The Jeffersonian Democrat. [volume] (Chardon, Ohio) 1854-1865, 1864-01-22
Ancient and Modern Aristocracv

WI. bhucrott nau an essay on "the doc.
trine OF the Roman Empire" which, written
in 1884, and describing society which OK
'sted moro than two thousand years ago. is,
In many particulars, a ouriously exact do.
scription Of our slave States before the
war
"Whon Tiberius Sempronius Gracious
before Numantia, Travelled through Italy,
he was lod to observe the impoyerisbmeot
OF tho groat body of citizens in tho rural
districts Instead of littlo farms studdipp
the country with their pleasant aspect, an
independent race, he beheld nearly all the
lands OF Italy engrossed by large proprie.
tors; and the plough was in the hands OF
tho slave" "Ho saw the inhabitants
of tho Roman State divided into the few
wealthy mobiles; the many INDECENT citizens I;
tho still more numerous slaves. Roasopinp
correctly, he perceived that il was slavery
which crowded the poor freeman out of em.
ploymont, and barred the way to his ad.
yancement."
Again he writes:
The aristocracy owned the coil and its
cuitivators. Tho vast capacity for accumu.
lation, which the laws of society secure to
capital in greater degree than to personal
exertion, displays itself no wbero 80 clearly
as in slaveholding States, where the labor
ing class is but a portion of tho capital of
the opulent. As wealth consists chiefly in
land and slaves, the rates of interest are.
from universally operative causes, always
comparatively high; the difficulty of ad.
vancing with borrowed capital proportion.
ally groat Tho small land holder finds
himself unable to compete with those who
arc possessed OF whole cohorts of bondmen /;
his slaves, his lands, rapidly pass, in con.
sequence OF his debts, into the hands of the
more opulent. The large plantations are
continually swallowing up the smaller ones !;
and land and slaves come to be engrossed
by a few"
This is correct history of society oil
along tho lowor Mississippi, where the area
in which cotton and sugar can be proftably
grown is narrow. Tho great planters have
driven out tho smaller holders. No one
who has read Olms.eads account of the
terrible struggle of the small cotton plan ter,
with his few slaves, to keep his head above
water and maintain himself beside bis great
neighbor, but will SOC tho likeness. Again,
II in ancient Italy
The large proprietors of slaves not
only titled their immense plantations, but
also INDUCED their avarice iu training their
slaves to every species of labor, and let ting
them out, as horses from q livery stable,"-
We find tho same practice in tho South
ern States many of tho wealthy and m orc
OF the decaying families living on the re-
turns of such hire of their trained Slaves
Nor can we omit this passage which brings
before us tho dreary worn-out "old pine
fields" of Virginia before the war /:
THE largo Roman plantations, titled by
slave-labor, were tho ruin of Italy. and
Fer"m cogftent,bus, laGfandia Taiiani per-
G'dere, Tho careless system impoverished
the soil, and wore out even the Campagnia.
Large districts were left waste others had
been tnrned into pastures, and grazing in
st'tuted for tillago The average crops
hardly ever returned four.fold increase" 7"
Such was fertile Italy under slavery (;
such was the more fertile South under the
same detestablo system. If we want to save
the grea. part of our country from ruin, if
we want to raise the working-man there to
intelligence and prosperity, if we would save
our children from the fatal competition with
slaves, we must utterly destroy this slave
arstocracy, which is tho worst enemy the
FREQ working man has Post.