advantages over their pebeian com.
petitOrs which have enabled them, with very few
exceptions, ultimately to triumph. In the first
place, while the attention Of the productive
classes has been mainly bestowed upon the man.
agenent Of their private affairs, the aristocratic
class have made politics their exclusive business, |
devoting all their energies to the subsection now
by trick and continuance, now by wheedling and |
now by threats and violence, of their busy and too
thoughtless fellow citizens. In the second place.
with the increase of wealth the productive class
tends to ,hOot out from it's opposite eXtremities,
social excrescepces, parasitic growtbs, which not |
only in great measure sap ito own vitality, but
which furnish the hostile sristOcrats with allies
and assistance of which they eagerly avail them
selves. From one extremity there springs out
Glars of very wealthy men, part of whom aspire
to become the aristocrats Of production. while
Others Of them, withdrawn from the pursuits Of
trade, are welcomed as recruits into the body of
the ari.tocratic class. which thus constantly re-
plenishts itself from among those who ought to be
its most formidable opponents. A. the same time,
from the other extremity there grows out prole-
tartan mass of poverty and wretchedness, the joint
production of defective social arrangements aud
Of the natural weakness if not depravity Of GER
tain part of mankind-grog shops and the malaria
of tenant houses combining with diseased const-
tu,ions and defective training, to create such q
populace as clusters about the Five-Points and
saddens and dims the JOY and glory of every great
center of wealth and civilization. /; is to this
section that the aristocrats always turn for support