Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-11-06

mouse reflected. he would have seen how alb
surd the proposition that Fortune could have
any spite toward an individual whose life had
been as humble, if not Insignificant, as his
own. He might not have seen. but he would
have. left that glorious park with a throbbing
heart could he have seen. that the approaches
to wealth to honor and to happiness are
guarded neither by Sphinx nor Cerberus, but
are open to every earnest mind, and are by
none other to he won. Our embryo lord IL
not without his prototype in life. and / am
constrained to esteem him the cleverer fellow
of the two. for when was ever the real TIT
mouse content to render his own life misera-
ble, and to permit other prophetic indulge the
delnsion that they are happy, or to believe
that sunshine is sunshine. aud not merely a
1eeting cxhalation? If this mental obliquity
and disposition TO do social mischief spring
from habit or force of circumstances, it is q
misfortune; but, if it proceed from design
and self-seeking it deepens to a crime for
there is nothing more lovely than that charac-
ter. which seek to infus.. the spirit OF content
into domestic circles and social ranks. 10y
opening to view the true objects OF pursuit
and the means TO compass them. by inspiring
a inst consciousness of selfimportance and
selfwealth. and making men satisfied not so
much with what they are, as what they may
become. On the reverse, wha: so despicable
d. 'ldt nature from lHteftSt; VI wan
tonnes. or the spirit of mischief seeks to in
flame the mind of any class or any member,
by arraying before them imaginary aardships.
and magnifying the burdens, from which none
are free.
Republican society = alas affords the
amplest theatre and motive for the exercise OF
this disposition. There are few natures in
sensible TO the arts of f1attcry, and man Is
hattered as well by sympathetic interest in
his misfOrtunes and wrongs. as by recOgni-
ton of his superior merit and success. The
demagogue has not been slow to discover this
weakness of human nature. and he has played
upon ii for his own purposes. / mean the dem
agogue wherever we find him. whether OF
the press. the pulpit. or the hustings. | use
the word as the old Greek understood II.
meaning one who leads the people, by what
ever appliances, at his own will. In this
country, so much depends. or seems to depend.
on popular favor. that some men are willing
to disregard the corrupt and sinister means.
by which they win il. There is none more
common or efficient than to |reak WHOLESALE.
denunciatiOn upon the arrangement of our
society, as if il were a system of oppression.
or the creation Of some arbitrary power. II
a man he poor his pride is easily made to be
lieve that his poverty excludes him from the
level of the rich: if he be humble in his as
sooiations, he is readily msled to think that
society has appointed him his sphere and
forbidden him to transcend it. 1t is to be re-
GREETED that honest and well-meaning men
have too often lent themselves the instruments
of this abOminable deception. The hedgling
.demagOgue has scarcely learned to ride the
breeze Of public favor. before he grows fami-
liar with the " bone and sinew," and whatever
pert TO them he loves az eff hand and ma
turally. as if it had been baptized from a
phial of the magical leafjuice of Oberon.
He eschews the Office and exchange, and de-
lights in the din of the workshop. the whir of
the spindle. and the grating sEarl of the file.
With an oily insinuation he magnifies his
hardships, and prOclaims himself the cham
pioB. who is to avrnge the social wrongs of
the humble man. The child of physical toll
is his especial admiration and concern, and he
paints him as the melancholy victim of a fate
imposed by the hands of his own fellows.
And yet there is no class, whose comfort
and happiness are more permanent and COM
plete than those of the honest workman.
Than his no reward is surcr. no rest more
certain, no possession more fixed. The
visions of his sleep are disturbed by no ship
wreck on the deep: his wealth is consumed
by no mercantile disaster; his hard accumu-
lations are swept away by no blind specula-
tions but he eats his bread IN quietness, and
the slumbers of the night bear away the cares
of the day. No wild ambition thrusts its
burning spirit on his dreams. but life to him
is earnest. unpretendng, even, and every
event. every undertaking is a reality and not
a fancy. Notwithstanding this, there are not
wanting those. who would demonstrate 10 the
credulous workman, that he lives beneath a
hard law and order of things. Such is the
sympathy of that entire class of philanthro-
pists, who grow great by the wrongs which
they deplore. Now and then it happens that
one of them claims green spot in his history,
when he, too. was the occupant of the work
shop, and, with lusty force, flung the hammer
or drove the plane. Perhaps he claims favor
from this accidental circumstance. and loves
the poor worker with a sick devotion because
he once shared his lot. Like the suns of
August TO the canine tribe, this o'er-mastering
passion has its period of aggravation, and the
heat of an election eve makes it rave in the
breast. Ii is then that the demagogue grows
ardent in his attention to the humble artisan,
and loves to revert to the days when he. too,
made honest bread by honest blows. But in
those days of his earlier and better history,
we look in vain for the evidences of his labor
to elevate his co-workers. and we have cause
to suspect that he did not then love his trade
so WELL and that he has conceived this sud-
den affection only when he can best turn it to
his purpose. If not so, why was il that he
deserted the anvil or the bench for the Digest
or Dispensatory? When he stepped proudly
npon the arena of the bar. or grew familiar
with the classic nomenclature of medicine,
did he feel that he had taken one step up
ward Why did he come out of the ranks of
his companions at all Has he ever since
heen known to sacrifice a son to a trade
No. that sprig of patrician blood mnst pass
from the portals of the college to the honors
of profession, and the family. once rescued
from obscuriiy is not again to be degrad' d
by a return to the forge or the workbench.
1t is well for men to talk of the dignity OF a
vocation. when they have shown themselves
too proud to pursueit Ii is well for them to
pirate of the equality of ranks, when they are
constantly struggling for one above them.
1t is well that they flatter the weary worker.
when they would snatch their own sons from
his condition as from a burning. o, high
born and true hearted Candor! High-born.
though thy birth be upon the mountains, and
thy external be covered with rags; true
hearted. because thy smiles are the genuine
sunlight of the soul. thy tears the milk, that
dries not up in the human breast how dost
thou shine on the brow of a noble man, mark
ing him among his fellows, and calling him to
the service of heaven! And thou, Hypocrisy.
false and treacherous-false, though thy words
be as the eloquence of an angel, and truth be
taught thee in the school of kings; treacher-
Gus, though unsuspecting confidence weep
upon thy breast and place its happiness in
thy hands; how transient are thy triumphs,
thy glories how obscured when honor claims
its own!
Such ARE the character and Office of the dem
agogue. rs every one has seen him, length
ening his ears to catch the popular voice. and
uttrring hollow phrases. such as make good
men sick. No single man has sat for the pic
ture, for our prototype Is the Child of history.
aud belongs to no locality The genus De-
magogue is one, universal unprogressive,
multiform From the days of the Athenian
democracy to the present, he has had but one
nature though assuming many shapes. lie is
the most uno'igiDal OF all men. Now aud
then he may ca'eh the Unborn thought of
some great mi,d. md transform aud repro
duce IL from tn, little laboratory of his brain,
but he trrads not IN the sublime aud perilous
region of invention, where Tlnth unveils her